Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Farm Losses From Virginia Tornadoes Climbing
Mar 7 2016 // Farm losses from a series of tornadoes that battered Virginia last month stand at $1.6 million and counting. The Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. says it has received 126 claims since the twisters swirled from...
Meteorologists Can Predict Tornadoes Weeks in Advance
Mar 7 2016 // Researchers say they’ve come up with a way to predict the likelihood of tornadoes two or three weeks in advance — a step toward better warnings of storms that kill an average of 80 Americans each year. Victor...
Gulf Coast Mangled by Swath of Tornadoes
Mar 7 2016 // The National Weather Service on Feb. 26 updated to 13 the number of tornadoes that hit Louisiana on Feb. 23, including four tornadoes — one an EF-3 — that were responsible for extreme damage in Convent and...
Catastrophe Response Team Works to Protect Storm Victims
Mar 4 2016 // After tornadoes ravaged the Dallas area in late December, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Fraud Unit worked together to establish a new disaster outreach program, called...
Liberty Mutual Profit Fell 70% in 2015
Mar 4 2016 // Liberty Mutual Insurance saw profits fall for the fourth quarter and full year 2015 due to higher catastrophe and energy-related losses. Parent Liberty Mutual Holding Co. booked $411 million in net income in Q4, a nearly...
U.S. Treasury Seeks Terrorism Data from Insurers
Mar 4 2016 // The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is requesting that insurers voluntarily submit insurance data regarding their participation in the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP). The...
EF2 Tornado Strikes Alabama, Damages at Least 12 Homes
Mar 4 2016 // Forecasters say a tornado that severely damaged homes and trees in a Birmingham, Ala., suburb has been determined as an EF2, with winds of between 120 and 125 mph. National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Holmes told...
FORTIFIED Home-High Wind, Hail Programs Launched at National Tornado Summit
Mar 3 2016 // The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) launched its new FORTIFIED Home–High Wind and Hail programs at the National Tornado Summit in Oklahoma. The programs are designed to help homeowners build...
Post Tornado, St. John Parish Trying for Normalcy
Mar 3 2016 // A sense of normalcy is returning to St. John the Baptist Parish after a tornado struck the west side of LaPlace last week and damaged more than 500 buildings but remarkably left no one seriously injured. The area hit last...
Alabama to Host Scientific Research Study of Southern Tornadoes
Mar 3 2016 // Weather researchers say they expect about 40 scientists from around the nation to participate in “VORTEX Southeast,” an upcoming study of the unique characteristics of tornadoes that develop in the South. Like...
Mother Nature More Relaxed in 2015
Mar 2 2016 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. A review of 2015 natural hazard events revealed an overall reduction in property damage for the year. While this does not minimize the local impact of individual events...
2015 a Record-Setting Year for Tornadoes in Texas
Mar 1 2016 // Texas recorded 244 tornadoes last year making it the highest number of twisters to ever touch down in the Lone Star State since the record keeping began in 1950. The tornadoes claimed 17 lives. The violent weather was...
Pipeline Companies Ordered to Pay $6.5 M in Damages from Oklahoma Wildfire
Feb 29 2016 // Two pipelines companies have been ordered to pay more than $6.5 million in damages to more than 70 plaintiffs whose property was destroyed in a 2012 wildfire in Oklahoma. Court documents say a Payne County jury ordered IPS...
13 Tornadoes Recorded in Louisiana on Feb. 23
Feb 26 2016 // The National Weather Service updated to 13 the number of tornadoes that hit Louisiana on Feb. 23, including four EF-2 tornadoes that were responsible for the extreme damage in Convent and LaPlace, along with an EF-2 in...
At Least 7 Tornadoes Hit Mississippi as Severe Storms Batter Region
Feb 26 2016 // A major storm system hit several Southeast states this week, bringing high winds and tornadoes to multiple regions and killing at least one person in Mississippi. Injuries and damage were also reported in Florida from an...
5th Annual National Tornado Summit Turning into an International Event
Feb 25 2016 // With registered attendees from as far away as Nepal and as nearby as Canada, the 2016 National Tornado Summit to be held next week in Oklahoma City has become an international event. The Oklahoma Department of Insurance,...
Texas Tornadoes Trigger Closer Look at Building Construction, Codes
Feb 24 2016 // Before the walls shook, before the two-by-fours twisted and the roof began tearing off, Amanda Bose saw news about the tornado on television. “Everybody in the bathroom — right now!” the 36-year-old mother...
Oklahoma Wildfire That Burned Homes, Outbuildings Almost Contained
Feb 23 2016 // Oklahoma Forestry Services says firefighters have almost contained a large wildfire east of Okmulgee. Officials say the Pharoah-Nuyaka fire has burned about 34 square miles and is about 60 percent contained. But residents...
Oklahoma Ponders ‘California Model’ for Earthquake Insurance
Feb 22 2016 // Oklahoma lawmakers are in the early stages of considering legislation to create a state-level “earthquake reinsurance program” that its author claims will be modeled on the California Earthquake Authority. S.B....
Capital Adequacy Is Key Strength of Reinsurers in Difficult Market: S&P
Feb 22 2016 // Strength of capital and good enterprise risk management are two of the main reasons the global reinsurance industry will be able to maintain a stable outlook during 2016 from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services,...
