"Why couldn't D.P. & L. be prepared for a windstorm"? Boy did we hear this over and over again a couple of weeks back.

Well, for those of you who considered the winds of Hurricane Ike "just a windstorm"...

Today, the Ohio Insurance Institute said the dollar amount of insurance claims filed from the windstorm now totals 553 million dollars. They are expecting more claims as well, and have suggested the final dollar amount total could rival or exceed the 600 million in claims made by victims of the 1974 Xenia tornado.

Now, in fairness, the Xenia wind damage in '74 was in 1974 dollars. So, obviously, percentage-wise, Hurricane Ike's winds don't come close to the percentage of damage inflicted by the Xenia twister.

Still, that number: 553 million dollars would convince all but only the foolish that Ike's winds were not a "typical" windstorm to say the very least.

Here's the link to the story from DaytonDailyNews.com:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/10/07/ddn100708damageweb.html