How This Year’s Tornado Season Will Impact Your Insurance Customers

The US tornado season is often a time of worry and increased claim numbers for all insurance companies. There is nothing more unpredictable than a tornado, and the season, which runs from March through June, can see many major incidents or just a few scattered events. Planning ahead for the tornado season can make it much easier to care for your insurance customers in their time of need.

Tornado Alley is the epicenter of all of the worst storms each year, and when you provide insurance policies to customers in this region, you need to be prepared for the season to see large numbers of high-dollar claims. This year’s tornado season is predicted to be the worst in decades as there have already been in excess of 250 storms in March by itself.

If you are ready to learn more about how this year’s tornado season is going to impact your customers, you need to read on.

Tornados Are Hard to Predict

Despite advances in the science that is used to track tornadoes, there are still limitations to the predictive models that are in place. Tornados can move wildly from place to place based on local weather conditions, and large storms will travel for many miles, hopping from county to county as they do so.

Trying to predict which areas will be hardest hit each year is only ever partially successful. When you are planning for the support that you need to provide to your insureds, you cannot pick an area of focus and funding. You will need to assume that all of your customers in Tornado Alley could be impacted by a major storm this season.

Due to the high numbers of events as well as the unpredictability of tornadoes as a whole, trying to plan for certain regions or counties to be most at risk is not really realistic. Your insureds might be impacted, and they might not. You need to make sure that everyone is aware of the severity of the season, from your customers to your agents in offices in Tornado Alley.

Education About Tornado Safety Can Help

While you cannot prevent damage to homes and outbuildings related to the actions of a tornado, claim costs can be reduced if insureds are educated about tornado safety. When people take the right actions to prevent themselves and their families from being harmed, the cost of each claim can be reduced.

Property damage and other costs related to a tornado might always be serious, but keeping the human cost low can make a big impact on your bottom line each year. Educating your insureds about the proper ways to handle tornado events can reduce loss of life and can prevent significant injuries when these events occur. You will make an investment in prevention this year by reaching out to your customers to make sure that they know how to handle a tornado if one should impact their county.

Stay Abreast of Predictions

One of the other key things that you will need to do as a business is to stay abreast of predictions about the weather. You can provide local-level support for your insurance customers by keeping them and their local agents aware of tornado risks as they develop. Keeping people attuned to the chances that there might be a tornado event can make it much easier to service claims and to make sure that people get to safety when a tornado takes place.

When you keep your customer base as well as your agents in office abreast of the situations that they might be facing, it can make it much less likely that you will have huge claims to pay out during tornado events. Communication can make your claims process much more effective, and you might save your insureds from major losses with some advance warning for each event.

Inform Insureds About Their Benefits

You should also make time to let your insureds know what their insurance policy covers. Many people feel scared and uncertain about what to do after a tornado, and they don’t even think about putting in a claim until they have had some time to recover. When people are not aware of the benefits of their policy. You will want to let your insureds know if they can apply for temporary housing expense coverage as well as rental car coverage and more.

Helping people is easier when they help themselves as well. You will want your insureds to feel comfortable reaching out to you for advice so that they can inform you about the conditions in their area as well. While large claims can be a burden during this part of the season, the more people who apply early for assistance, the easier it will be to handle the claims as they come in.

A slow and steady flow of claims coming in is always better from a management perspective than a panicked few days of claims. Communication going in both directions helps to eliminate this flood of calls after a tornado event.

The 2022 Tornado Season is Set to Be Challenging

If you have been working hard to prepare for the rest of tornado season, you will need to keep in mind that you need to keep your insureds in the loop and your agents on the task of offering safety tips and information. Keeping communication open and making sure that everyone is prepared for the events that might happen this season will help to prevent major losses and serious loss of human life.

If you have been worried about the tornado season because of the number of tornadoes in the early part of the season alone, you are wise. This is going to be one of the toughest tornado seasons ever, and you need to prepare so that you can help your insured customers to be in a good position when they need your help. Preparing for the rest of the season can help control losses and costs for you and your customers, and you will need to take this season on with an active response plan in place.