Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Caribbean Cat Facility, CCRIF, Pays Nicaragua $1.1M for Hurricane Otto
Dec 14 2016 // CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) made a payout of US$1.1 million to the government of Nicaragua as a result of damages from Hurricane Otto. Damages triggered a CCRIF payment on the...
Top Florida Stories of 2016: The End of Florida’s Hurricane Drought
Dec 14 2016 // In September, Hurricane Hermine broke Florida’s hurricane drought that had lasted since 2005. The category 1 storm hit the Florida Panhandle, bringing significant storm surge to the Tampa Bay area before slowly...
Dolly Parton Organizing Telethon for Wildfire Victims in Tennessee
Dec 12 2016 // Country icon Dolly Parton has organized a musical telethon to raise money for victims of the Tennessee wildfires that destroyed more than 1,700 homes in the resort town of Gatlinburg. The event, which will air Dec. 13 on...
Tennessee Wildfires That Killed 14 Allegedly Started by 2 Juveniles
Dec 9 2016 // Authorities on Wednesday charged two juveniles in an East Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,700 buildings in an iconic tourism spot at the foot of the Great Smoky...
CEA Using California Quakes as Opportunity to Spread the Word
Dec 8 2016 // In the way of a magnitude 6.5 earthquake off the Northern California coast at 6:45 a.m., a hundred miles west of Eureka, and then a few hours later a magnitude 5.0 in the same general area, the California Earthquake...
New Zealand Quake’s Insured Losses Estimated at $705M-$3.5B: Aon Cat Report
Dec 8 2016 // Insurance losses from last month’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake in New Zealand are likely to range between NZ$1.0 to 5.0 billion (US$705 million and US$3.5 billion), according to a report published by Impact Forecasting,...
Indonesia’s M6.5 Quake Kills Nearly 100 with Low Insurance Losses Expected: AIR
Dec 8 2016 // An M6.5 earthquake jolted the northernmost area of Sumatra, Indonesia, on Dec. 7 at 5:03 a.m. local time, with nearly 100 fatalities and more than 600 injuries reported. The epicenter was 19 kilometers (11.8 miles)...
A Look Back at 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season
Dec 8 2016 // The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season concluded on Nov. 30 with 15 named storms generating seven hurricanes, three of which were considered major ones, according to the industry’s Insurance Information Institute...
Insured Losses from Italy’s October Earthquakes Estimated at $33.3M: PERILS
Dec 7 2016 // The initial estimate of the property insurance market loss from the series of earthquakes that hit central Italy in October is €31 million ($33.3 million), according to PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization...
National Weather Service Confirms 20 Tornadoes Hit Alabama Last Week
Dec 7 2016 // The National Weather Service says forecasters have confirmed that 20 tornadoes touched down in Alabama last week. The agency says storm surveys found damage from 11 twisters in central Alabama and nine more in north...
Businesses Unharmed in Tennessee City Devastated by Wildfires Set to Reopen
Dec 7 2016 // Chirping and beeping filled the air as Marion Paul fired up her Gatlinburg video arcade Monday, the first time she’s seen her business since deadly wildfires set much of the city ablaze a week ago. Sooty floors...
Tennessee Insurance Department Works With Insurers to Pinpoint Wildfire Claims
Dec 7 2016 // Devastating wildfires that have hit the state of Tennessee, particularly in the City of Gatlinburg, have caused widespread damage, with 656 claims reported to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) as of...
Rising Risks Could Cost Global Cities $1.17 Trillion of GDP in 2017: Cambridge Study
Dec 6 2016 // The costs of major shocks to the global economy from natural and manmade threats could put at risk $1.17 trillion of the total projected GDP of the world’s major cities in 2017, according to the findings of a report...
Residents, Pawnee Nation File Suits Following 5.8 Mag Quake
Dec 5 2016 // Residents of Pawnee, Okla., have filed suit in district court against 27 energy companies, saying they operate wastewater injection wells even though they know the method causes earthquakes. The lawsuit seeks an...
California, Texas Top Western States for Extreme Risk of Wildfire Damage
Dec 5 2016 // California and Texas rank first and second for the total number of residential properties at an extreme risk for wildfire damage, according to data provider CoreLogic. The reasons for that include: both states have large...
Tennessee Wildfire Death Toll Rises to 7; City of Gatlinburg Surveys Damage
Dec 2 2016 // Three more bodies were found in the ruins of wildfires that torched hundreds of homes and businesses in the Great Smoky Mountains area, raising the death toll to seven, a Tennessee mayor said Wednesday. Search-and-rescue...
The California Earthquake Authority 20 Years Later
Dec 1 2016 // Twenty years ago today insurers began selling California Earthquake Authority policies – two years off of a hard lesson learned by the state’s residents and its insurance market. But 20 years later are we any...
RMS Peru Earthquake Model and Actuaries Climate Index Are Launched
Dec 1 2016 // RMS and a group of actuarial societies each rolled out new products designed to respectively help measure risks related to earthquake and weather events. In RMS’ case, the catastrophe modeling firm gained regulatory...
Oklahoma Earthquakes: The Emerging Risk from Induced Seismicity
Dec 1 2016 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. California is typically the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of earthquake activity in the U.S. In recent years, however, the central U.S. – especially...
Citizens Assesses Hurricane Response as 2016 Season Comes to a Close
Dec 1 2016 // Citizens Property Insurance Corporation expressed satisfaction with its response efforts to the first hurricanes to hit Florida in more than a decade as the end of the 2016 hurricane season officially ended Nov....
