Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Wisconsin County’s Initial Tornado Damage Estimate: $10M
May 25 2017 // The Barron County Sheriff’s Department has released initial damage estimates from a tornado that tore through the Chetek area of northwestern Wisconsin last week. The department said Sunday that the storm damaged 231...
Alaska Hosts Plate Tectonics Research Effort
May 25 2017 // Alaska averages 40,000 earthquakes per year, with more large quakes than the other 49 states combined, and America’s shakiest state is about to have its ground examined like never before. A federal agency that...
Damage Reported in North Carolina From Severe Storms That Spawned Tornado
May 25 2017 // Officials in a North Carolina county say a tornado has destroyed a fire department. The Fayetteville Observer reports Sampson County Emergency Management said the Autryville Fire Department was destroyed by a tornado on...
Damage Assessment from 7 Oklahoma Tornadoes Ongoing
May 24 2017 // Meteorologists say seven tornados that occurred in northeast Oklahoma last week have received preliminary damage ratings. The Tulsa World reports tornados near Wagoner, Red Bird and Porter reached estimated wind speeds of...
U.K. Security Services Warn of Imminent Terrorist Attack; U.S. Leaks Criticized
May 24 2017 // Soldiers are to patrol British landmarks and sporting events in their biggest homeland deployment in decades, as security services warned that another attack by terrorists who killed 22 people at a pop concert on Monday...
Colorado Hailstorm on Pace to be Most Expensive in State History
May 23 2017 // More than 150,000 auto insurance claims and 50,000 homeowners claims are estimated to be filed in the wake of a monster hailstorm that pounded Colorado’s Front Range on May 8, putting it on pace to be the...
Swiss Re Places $925M Cat Bond for California Earthquake Authority
May 23 2017 // Swiss Re Capital Markets Corp. has successfully structured and placed the issuance of $925 million of insurance-linked securities for the California Earthquake Authority. Swiss Re Capital Markets underwrote the transaction...
Insured Losses for Europe’s Windstorm Thomas Rise to $279.2M: PERILS
May 23 2017 // The latest property insured loss estimate for Windstorm Thomas, which on Feb. 23-24 hit the British Isles, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, is €249 million (US$279.2 million), according to PERILS, the independent...
Weather Co. Updates Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast
May 22 2017 // In its second seasonal tropical forecast for the North Atlantic basin for the 2017 season, IBM’s The Weather Co. said it now expects a total of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, a slight...
Florida Hurricane Cat Fund Ready for Storm Season
May 22 2017 // The Florida fund that helps private insurers pay out claims after a hurricane continues to be in strong shape ahead of storm season. Estimates prepared by Raymond James show the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund will have...
Residents Assess Damage After Night of Tornadoes in Central U.S.
May 18 2017 // Residents of an Oklahoma subdivision and a Wisconsin trailer park that were leveled by deadly tornadoes sifted through what remained of their homes and possessions Wednesday, even as forecasters warned of another round of...
Judge Dismisses Lawsuits Claiming Facebook Liable for Supporting Terrorists
May 18 2017 // A federal judge on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits seeking to hold Facebook Inc. liable for supporting terrorist groups by letting them use its social media platform to further their goals, including violence against...
Tornadoes Leave at Least 2 Dead as Storms Pummel Central U.S.
May 18 2017 // Storms whipped through a wide swath of the nation’s midsection, giving rise to tornadoes that flattened a Wisconsin mobile home park and an Oklahoma subdivision and killing at least two people and injuring dozens of...
PERILS Releases European Windstorm Catalogue (1979-2015)
May 18 2017 // PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has released a storm catalogue containing the gust footprints of more than 200 of the largest European windstorms...
Number of Florida Wildfires Tops 2,100 So Far This Year
May 18 2017 // State officials say 170,000 acres in Florida have burned from wildfires since the start of the year. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said that more than 127 active fires were burning in Florida as of...
Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season Starts Off Slowly
May 18 2017 // The eastern Pacific hurricane season is starting off with a whimper. While one short-lived tropical storm developed off Mexico’s Pacific coast last week, the earliest on record, computer models show another one...
Texas ‘Hailstorm’ Litigation Bill Headed to Governor’s Desk
May 17 2017 // Legislation backed by the insurance industry and some Texas business groups that curtails the ability of policyholders to sue insurance companies over property claims following extreme weather events has passed the state...
6 Critical Wildfire Preparation Recommendations
May 17 2017 // This morning while I’m sitting in my office writing this post, I’m thinking about wildfires. According to the ArcGIS website, there are 24 active wildfires in the US. 17 of them are in the state of Florida....
Dozen Earthquakes Reported in Oklahoma, Including a 4.2 Mag
May 16 2017 // Two small earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma by the U.S. Geological Survey bring to a dozen the number of temblors recorded in the state during the weekend. A 2.9 magnitude quake was recorded at 2:24 a.m. Sunday near Red...
Mississippi Gov Seeks Federal Tornado Aid for End of April Outbreak
May 16 2017 // Residents of Holmes and Montgomery counties in Mississippi could get federal help following April 30 tornadoes, if Gov. Phil Bryant gets his way. Bryant on Thursday officially asked that President Donald Trump declare a...
