Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
SBA Offers Low-interest Wildfire Disaster Loans to Washington Businesses
Oct 30 2015 // The U.S. Small Business Administration is offering low-interest disaster loans to Washington businesses, nonprofits and residents affected by the wildfires. The federal agency has declared its own disaster declaration to...
Florida Regulators ‘Encouraged’ by Insurers’ Stress Test Results
Oct 29 2015 // Florida property insurers are well-capitalized and able to handle a 1-in-100 year storm event if and when it occurs in the state, according to the Florida Office of Insurance’s 2015 Data Call and subsequent stress...
Texas’ Population Spread, Wildfires Bring New Era of Firefighting
Oct 29 2015 // A top state fire official says the changing landscape of Texas, driven by millions of new residents and the spread of exurbia, has coincided with an unprecedented wave of large wildfires that are occurring more...
Atlantic Hurricane Season Enters Final Stretch with No-Hit Record Intact
Oct 29 2015 // It has been 10 years since a major hurricane hit the U.S., and as the Atlantic season staggers into its last month, every day that passes seems certain to extend that record streak. Wilma was the last major system,...
West Coast Towns Vulnerable to Tsunamis Consider Ways to Save Lives
Oct 28 2015 // Bracing for a tsunami like the one that devastated Japanese communities during a 2011 mega-earthquake, coastal communities from British Columbia to California have been grappling with how to protect people from a similar...
Earthquake Swarm Around San Francisco Persists
Oct 28 2015 // The U.S. Geological Survey reports that in the last two weeks more than 400 small earthquakes have hit a city east of San Francisco. KNTV reported that the city of San Ramon appears to have broken an earthquake record with...
Celebrities’ Mexican Holiday Homes Pummeled by Hurricane Patricia
Oct 27 2015 // Mexico may have dodged a bullet from the fury of Hurricane Patricia, but jet setters like Bill Gates, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cindy Crawford will have to find a new playground for now after the storm ravaged some of the...
No ‘Significant Losses’ Expected from M7.5 Hindu Kush Quake: AIR Analysis
Oct 27 2015 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide the epicenter the magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck northeastern Afghanistan yesterday was located in the Hindu Kush mountain range, 45 km (28 miles) north of...
Mexico’s Hurricane Patricia May Hit Catastrophe Bondholders
Oct 27 2015 // Mexico’s natural disaster fund may be $100 million better off at bondholders’ expense after Hurricane Patricia appeared to trigger a catastrophe bond the country sold in 2012. Investors in those notes maturing...
Hurricane Patricia Takes It Relatively Easy on Texas
Oct 26 2015 // Drenching storms that the remnants of Hurricane Patricia dragged into Texas finally cleared on Oct. 25 without leaving behind the death or devastation of torrential rain and floods that hit the state earlier in the...
Safety Experts: Oklahoma Quakes a National Security Threat
Oct 26 2015 // In the months after Sept. 11, 2001, as U.S. security officials assessed the top targets for potential terrorist attacks, the small town of Cushing, Okla., received special attention. Even though it is home to fewer than...
Strong Quake Hits Afghanistan, Pakistan, India; Ongoing Search for Survivors
Oct 26 2015 // Afghanistan’s strongest earthquake in more than six decades shook buildings across South Asia, prompting officials from Kabul to Islamabad to New Delhi to send out rescue teams to search for survivors. More than 130...
Guy Carpenter Says Wildfire Losses May Exceed $1.75B
Oct 26 2015 // A briefing from Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC on Monday shows more than 9 million acres were burned by wildfires so far this year, most of that occurring in the Western U.S, and that insured losses from wildfires could...
Mexico Losses from Hurricane Patricia ‘Won’t Exceed $200 Million:’ AIR Analysis
Oct 26 2015 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimates that insured losses to onshore properties in Mexico from Hurricane Patricia won’t exceed $200 million. This is a surprisingly low estimate, as AIR said: “Six...
Central Texas Wildfire 100% Contained
Oct 26 2015 // Officials say a Central Texas wildfire that burned 7-square-miles is 100 percent contained and under control. Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape said that with the widespread rainfall in the area, the fire has been...
Hurricanes not the Only Storms to Hit Texas Coast
Oct 26 2015 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the state created insurer of last resort for 14 coastal counties and parts of Harris County, reports that nearly 14,000 claims were filed after violent spring thunderstorms...
Hurricane Patricia Targets Mexico; 400K People, Ports, Insurers at Risk
Oct 23 2015 // Hurricane Patricia, the strongest in the history of the Americas, prepared to barrel into Mexico’s Pacific coast Friday, sending guests fleeing hotels in the Puerto Vallarta resort area. About 400,000 people are...
Study: Larger Oklahoma Quakes Caused by Industrial Activity
Oct 23 2015 // A sharp rise in earthquakes in Oklahoma in the past 100 years is likely the result of industrial activities in the energy-rich state, such as oil and natural gas production, a new study suggests. The paper by the U.S....
99.9 Percent Probability of L.A.-Area Earthquake: Study
Oct 23 2015 // There is a 99.9 percent chance of a magnitude-5 or greater earthquake striking within three years in the greater Los Angeles area, where a similar sized temblor caused more the $12 million in damage last year, according to...
Cat 5 Patricia ‘Strongest Eastern North Pacific Hurricane on Record:’ NHC
Oct 23 2015 // Hurricane Patricia has strengthened into a Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which is tracking the storm. The NHC’s latest bulletin said Patricia is...
