Compared to recent history, natural disasters have been low the past two years, however when they have occurred, they seemed to be supercharged.

This past December, tumultuous weather swept through the U.S. with tornadoes and flooding killing dozens of people. Of the nine powerful twisters that roared through Texas, one tornado was classified as an EF-4 with 175 mph winds. In the central and southern U.S., storms produced massive flooding and threatened 13 states, putting more than 18 million Americans under flood warnings. Missouri took the brunt of the storm with the record historic river flooding.

The damage from the tornadoes will cost Texas an estimated $1.2 billion, and that could go even higher. Looking back at the past decade, weather-related disasters have been very costly. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes alone caused $15 billion in U.S. insured losses in 2012, following $25 billion in such losses in 2011, when the industry suffered two of the costliest tornado events in U.S. history: $7.5 billion in insured damages arising out of April 2011 twisters that struck multiple states, most notably Alabama; and $7 billion in insured damages that resulted from the May 2011 multiple-state tornado outbreak.