Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Three Steps Towards Getting Your Portfolio Ready for Hurricane Season
Jul 6 2015 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Insuring property along our nation’s coastlines can be either extremely lucrative or laden with risk. Many coastal residents are underinsured—which puts...
California Funds Incentives for Earthquake Protection
Jul 6 2015 // When California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the 2015-2016 budget, it included $3 million in funding to expand the Earthquake Brace and Bolt program and clarified that the program’s grants are income-tax exempt at the...
Wildfire Report Shows 2 Million California Homes at Risk as Drought Continues
Jul 6 2015 // A report issued in June shows California has more than 2 million homes at “high” or “extreme” wildfire risk, as the multi-year drought continues to stoke fears among some experts of a potentially...
Report Says 6.6M-Plus Atlantic, Gulf Coast Homes at Risk of Storm Surge
Jul 6 2015 // More than 6.6 million homes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of hurricane storm surge with a total reconstruction cost value estimated to be nearly $1.5 trillion, according to a recently released report. The...
How Hurricane Katrina Changed Business Preparation Planning for Disasters
Jul 6 2015 // Nearly 10 years ago, wind and storm surges as a result of Hurricane Katrina caused $41 billion in insured losses and $108 billion in total economic losses. Many of the lawsuits filed as a result of the fifth hurricane of...
‘Seismicity’: Re/insurers Ponder the Impact of Human-Caused Earthquakes
Jul 6 2015 // Earthquakes, the natural kind caused by the movements of vast tectonic plates, have been occurring since the dawn of time. But now there is a new type of quake, the study of which has been labeled “seismicity,”...
Spate of Climate Change Reports Ahead of Global Summit
Jul 2 2015 // Ahead of December’s big and much-talked about United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 or CMP11, it seems there’s been an information ramp up of sorts. I’m not just talking about Pope...
Reinsurance Industry Faces Uncertain Future as Time Moves On
Jul 2 2015 // It’s around two months until the annual Reinsurance Rendezvous in Monte Carlo, where the reinsurers, brokers, carriers, lawyers, accountants and cat modelers discuss the state of their industry. That industry, until...
NWS: Tornado in St. Louis Area Was EF-2
Jul 1 2015 // The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado touched down in St. Charles County, Mo., last weekend. A strong stormed rolled through the St. Louis region Sunday night. The weather service says an EF-2 tornado...
Oklahoma Supreme Court: Oil Firms Can Be Sued over Quakes
Jul 1 2015 // New Dominion LLC can be sued by an Oklahoma woman injured when her fireplace fell on her during an earthquake that she blames on disposal wells tied to fracking. The June 30 ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed a...
Guy Carpenter Confirms Slowing of Pricing Declines in June Renewals
Jul 1 2015 // Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, has reported that “after two years of price decreases averaging 15 percent on U.S. property catastrophe placements, risk-adjusted pricing moderated at the most recent June...
National Hurricane Center, Florida University to Launch Hurricane Site in Spanish
Jul 1 2015 // The National Hurricane Center and Florida International University are launching a new Spanish-language website for hurricane preparation. The website will include information on hurricane science, residential mitigation...
California Funds Incentives For Earthquake Protection
Jun 29 2015 // When California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the 2015-2016 budget, it included $3 million in funding to expand the Earthquake Brace and Bolt program and clarified that the program’s grants are income-tax exempt at the...
Updated AIR Hurricane Model for U.S. Features Storm Surge Module
Jun 29 2015 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide has updated its hurricane model for the U.S. to help insurers and reinsurers better understand and quantify the risk from hurricanes. The update features a hydrodynamic storm...
How Terrorism Reinsurance Law Uncertainty Affected Market
Jun 29 2015 // After a slight dip in the wake of the brief lapse of the terrorism reinsurance program in early 2015, terrorism insurance market conditions are steady again, although there have been some noteworthy changes in behavior,...
Models for Explosions from Terrorist Attacks Could Reduce the Carnage
Jun 25 2015 // While catastrophic event models mainly focus on weather related events, the world also has to cope with catastrophic terrorist acts, particularly those caused by explosive devices placed in areas where they will cause the...
Alaska Wildfires Grow, Prompt Evacuations
Jun 24 2015 // Intensifying wildfires in Alaska have led to evacuations in several parts of the state, including a tiny village where residents fled on boats. A firefighter on one blaze also was treated for a bear bite after encountering...
Michigan Hit with Damaging Winds, Tornados, Flooding
Jun 24 2015 // A series of severe thunderstorms that pushed damaging winds and tornados into several parts of Michigan on Monday and Tuesday wrecked homes and knocked out power to thousands of people, officials said. From Monday...
Severe Storms, Tornado Damage Homes, Injure 7 in Illinois
Jun 24 2015 // At least seven people were injured as severe thunderstorms that swept across northern Illinois spawned a tornado, damaged homes and uprooted trees. Particularly hard hit Monday night was Coal City, a community of...
‘Seismicity’ – Re/Insurers Ponder the Impact of Human-Caused Earthquakes
Jun 24 2015 // Earthquakes, the natural kind caused by the movements of vast tectonic plates, have been occurring since the dawn of time. But now there is a new type of quake, the study of which has been labeled “seismicity,”...
