Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Dam at Oregon Lake Being Retrofitted to Withstand Earthquake
Mar 14 2017 // The leaky dam at Hyatt Lake in Oregon is being shored up this summer as part of a $3.7 million seismic retrofit. The Mail Tribune reported the project will bring the dam east of Ashland into safety compliance after a...
Western Kentucky Suffers Damage from 2 Tornadoes
Mar 14 2017 // The National Weather Service says two tornadoes apparently hit far western Kentucky, where transportation officials say roads will reopen overnight. Meteorologist Jim Packett in Paducah says officials surveyed damage in...
6 Texas Counties Declared Disaster Areas Following Wildfires
Mar 13 2017 // Six counties in the Texas Panhandle have been declared disaster areas by Gov. Greg Abbott following the deadly wildfires that swept through the area on March 6 – 7 burning more than 440,000 acres. Abbott’s March 11...
UK’s Terrorism Reinsurer, Pool Re, Plans to Extend Cover to Include Cyber
Mar 13 2017 // Britain’s 6 billion pounds ($7.3 billion) terrorism reinsurance fund hopes to extend its cover to include cyber attacks on property, chief executive Julian Enoizi said. Pool Re, set up in 1993, acts as a backstop to...
Ranchers in Midwest Assessing Damage After Wildfires
Mar 10 2017 // Kansas rancher Greg Gardiner got into some of his scorched pastures for the first time on March 8 and surveyed what he likened to a battle zone: carcasses of dead cattle everywhere. “It’s pretty much a...
Weather Events in U.S., Australia Cost Insurers $1B+ in February: Aon
Mar 9 2017 // Insurers face claims of more than US$1.0 billion as a result of severe weather events in the U.S. and Australia during February, according to a report published by Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model...
Florida’s New ‘Hurricane Hunter’ Base on Schedule for Storm Season
Mar 9 2017 // Officials say they’re on schedule to open the new home base for the U.S. government’s “hurricane hunter” aircraft before the Atlantic hurricane season begins. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric...
Hiscox Appoints RMS’ Khare as Group Head of Catastrophe Research
Mar 9 2017 // Specialist insurer Hiscox has appointed Shree Khare as group head of Catastrophe Research. Khare will lead the research that directly informs Hiscox’s own view of risk and its underwriting strategies for catastrophe...
Deadly Wildfires Force Thousands from Homes in 4 States
Mar 8 2017 // Emergency crews on March 7 struggled to contain deadly wildfires that have scorched hundreds of square miles of land in four states and forced thousands of people to flee their homes ahead of the wind-whipped flames. The...
Humans to Blame for More Than 80% of U.S. Wildfires
Mar 7 2017 // Humans have been the culprits behind hundreds of thousands of wildfires in recent decades, and they will probably make things a whole lot worse in coming years. Research from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that...
Researchers Claim High Accuracy in Understanding Terrorists’ Next Moves
Mar 6 2017 // Government agencies are not always successful using social media and telecommunication to uncover the intentions of terrorists because terrorists are now more careful in utilizing these technologies for planning and...
Oil Companies Sued by Oklahoma Tribe Over Quake
Mar 6 2017 // An Oklahoma-based Native American tribe filed a lawsuit in its own tribal court system Friday accusing several oil companies of triggering the state’s largest earthquake that caused extensive damage to some...
Fighting Massive 2016 Wildfire Cost Kansas County $1.5M
Mar 6 2017 // Firefighting costs hit $1.5 million in the county hardest hit by a massive wildfire along the Kansas-Oklahoma border last year. Jerry McNamar, emergency management director for Kansas’ Barber County, said he’s...
Within Space of One Week, 2 Tornado Outbreaks in Texas
Mar 6 2017 // At least six tornadoes blew through Central Texas overnight on Feb. 19 and 20, damaging more than 100 structures in the San Antonio area, just days after another six were reported near Houston. The mayor of San Antonio...
Paid Claims from Mississippi Tornado Damage Top $31M, And Growing
Mar 6 2017 // Insurers have paid out more than $31.6 million on 2,801 claims from tornadoes that hit Mississippi in January. The Mississippi Insurance Department reported the figures through Feb. 3. Mississippi Insurance Commissioner...
Firefighters Gaining on Control of 2 Large Texas Wildfires
Mar 2 2017 // Firefighters have more fully contained two large wildfires in West Texas, including one that destroyed four homes and prompted the evacuation of nearly 1,200 others. Texas A&M Forest Service spokesman Phillip Truitt...
Nationwide Says Extreme Weather Brings Bigger Claims, Need for Disaster Plans
Mar 2 2017 // More extreme weather has led to more extreme insurance claims in the U.S. over the past few years. In a review of more than 100,000 commercial catastrophe claims during a 10-year period, Mark A. Anderson, a claims...
Tornado-Spawning Storm System Killed 3 in Midwest, Moved Eastward
Mar 2 2017 // A spring-like storm system that killed at least three people as it spawned tornadoes and damaged dozens of homes in the central U.S. rumbled eastward on March 1, putting about 95 million people in its path, forecasters...
The National Weather Service Confirms Tornado in Western Massachusetts
Feb 28 2017 // The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado with winds up to 110 mph touched down in western Massachusetts. Meteorologists say the EF-1 tornado touched down Saturday evening in Conway in Franklin County. The...
Paid Claims from Mississippi Tornado Damage Top $31M, And Growing
Feb 27 2017 // Parts of mobile homes and other property lay strewn throughout a neighborhood Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017, on Green loop Road in Lauderdale, Miss., after a tornado passed through the area late Saturday. (Paula Merritt/The...
