Latest Catastrophe Headlines

All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Team Investigating Deadly California Wildfire Seizes PG&E Equipment

Oct 12 2020 // Fire investigators looking into what caused a wildfire that killed four people in far Northern California have taken possession of equipment belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility has reported. PG&E said in...

State Takes over Houston’s Hurricane Harvey Home Repair Program

Oct 12 2020 // All Houston, Texas, resident Alice Torres has wanted in the three years since Hurricane Harvey hit was to repair her family’s flood-damaged home so her 85-year-old mother can feel safe and settled again. But when her...

Returning After Hurricane Delta, Louisiana Evacuees Face Power Outages, Extreme Heat

Oct 11 2020 // 10/11/2020 06:21 PM— Storm-weary coastal Louisiana residents who fled from the path of Hurricane Delta in recent days streamed back to their homes on Sunday to face cleanup and repairs from the second hurricane to batter...

From Wildfires to Sally to China Floods, September Was a Disastrous Month

Oct 9 2020 // Third quarters are often the costliest of the year in terms natural disasters. Insurance broker Aon’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluates the impact of the natural disaster events that occurred...

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner: Pay Only 1 Hurricane Deductible Per Season

Oct 8 2020 // Louisiana’s single season named-storm/hurricane deductible law prohibits a homeowner from paying more than one named-storm/hurricane deductible in the same hurricane season, the state insurance department is...

CoreLogic: Nearly 300K Gulf Coast Homes at Possible Risk From Delta

Oct 8 2020 // CoreLogic an Irvine, Calif.-based global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, has released data analysis showing 293,685 single-family and multifamily homes across Louisiana and the U.S....

Still in Recovery Mode, Louisiana Braces for Hurricane Delta

Oct 8 2020 // Louisiana is steeling itself for another in a record-breaking series of violent storms as Hurricane Delta sped across the Gulf of Mexico toward a region still recovering from the last storm. Delta struck Mexico’s...

U.S. Offshore Energy Firms Prep for Massive Hurricane

Oct 7 2020 // Oil and gas workers withdrew en masse from U.S. offshore production facilities and onshore refineries began preparations on Wednesday as Hurricane Delta was forecast to grow into a powerful storm over the Caribbean on its...

Markel Consolidates Property Catastrophe Reinsurance Business Under Nephila

Oct 7 2020 // Markel Corp. said it is creating one center for all of its global property catastrophe (CAT) reinsurance business by closing its Markel Global Reinsurance property CAT unit and having Nephila become Markel’s single...

Category 3 Hurricane Delta Hits Mexico; Expected to Strengthen, Then Move to U.S.

Oct 7 2020 // Updated Oct 7., 2020, 6:58 AM— Hurricane Delta weakened to a Category 3 storm just before slamming into the coast of Mexico, but remains life-threatening. Delta came ashore along the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula near...

Alabama Coast Struggles to Recover from Hurricane Sally

Oct 6 2020 // Alabama’s beaches have reopened, but the state’s coast has hardly recovered fully from the effects of Hurricane Sally last month. Visitors still have limited options for getting to the sand because so many...

Insurance Consumer Advice for Buyers of High-Risk Homes: Liz Weston

Oct 6 2020 // When house hunting, the price of homeowners insurance probably isn’t top of mind. But homes with hidden risks can make getting coverage difficult, expensive or both. Learning how to identify them could save a...

Rebuilding in Wildfire Zones: A One-Stop Shop for Wildfire Victims

Oct 6 2020 // California is on fire. Already this year, thousands of people have lost their homes, and communities are struggling to figure out how to rebuild. Nikki Pechet wants to be the person they turn to. Pechet co-founded...

Tropical Storm Delta Expected to Threaten Gulf Coast as Major Hurricane This Week

Oct 6 2020 // 10/06/2020 09:09 AM— Hurricane Delta, the 25th named Atlantic storm this year, is moving toward the Gulf of Mexico and expected to take aim at the U.S. Gulf Coast this week as a major hurricane, the National Hurricane...

Energy Firm Evacuations Underway as Another Major Storm, Delta, Threatens Gulf Coast

Oct 5 2020 // Energy companies on Monday began evacuating offshore oil platforms as the 25th named storm of the year formed in the Caribbean and was forecast to become a major hurricane before it entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatens...

Hyperactive Hurricane Season Highlights Need for Flood Insurance

Oct 5 2020 // Tropical Storm Beta made landfall on the central Texas coast on Sept. 21 as the 23rd named storm of the hyperactive 2020 Atlantic hurricane season and the third to hit the Gulf Coast this year. Slow moving Beta dumped...

California Commissioner Asks Insurers to Cover Wildfire Losses Sans Home Inventory

Oct 2 2020 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is asking insurance companies help wildfire survivors by providing up to 100% of personal property coverage limits without a detailed inventory to those who suffered a total...

Report: Nearly 2M Homes at Elevated Risk of Wildfire

Sep 30 2020 // Nearly 2 million homes, mostly in the Western U.S., with a rebuilding value of more than $638 billion are at an elevated risk of wildfire damage, a report out today shows. An annual wildfire report from data provider...

The Big Question Is Can U.S. Restrain Worsening Wildfires?

Sep 29 2020 // This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve pressing policy challenges. This conversation has been edited and condensed. Romesh Ratnesar: The American West is suffering through a...

Guy Carpenter Taps Miller from Aon to Lead Property Catastrophe UK, Global Specialties

Sep 29 2020 // Guy Carpenter & Co., the reinsurance brokerage business of Marsh & McLennan Cos., announced the appointment of Paul Miller to lead Guy Carpenter’s Property Catastrophe value proposition for UK, Global...