Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tornadoes Survival Tips from Texas to Nebraska
May 11 2016 // Storms swept through the nation’s midsection Monday, spawning numerous tornadoes. While tornadoes can form any time weather conditions are right, the area from Texas to Nebraska typically sees tornadoes between April...
Alberta Wildfires Spare Almost 90% of Fort McMurray, Canada’s Energy Hub
May 10 2016 // The massive wildfires that swept through Canada’s energy hub of Fort McMurray left almost 90 percent of the city intact, including most of the downtown core, while completely leveling some neighborhoods. “This...
Alberta Wildfires Could Hit Canada Economy Harder than Hurricane Katrina in US
May 10 2016 // Intact Financial Corp. may post insured losses of as much as C$1.1 billion ($850 million) from the wildfires in Alberta, which could dent the Canadian economy harder than Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Intact,...
South Dakota City Set to Observe Tornado Anniversary
May 9 2016 // A full day of activities is planned in Delmont, S.D. on Tuesday to observe the one-year anniversary of the tornado that damaged the city. On the morning of May 10, 2015, an EF-2 tornado struck the city and damaged or...
$330K In Tornado Damage in Oklahoma County: Assessor
May 9 2016 // The Oklahoma County Assessor’s Office says a tornado that hit parts of Oklahoma County last week caused more than $330,000 in damage. The assessor’s office said Friday that it surveyed damage at five...
Costly Alberta Wildfires to Hit Q2 Results; Insurers Are Resilient: Ratings Reports
May 9 2016 // While the wildfires raging through northern Alberta and the city of Fort McMurray could bring one of the largest catastrophe losses in Canadian history, property insurers are resilient, according to A.M. Best and...
Allstate Absorbed Higher Catastrophe Losses, Lower Investments in Q1
May 9 2016 // Catastrophe losses including those from two severe hailstorms left their mark on the Allstate Corp. in the first quarter, with net income during the period plunging more than 65 percent. Echoing trends from other...
Drones Will Be Used to Investigate Cause of Alberta Wildfires
May 9 2016 // Fire-ravaged Alberta will use drones to investigate the cause of a huge blaze that has scorched the Canadian province and displaced some 88,000 people. Elevated Robotic Services, which has also deployed drones for mining...
Alberta Wildfires Set to Veer from Oil Sands Operations, Spreading More Slowly
May 9 2016 // Wildfires raging through Alberta are set to move away from the main oil-sands facilities north of Fort McMurray after knocking out an estimated 1 million barrels of production from Canada’s energy hub. A cold front...
Weather Service Confirms Tornado Near Wilmington, North Carolina
May 9 2016 // The National Weather Service says a tornado struck northern New Hanover County, uprooting trees and damaging some homes. The storm hit in the Ogden area about 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The National Weather Service in Wilmington...
Weather Service Confirms Weak Tornado Stuck Western Indiana
May 6 2016 // The National Weather Service confirmed this week that a tornado touched down briefly in western Indiana on Sunday. The weather service rated the tornado as an EF-0, estimating it had peak winds of 70 mph. The weather...
Alberta Wildfire Insured Losses Could Total $7.3B, Covering Area Bigger Than NYC
May 6 2016 // The wildfires ravaging Canada’s oil hub in northern Alberta have rapidly spread to an area bigger than New York city, prompting the air lift of more than 8,000 evacuees as firefighters seek to salvage critical...
Earthquake Resilience Topic at Southern California Conference
May 5 2016 // Most people aren’t prepared for the big one. If there was one common theme at a three-day earthquake conference in downtown Long Beach, Calif., that was it. The National Earthquake Conference, which runs through...
Natural Disaster Losses Hit Five-Year High in April: Aon Catastrophe Report
May 5 2016 // The global economy suffered the worst April natural disaster losses for five years, according to Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team. Earthquakes, convective storms and flooding...
U.S. Insured Catastrophe Losses from 13 Events in Q1 Add Up to Worst in Decade
May 5 2016 // Catastrophe activity in the U.S. led to $3.8 billion in insured losses in 29 states during the 2016 first quarter, with much of the damage hitting Texas. Those events were the worst in a decade in terms of frequency and...
Alberta Wildfire Could Become Canada’s Costliest Natural Catastrophe
May 5 2016 // A wildfire in the Alberta city of Fort McMurray is set to become the costliest ever Canadian natural disaster for insurers, with 1,600 buildings destroyed and another 19,000 under threat, analysts and industry sources...
Officials: 9 Tornadoes in Oklahoma, Arkansas Last Week
May 5 2016 // Meteorologists have identified tornado damage in Muskogee County nearly a week after a string of at least nine weak tornadoes across northeastern Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Tulsa World reports that the National Weather...
Louisiana Tornado Confirmed by Weather Service
May 4 2016 // The National Weather Service confirms that a tornado hit rural parts of northern St. Landry Parish and southern Avoyelles Parish in Louisiana on Saturday. Forecaster Jonathan Brazzell said Sunday that the Weather Service...
Update: Canadian Wildfire Rages, Leading to Evacuation of 80,000 People
May 4 2016 // Fire raged unchecked through the Canadian city of Fort McMurray overnight as authorities raced to complete the evacuation of its population of 80,000, fearful that hot, dry winds forecast for Wednesday would further fan...
Utah Earthquake Country Examined
May 2 2016 // Signs of earthquakes are everywhere in the chaotically beautiful geology of southwest Utah and the region where the mile-high Colorado Plateau falls off into the corrugated Basin-and-Range landscape that dominates...
