"Claims are still coming in," the spokeswoman said. "Many people don't have phone service."

The PCS unit defines a catastrophe as an event within a particular area that causes $25 million or more in insured property losses and affects a significant number of property and casualty policyholders and insurers.

"We will easily reach that mark, and just from what we have seen of the initial number of destroyed and damaged homes, we can safely say that we will exceed that number substantially," said Bob Lotane, a spokesman for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation when asked if the destruction would fit into ISO's definition of a catastrophe. He based this on helicopter surveys taken with Gov. Charlie Crist.

According to Florida's State Emergency Response Team (SERT), as of today, what they are calling the Ground-Hog Day Tornadoes affected 1,544 structures, primarily homes. Of that number, 434 were completely destroyed and another 456 sustained major damage.

The National Weather Service, according to SERT, said one tornado touched down at the town of Paisley in Lake County and moved east. That tornado was classified as an F-3 with winds of 158-to-206 mph on the Fujita scale. A second tornado, an F-1 (73-to-112 mph), is suspected to have touched down in New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County.

The destruction hit four counties total: Lake, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties claiming 20 lives in the process.

Rocky Scott, public information manager for Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state-run insurer for wind risks, said of the 20,000 policies it writes in the four counties, 175 claims were received, 50 of which were total losses.

As claims adjusters are able to get into areas and residents who evacuated return to their homes, "we expect that number to go up dramatically," said Mr. Scott.

Mr. Lotane said the insurance department has not received any complaints related to the event, but it is still early in the process, he added.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty issued two orders this weekend. One prohibits insurers from cancelling personal lines or commercial lines insurance policies on those policyholders affected by the tornadoes. The other allows consumers to obtain 30-day prescription refills regardless of the date of the last refill.

The emergency order prohibits insurers from cancelling or nonrenewing a policy for 90 days after a dwelling is repaired. The order also allows storm victims to delay premium payments until April 15.

On Saturday the president declared a state of emergency in the four counties allowing for federal aid to start flowing in.