Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
More Than $8.4M Recovered for Florida Insurance Consumers After Hurricane Irma
Mar 8 2018 // The Florida Division of Consumer Services helped recover nearly $23.4 million for Florida consumers since last summer, with $8.4 million of those dollars directly related to Hurricane Irma, according to a statement from...
California Hospital on Earthquake Fault to Close
Mar 7 2018 // A nearly-century-old Southern California hospital that sits on an active earthquake fault will close because it can’t meet state earthquake safety requirements, officials said this week. Community Medical Center Long...
Damage Reported After 4.2 Magnitude Earthquakes in Oklahoma
Mar 6 2018 // Busted bricks and cracked windows were revealed Monday after some of those most powerful earthquakes in Oklahoma in the past year rattled the northern part of the state. Oklahoma residents have gotten used to feeling...
Kansas Governor Issues Wildfire Disaster Declaration
Mar 6 2018 // Forecasters are warning of a high risk of wildfires after one blaze burned 10,000 hay bales in the southwest part of the state. Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer signed an emergency disaster declaration Sunday when the large bales...
PERILS Revises Loss Estimate for Europe’s Windstorm Zeus to €272M ($335.1M)
Mar 6 2018 // The final estimate of insured property market losses for extratropical cyclone Zeus, which mainly hit France last year on March 6-7, have been revised to €272 million (US$335.1 million), according to PERILS, the...
Judge Stays Lawsuits over Oklahoma Earthquakes
Mar 5 2018 // Oklahoma residents who are suing oil and gas producers for earthquake damage to their homes and businesses must now wait for a federal judge’s decision in another case. Judge Phillip Corley granted a stay with a...
California Spent $1.8B Fighting 2017 Wildfires
Mar 5 2018 // California state agencies spent nearly $1.8 billion fighting fierce wildfires that killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses last year, legislative budget experts reported Thursday. The...
How 2017’s Disasters Will Help People Start Viewing Mitigation as an Investment
Mar 5 2018 // Although clear challenges can come with the increasing cost and frequency of global natural disasters, there could also be untapped opportunity for insurers to tackle coverage gaps, according to industry...
Exxon Mobil’s Airstrip in Papua New Guinea Heavily Damaged After Earthquake
Mar 2 2018 // Exxon Mobil Corp. built a runway to land some of the world’s biggest planes as part of its endeavor to tap gas riches in one of the most remote spots on Earth. But an earthquake Monday in Papua New Guinea wrecked the...
Harvey Survivors Critical of Texas Governor/FEMA’s Disaster Response Plan
Mar 1 2018 // This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/27/texans-left-limbo-gov-abbott-fema-use-harvey-reinvent-disaster-respons/. In the weeks immediately after Hurricane Harvey,...
Oil, Gas Regulator Modifies Oklahoma Earthquake Guidelines
Mar 1 2018 // The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has developed new requirements for oil and natural gas operators in the event of an earthquake. The commission announced the new protocol for operators in the newest and largest areas of...
Fire Chiefs in California Want Money to Prepare for Wildfires
Mar 1 2018 // California fire chiefs said that reinforcements were too slow to arrive in last year’s ferocious firestorms and asked lawmakers for $100 million to call in extra firefighters when weather conditions are ripe for a...
Pool Re Extends Retrocession Program to $2.9B with Cyber Terrorism Now Covered
Mar 1 2018 // Pool Re announced it has renewed its retro program and extended the cover to include material damage and direct business interruption (BI) caused by acts of terrorism “using remote digital interference.” The...
Liberty Mutual Net Income Fell in 2017 Due to Catastrophes, Commercial Auto, Taxes
Feb 28 2018 // Liberty Mutual reported $17 million in net income for 2017, down substantially from more than $1 billion in 2016. The insurer pointed to catastrophe losses, adverse development in its commercial automobile business and a...
Earthquake in Papua New Guinea Causes ‘Massive Destruction’; Death Toll Rises
Feb 28 2018 // Whole villages were flattened and water sources spoiled by a powerful earthquake that killed at least 20 people, residents said on Wednesday as rescuers struggled to reach the hardest-hit areas in Papua New Guinea’s...
Europe’s Storm Friederike (aka David) to Cost Insurers €1.5B (US$1.8B): PERILS
Feb 28 2018 // The initial insured price tag for Extratropical Cyclone Friederike, also known as David, is an estimated €1.5 billion (US$1.8 billion), according to PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization that provides...
Tornadoes, Flooding From Severe Storms Cause Damage, Deaths in Appalachia
Feb 27 2018 // The death toll rose to at least five on Sunday after severe thunderstorms swept through the central U.S., spawning a tornado that flattened homes, gale force winds and widespread flooding from the Upper Midwest to...
Weather Service Confirms 2 Weekend Tornadoes in Arkansas
Feb 27 2018 // The National Weather Service says two tornadoes struck northeast Arkansas during the weekend, including one that killed a man before moving into southeast Missouri. The weather service says an EF-2 tornado with winds of up...
Record Number of Californians Applied for Earthquake Retrofit Grants
Feb 26 2018 // The Earthquake Brace + Bolt program closed its latest registration with more than 7,500 California homeowners applying for 2,000 retrofit grants. The EBB, funded primarily by the California Earthquake Authority, closed...
Puerto Rico Governor Orders Review of Hurricane Death Count
Feb 26 2018 // Puerto Rico’s governor has announced that a team of experts at George Washington University will lead an independent, in-depth review to determine the number of deaths caused by Hurricane Maria amid accusations that...
