Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Allstate, State Farm, USAA Sue California Utility Over Wildfires
Jan 8 2019 // Several insurance companies have filed lawsuits blaming Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for a deadly California wildfire that destroyed 14,000 homes and triggered billions of dollars in insurance claims. The lawsuits filed...
No Tornado Deaths in Oklahoma in 2018; First Time Since 2006
Jan 7 2019 // The National Weather Service says no one was killed in a tornado in Oklahoma in 2018, the first time that the state has not recorded a tornado-related death since 2006. The Oklahoman reports that just 41 tornadoes were...
Tropical Storm Pabuk Weakens After Battering South Thailand
Jan 7 2019 // Thailand’s most powerful tropical storm in decades has weakened after strong wind and flash floods disrupted oil production and flights, leaving thousands of tourists stranded near the nation’s southern...
Western Region Could See Action on Disaster Mitigation, Independent Contractors, Workers’ Comp
Jan 7 2019 // Most eyeballs were on California during the midterm elections in November, with polar opposite candidates facing off in the race for governor as well as the office of insurance commissioner. As in most years, Democrats...
5 Lessons to Take Away from the California Wildfires
Jan 7 2019 // The California wildfires of 2018 were devastating, burning hundreds of thousands of acres, costing numerous lives and destroying thousands of properties. The California Department of Insurance in early December put the...
AM Best: Negative Rating Implications from Wildfires for California Capital and Subsidiaries
Jan 7 2019 // AM Best has placed under review with negative implications the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “a-” of California Capital Insurance Co. and its...
3 Reasons Recovery from Hurricane Florence is Different from Hurricane Michael
Jan 7 2019 // Lessons from Past Storms and Economic Changes Suggest Rebuilding Efforts After Florence Will Be Arduous As the saying goes – location is everything. Following the two largest U.S. hurricanes this year, Hurricane...
Los Angeles Releases Earthquake Warning App
Jan 4 2019 // Los Angeles has released an earthquake warning app that could give LA County residents precious seconds to drop, cover and hold on in the event of a quake. The city announced this week that ShakeAlertLA is available for...
Southern California City Asking Residents for Suggestions on Battling Climate Change
Jan 3 2019 // The city of Long Beach, Calif. is soliciting help from its citizens to come up with a plan to deal with climate change. The coastal city of roughly half-a-million, which was an early adopter of the ban on plastic bags and...
California Wildfires: Where Do We Go From Here?
Jan 2 2019 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. The last few months of 2018 were record-setting and heartbreaking for the survivors of wildfires in California. The Camp Fire in Butte County quickly became the most...
Prosecutors Say California Fires May Mean PG&E Violated Criminal Sentence
Jan 2 2019 // A California utility’s role in igniting wildfires last year could allow a judge to find that it violated terms of its criminal sentence in a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people, federal prosecutors...
Reinsurance Prices Drop – Despite 2018’s Big Natural Catastrophe Losses: JLT Re
Jan 2 2019 // JLT Re’s global property-catastrophe reinsurance index fell 1.2 percent in Jan. 1 policy renewals, the broker said on Wednesday, dashing the industry’s hopes of higher reinsurance premiums after a second...
Timber Farms in Florida, Georgia Suffering After Hurricane Michael
Jan 2 2019 // Strewn in gnarled piles from Florida’s Gulf Coast up through South Georgia, the livelihood of timber farmers is on the ground. And, after the ravaging buzz saw of Hurricane Michael in early October, it will be a...
Tropical Storm Usman Becomes Philippines’ 2nd Deadliest Weather Disaster in 2018
Dec 31 2018 // Tropical Storm Usman, which entered the Philippines on Christmas Day, emerged as the deadliest weather disaster for the country this year following Typhoon Mangkhut in September. Usman, a slow-moving storm with winds of up...
North Dakota Still Working to Improve Warnings After Deadly Tornado
Dec 31 2018 // The impact of a deadly summer tornado that struck western North Dakota is still being felt as work continues to improve the area’s weather warning system. The EF2 tornado slammed into the Prairie View RV Park in...
Lawyers Scramble to Get Piece of the Action in California Wildfire Lawsuits
Dec 31 2018 // In a conference room 13 miles from Paradise, California, Doug Boxer explains to survivors of the state’s worst wildfire why they should choose his law firm to sue PG&E Corp. He walks a fine line between listening...
Insurance Journal West’s Top Stories for 2018: California Commissioner Race, Hawaii Lava, Wildfire Losses
Dec 31 2018 // Another year down, and too many fascinating news headlines to count. Hawaii’s lava, the race for California insurance commissioner, and a $23 million ruling in a lawsuit against Geico were among the most popular...
Insurance Journal South Central’s Top Stories for 2018: Medical Marijuana, Weather Woes
Dec 31 2018 // At first glance it might seem that 2018 was a “slow news” year in the South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. After all, the region escaped the devastation of a major hurricane, and...
Florida Regulator Calls on Insurers to Handle Hurricane Michael Claims
Dec 31 2018 // Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier is urging Florida insurers to close the more than 42,000 Hurricane Michael claims that remain open nearly three months after the storm. In a Dec. 19 memorandum to all property...
Insurance Journal Southeast’s Top Stories for 2018: Fraud, Hurricanes, Data Security Law
Dec 31 2018 // It was a busy year in the Southeast with two major hurricanes that wreaked havoc on the region, an escalating insurance crisis in Florida, and a new industry-specific cybersecurity law in South Carolina that takes effect...
