The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-20

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The South has already suffered this year
from one very destructive tornado, but the
season for these storms is still before us.
They are most frequent in the spring and
summer months, and about 85 per cent. OF
/ them occur between April and August. No
one now believes that they are preventable
by human means, They may be included,
however, among the calamities whose bur-
den upon the individual sufferer may he
mitigated by insurance, and according to a
paper by Mr.. II. E, Simpson in the latest
number OF the Monthly Weather Rerfep the
business of ~insuring property against de-
struction by tornadoes is being reduced to
a more scientific basis and is at present
rapidly growing.
Only Missouri requires separate reports
on this class Of insurance, and az most OF
the business is carried by companies deal
ing in other kinds of risks it is impossible
to tell how much tornado insurance is now
written. From the best data at hand 1t
seems that $500 600, 900 annually Is not an
overestimate. The old way Of estimating
the risks by taking the average annual
number Of tornadoes in each State, without
regard to their areas, was wholly unscien-
tifo and resulted in excessive charges in
the larger States. The insurance COM
panies have now been supplied with more
reliable data, largely through the investi-
cations Of DR.. Cleveland Able. -
He computed the average annual fire.
quency of tornadoes per unit area OF 100
miles square based upon the records for
sixteen years throughout the country. The
results were very interesting. DR.. Abbe's
table shows that the liability to tornado
destruction in some OF the States has been
greatly exaggerated. The areas Of 100
miles square in Massachusetts,, Maryland
and New Jersey, for example, have about
the same percentage of destructive tor
nadoes over a period Of years as in Iowa,
Kansas and Illinois; and wen in the so
called tornado States the probability that
any farm OF average size will be swept by
a tornado Is less than one-sixteenth OF per
cent in a century, which is somewhat less
than the probability Of destruction by fire
or lightning.
The study Of the problem is gradually
placing tornado insurance on a solid and
equitable basis. 1t has its peculiarities,
The companies decline to insure such vul-
nerable property as windmills. The more
conservative Of them also refuse to take
risks on frail or dilspidated buildings, or
those on posts or open at the bottom, on
hay and grain in the stack or on live animals
except in insured buildings. Most of them
will not take risks exceeding $1,000, and re-
quire that tornado insurance be paid on so
per cent. Of the cash value of the property.
Other rules are gradually being evolved
for the safe conduct Of the business. The
opinion is growing that risks should be we'll
scattered across the wind lines rather than
along them, and it is we'll established that
most tornadoes move from southwest to
northeast. 1t is believed also that a single
company should take only n risk in a
single section Of land, or $40 acres, which
means that the business in any locality
should be divided among a number Of
This form Of insurance is a needed pro-
lection in a large part Of the country, audit
is gratifying to hear that itis getting upona
more scientific and therefore a safer basis.