By Kaitlin Durbin, The Gazette
Despite downed trees, widespread power outages and wind-torn property across Colorado Springs, January’s freak wind storm didn’t make the list of the city’s most costly or destructive disasters, but it is among the deadliest.
Two people have died from injuries received during the Jan. 9 wind storm: Joseph Boyer and Marjory Francis. That ranks the natural disaster among the deadliest in Colorado Springs.
The Waldo Canyon Fire and the Black Forest Fire, two of the state’s most costly disasters, also killed two people each. The 2013 flash flood in Manitou Springs killed one.
Still, the state measures disasters in terms of dollars, not death.
The hurricane force winds didn’t produce enough property damage to make the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association’s list of costly disasters the way the hail bomb of a storm over the summer did, the association’s executive director Carole Walker said. A disaster must reach a $25 million threshold in insurance claims before RMIIA tracks it, Walker said.
For example, the July 28 hailstorm triggered more than 80,000 claims totaling $352.8 million in damage to homes and cars, making it the sixth costliest disaster in state history.
The Waldo Canyon Fire, which destroyed 346 homes, racked up insurance claims of $453.7 million. It remains the most destructive fire in Colorado history, closely followed by the Black Forest Fire a year later that destroyed 486 homes and produced $420.5 million in insurance claims.
Without insurance numbers, its hard to know how the windstorm stacks up, but repair costs from Colorado Springs Utilities offers a glimpse.
The numerous downed power lines that left some residents in the dark for a couple days was estimated to cost the utilities company $1.6 million, spokesman Steve Berry said.
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