Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Investigators Say Gunfire Caused Wildfire Near California’s Yosemite
Aug 7 2017 // Fire investigators say gunfire caused a wildfire near Yosemite National Park that destroyed 131 structures, including 63 homes, last month. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that a gun fired on...
World Bank Catastrophe Bonds to Provide Mexico with Disaster Cover of $360M
Aug 7 2017 // The World Bank Group issued its largest catastrophe bond, providing Mexico with financial protection of as much as $360 million against losses from tropical cyclones and earthquakes. Mexico is among the countries most...
Catastrophe Bond Market Breaks New Records in 2nd Quarter, 1st Half: Aon Study
Aug 7 2017 // Catastrophe bond issuance during the second quarter stood at US$6.38 billion across 20 transactions – a new record for quarterly issuance that surpassed the previous record of US$4.49 billion set in Q2 2014, according to...
Verisk: Texas 2nd, Oklahoma 7th in Number of Households at Risk for Wildfire
Aug 7 2017 // The 2017 Verisk Wildfire Risk Analysis shows that Texas ranks second behind California for the number of households at high or extreme risk from wildfire. Using information from the 2010 U.S. Census, the study determined...
California Earthquake Authority Policy Sales up 5.4% in 2Q from Year Ago
Aug 7 2017 // Californians may be getting the idea that they live in earthquake country. That’s the underlying message that can be found in the latest figures out from the California Earthquake Authority. The CEA, a...
Tropical Storm Emily Weakens to Depression After Deluging Florida
Aug 2 2017 // Tropical Depression Emily is rumbling further out into the Atlantic, a day after slogging across the Florida peninsula. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says remnants of the brief-lived tropical storm had maximum...
Weakening Typhoon Noru Could Hit Japan This Weekend
Aug 2 2017 // A typhoon that briefly strengthened into the Northern Hemisphere’s strongest storm of the year has lost much of its punch but could still hit Japan by this weekend. Typhoon Noru was packing maximum sustained winds of...
Tropical Storm Emily Moves Across Florida With Drenching Rains
Aug 1 2017 // Tropical Storm Emily churned ashore near Tampa Bay on Monday, starting a trek across the peninsula amid drenching rains and fears of scattered street flooding that prompted the governor to declare nearly half of...
California Earthquake Authority Policy Sales up 5.4% in 2Q from Year Ago
Jul 31 2017 // Californians may be getting the idea that they live in earthquake country. That’s the underlying message that can be found in the latest figures out from the California Earthquake Authority. The CEA, a...
Air Guard Tankers Being Activated to Combat Western Wildfires
Jul 31 2017 // Air National Guard C-130s from Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado that are equipped to battle fires have been activated to fight wildfires in the Western U.S. The three large aircraft will be stationed in Fresno,...
French Firefighters Begin to Contain Wildfires
Jul 28 2017 // French authorities are close to containing one of the fiercest blazes to break out during four days of wildfires in the country’s southeast that have led to the evacuation of more than 12,000 people. The fires in...
Raging Wildfires on French Riviera Force Evacuation of 12,000 People
Jul 27 2017 // French authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 12,000 people around a picturesque hilltop town in the southern Cote d’Azur region as fires hopscotched around the Mediterranean coast for a third day Wednesday. A...
Minor Damage Reported in North Carolina From Waterspout Turned Tornado
Jul 25 2017 // A waterspout briefly came ashore as a tornado in North Carolina last week, causing minor damage to houses before dissipating. The StarNews of Wilmington reports the National Weather Service confirmed the waterspout made...
Colorado Wildfire Evacuation Order Lifted in Foothills
Jul 24 2017 // Authorities have lifted evacuations prompted by a wildfire burning near a heavily populated area in Colorado. The fire burned almost half a square mile of brush-covered foothills south of Fort Collins, triggering an...
AIR Worldwide Launches Severe Thunderstorm Model for Australia
Jul 24 2017 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide announced it has released a severe thunderstorm model for Australia, which captures all three sub-perils – hail, tornado and straight-line wind – to help companies assess...
Report: The Southeast’s Storm Surge Risk and Florida’s Hurricane Wake-Up Call
Jul 24 2017 // The Southeast has seen its fair share of natural disasters and flooding in the last several years, including two hurricanes in Florida last year – the first hurricanes to hit the state in more than a decade. But none...
2016 Texas Hail Losses Top $5B
Jul 24 2017 // Wind and hail loss information for 2016 released recently by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) show that homeowner losses from hail in Texas were the highest annual losses ever recorded, as they exceeded $5 billion,...
Exclusive: California Broker Plans Parametric Quake Product That Pays Even If No Damage
Jul 21 2017 // A California broker is promising to bring a “first-of-its-kind financial resource” that pays homeowners after an earthquake for a low monthly premium whether there’s damage to the home or not. A Berkeley,...
Authority Wants 1952 Quake Anniversary to Remind Californians to Prepare
Jul 21 2017 // Friday marks the 65th anniversary of the 1952 magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck Kern County, Calif., considered the largest quake to strike Southern California since the 1870s. While the epicenter was on the White Wolf...
50 Homes Destroyed in California Wildfire
Jul 21 2017 // The town of Mariposa, with its century-old saloons and covered sidewalks, normally bustles with summer visitors on their way to Yosemite National Park but the Gold Rush-era hamlet was mostly empty as ash rained down and...
