Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Alberta Wildfires Could Cost $7B with Minimal Insurer Credit Hit: Ratings Agencies
May 17 2016 // The Fort McMurray wildfires, which have been raging through northern Alberta, Canada since May 1, are likely to be the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, according to recent reports issued by catastrophe...
Alberta Wildfires Spread North, Threatening Oil Sands Facilities, Workers’ Camps
May 17 2016 // Wildfires raging across northern Alberta for more than two weeks have come to within a kilometer of an Enbridge Inc. oil-sands transportation terminal as warm weather and wind spread the flames, while workers were...
Florida Hurricane Fund Financially Sound, Ready for Storm Season
May 16 2016 // Florida’s continued lucky streak when it comes to dodging hurricanes is helping a key state fund reach its best financial shape ever in the two decades it has been in place. The state-created fund known as the...
Insurers Limit Exposure as Quakes Increase in Oklahoma
May 13 2016 // As the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma exploded into the hundreds in the last few years, nearly a dozen insurance companies moved to limit their exposure, often at the expense of homeowners, a Reuters examination has...
Palomar Specialty Expands Residential Earthquake Product to Oregon, Washington
May 13 2016 // Palomar Specialty Insurance Co., in partnership with Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, Inc. and TriCoast Insurance Services, LLC, has expanded its Value Select Residential Earthquake Insurance Program into Oregon and...
Tornado Cleanup Underway in Kentucky
May 13 2016 // Business and home owners have begun cleaning up after severe storms spawned a tornado in western Kentucky and left at least 10 people with minor injuries. Graves County Sheriff Dewayne Redmon said a campus with a local...
2 Dead, at Least 10 Hurt as Storms Move into Ohio River Valley
May 12 2016 // Bad weather moved into the Ohio River Valley on May 10 after a series of powerful storms hit the Plains, including tornadoes that destroyed homes and left two people dead in Oklahoma. National Weather Service meteorologist...
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...
