Wind and hail storms remain some of the most frequent and severe causes of property damage. This year the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety Research Center conducted the first-ever indoor hailstorm, in an effort to research building products and ways to educate consumers. You can see the results in the video below:
IBHS Hailstorm Demonstration Highlights from IBHS on Vimeo.
IBHS Hailstorm Demonstration Highlights from IBHS on Vimeo.
Damage caused by wind and hail cost State Farm and its policyholders more than $3.9 billion in 2012. The states with the most wind/hail losses include:
- Texas - 47,000 claims
- Illinois - 41,000 claims
- New York - 34,000 claims
- Ohio - 31,000 claims
- Missouri - 25,000 claims
- Tennessee - 24,000 claims
- Indiana - 23,000 claims
- New Jersey - 23,000 claims
- Kentucky - 22,000 claims
- Colorado - 16,000 claims
If weather conditions are prime for hail storms, pull cars, boats, RVs, law and patio furniture into a covered area.
When building or remodeling, consider weather-resistant metal roofing to reduce hail damage to your home and help insurance savings. State Farm currently offers insurance premium discounts to homes with qualifying impact resistant roofing products in 26 states and one Canadian province.
Metal roofs are naturally very tough and highly resistant to hail damage. Hail will not penetrate a metal roof. Even a new asphalt shingle roof won’t protect a home from the next hail storm. In fact, many metal roofing products have the highest impact resistance and hail rating granted by Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL), a leading product safety testing and certification organization.
The majority of metal roofing earns a UL2218 Class 4 rating, meaning that a sample of the product did not crack when hit twice in the same spot by a 2-inch steel ball, which, in a storm, would translate into a huge hailstone.