Dallas hailstorms pack up to $2 billion wallop

Insured losses from the massive hailstorms that struck the Dallas area on Wednesday for three hours could reach as much as $2 billion, the Southwestern Insurance Information Service (SIIS) said on Friday.

Tens of thousands of vehicles are thought to have been damaged or destroyed by the baseball-sized hail. Thousands of homes were also damaged.

"This was more frightening than the tornado" last April, Dallas resident Janet Bryant told NBCDFW.com. "It was so loud, it sounded like we were being bombed."

Jim Heath, another Dallas resident, called it a "really hard hail."

"Normally, it's the white hail, and it's kind of soft, but we had baseball-size hail, and it had soft core, but it had solid ice all the way around it, so it was heavy," he said.

The AAA said half of all vehicles coming in for a claim were "complete losses," the NBC affiliate added.

Enterprise said it was bringing in 2,500 rental cars from other parts of Texas to help out with the Dallas demand.

The insurance service, a trade group that speaks for property insurers in Texas and Oklahoma, said members have already classified the storm as catastrophic.

The National Weather Service said the storms were the worst in the area in at least nine years, though no serious injuries were reported.

If the SIIS forecast is right, it could be one of the worst storm losses, excluding hurricanes, in U.S. history.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, over the 20 years ending in 2010, total hail, wind and flood losses nationwide were just $14 billion.

"Based upon the claims filed within the past 36 hours, this storm could reach $1.5 to 2 billion in insured losses. This is preliminary and we are hopeful that the damage estimates fall short of what we are predicting," SIIS President Sandra Helin said in a statement.

On Friday, Mother Nature added insult to injury for many car owners when heavy rain soaked vehicles with broken windows, NBCDFW.com reported.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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