Southeast Texas Ranks as the Windiest, Stormiest Area in the Lone Star State

Stormy, windy weather slammed more Allstate insured homes in Hardin County than any other part of Texas over the past five years.

Allstate tallied the top 20 stormiest counties in the state by looking at the areas with the highest frequencies of wind, hail and lightning related homeowner property damage claims from 2006 through 2010.

Highest Percentages of Wind, Hail, Lightning Claims Per County

2006-2010

1. HARDIN
2. ORANGE
3. BOWIE
4. MIDLAND
5. JEFFERSON
6. EL PASO
7. ECTOR
8. PARKER
9. HARRIS
10. WILLIAMSON
11. SMITH
12. ANGELINA
13. GRAYSON
14. TARRANT
15. VAL VERDE
16. FORT BEND
17. HOOD
18. MONTGOMERY
19. DENTON
20. LUBBOCK

Rankings

While the two stormiest counties on the list are in Southeast Texas, which reflects the impact of Hurricanes Rita and Ike, other chart toppers cover diverse parts of the state—north to south, east to west.

Texas has exposure to nine different types of natural disasters—the most among any state in the country—including hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, like those that continue to devastate many Texas counties.

Texas has also ranked among the top five for states with the most catastrophe losses over the past five years, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Texas led the nation in 2008 with $11.6 billion in catastrophe losses, making up more than 40% of the total catastrophe losses in the United States. Texas also led the nation in 2009 with $2.45 billion in catastrophe losses, representing about 23% of all catastrophe losses in the country.

To collect the data, Allstate measured the frequency of hail, wind and lightning homeowner property claims over a five year period (2006-2010) in 58 Texas counties which all had at least 1,000 Allstate policies in 2010.

SOURCE: Allstate