The division between flood and hurricane now sets up the spectre of endless lawsuits between insurers and the homeowners over whether the damage was caused by wind or water.

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By looking at past storms, the researchers created a formula that says damage is proportional to wind speed multiplied by itself and then taking that number and multiplying it by itself, after adjusting for inflation and factors such as population.

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Insurers are balking at paying for "flood damage, " which they differentiate from "hurricane damage" that is caused primarily by wind.

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Wind damage may covered by a basic insurance package.

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The Fujita scale is used to estimate the wind speed of a tornado by the damage the tornado causes.

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Regular homeowners insurance provides coverage for the cost of additional living expenses if a home is damaged by an insured disaster, such as wind damage or a tree that fell through the roof.

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Hundreds of thousands of people in Indiana through Maryland are still dealing with this heat without the benefits of electricity, due to a derecho -- or massive storm usually with straight-line wind damage -- that barreled eastward late Friday and into Saturday and was fueled, in part, by the extreme heat.

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