Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Principal Arrested in $16K Hurricane Irma Insurance Fraud Attempt
Nov 29 2018 // An elementary school principal in Jacksonville, Fla., has been arrested in an alleged attempt to commit more than $16,000 in insurance fraud related to Hurricane Irma, according to a statement from Florida CFO Jimmy...
Fitch Warns of Negative Credit Effects on Reinsurance from California Wildfires
Nov 28 2018 // The “downside credit risks” from the California wildfires are the most pronounced for investor-owned utilities, which could face large liabilities if IOU equipment is found to have ignited the fires. And...
PG&E Decided Not to Cut Power as Winds Raged Before California Wildfire
Nov 28 2018 // In the days before California’s deadliest wildfire erupted near a PG&E Corp. power line during a windstorm, the company kept a close eye on the weather, warned customers it might shut off electricity in the area,...
How Taxpayers Subsidize Rebuilding Homes After Flooding… Repeatedly
Nov 28 2018 // Floodwaters rose about 15 inches (40 centimeters) into Danielle Rees’ home in September when Hurricane Florence drenched this tidewater city on the Pamlico River and overwhelmed a local creek and marshland. The first...
Managing Natural Disasters Becomes Priority for Nation’s Governors
Nov 28 2018 // Governors have a wide range of priorities they want to tackle in the coming year, from tax reform to education. Yet it’s a topic that receives less attention on the campaign trail and in their speeches that could...
Florida CFO: Insurers Must Step Up Response to Hurricane Michael Claims
Nov 28 2018 // Citing a “troubling” number of Hurricane Michael-related consumer complaints and claims denials, Florida’s top financial regulator is urging insurers to respond more quickly and adequately to consumers...
2 Tornadoes Cause Damage in North Carolina
Nov 27 2018 // Two tornadoes have caused damage in coastal North Carolina. The National Weather Service said two tornadoes touched down Saturday afternoon. One tornado hit Emerald Isle and the other hit near Cape Carteret. There were no...
Report: Hurricane Harvey Was a Sign of Things to Come, Climate-Wise
Nov 27 2018 // Texas should brace for more — and worse — Hurricane Harveys, according to a major scientific report made public on Nov. 23 by the Trump administration. Based on the research of hundreds of government and academic...
Report Puts Losses from California Wildfires at $15B to $19B
Nov 27 2018 // Total losses from the wildfires in Northern and Southern California could reach from $15 billion to $19 billion, a report out on Tuesday shows. The report from industry data provider CoreLogic shows total losses from the...
Bill to Give PG&E Relief from California Wildfire Burden Nears, But Long-Term Fix Elusive
Nov 27 2018 // PG&E Corp., suspected of starting California’s deadliest wildfire, may soon get help from state lawmakers – just not the help it most wants. An assemblyman plans to introduce a bill in January that would give...
Research Finds Fire-Resistant Building Codes Do Not Raise Home Prices
Nov 27 2018 // Homes in wildfire-prone areas around the U.S. could be built to better withstand blazes without increasing the cost of construction, according to a new report. The research released Tuesday was sponsored in part by the...
Wildfire Relief for PG&E in California May Not Include Fix Utility Wants
Nov 26 2018 // PG&E Corp., suspected of starting California’s deadliest wildfire, may soon get help from state lawmakers – just not the help it most wants. As early as Dec. 3, a lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that would...
Researchers: Houston Skyscrapers Slowed Hurricane Harvey, Causing More Rain
Nov 21 2018 // Humans helped make recent devastating U.S. hurricanes wetter but in different ways, two new studies find. Hurricane Harvey snagged on the skyscrapers of Houston, causing it to slow and dump more rain than it normally...
Earthquake Confirmed in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula
Nov 21 2018 // A magnitude 4.1 earthquake has shaken an area beneath Olympic National Park south of Port Angeles, the U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed. The USGS reported the earthquake hit just after 3 a.m. Monday. There were no...
Beach Town Developers Now Believe in Stronger Building Codes, Construction
Nov 21 2018 // Developer Jeff Lamkin knew the risks when he paid $250 million for 63 acres of an island off the Texas coast. But he saw only upside in the quaint little beach town of Port Aransas. Over the next 10 years he built Cinnamon...
A.M. Best Assesses Wildfires’ Effect on Home Insurance Market, Insurers’ PG&E Exposure
Nov 20 2018 // Roughly one-in-10 insurers have exposures to PG&E bonds, which could potentially used to payout on losses from the California wildfires, according to ratings agency A.M. Best. It was recently determined that a second...
PG&E’s $1.4B in Wildfire Insurance May Not Be Enough, But Was ‘Regular Amount’
Nov 20 2018 // PG&E Corp.’s $1.4 billion in wildfire insurance may not be enough to cover all its potential liabilities from the deadliest blaze in California history. But the company wasn’t necessarily skimping on...
Florida Picks Up the Pieces from Powerful Hurricane Michael
Nov 20 2018 // This photo shows debris and destruction in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018, after Hurricane Michael went through the area on Oct. 10. Mexico Beach, the ground-zero town, was nearly obliterated by the hurricane,....
Latest Estimates of Insured Losses from California Wildfires at $9B to $13B
Nov 19 2018 // Insured losses from the Camp and Woolsey wildfires in California will be between $9 billion and $13 billion, according to the latest estimates from catastrophe modeler RMS. RMS’ latest estimates released on Monday...
PG&E Says There Was Another Outage on Morning of California Wildfire
Nov 19 2018 // California utility PG&E Corp , facing investor concerns over its possible role in the deadly Camp Fire in Northern California, has reported another power-line outage that it experienced on the morning of Nov. 8 when...
