Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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,”...
Newbridge Writes Political Violence, Terrorism Risks via Castel MGA Platform
Jun 24 2015 // Newbridge Risk Partners has launched operations on Castel Underwriting Agencies MGA formation platform, targeting political violence and terrorism risks in emerging markets. The new underwriting cell will be focused on the...
Cat Modeling in a New, More Open Phase: Aon Benfield/Impact Forecasting
Jun 23 2015 // Over 30 years ago, Karen Clark produced the first catastrophe model – for hurricanes. Since then the use of these valuable tools has changed the face of the re/insurance industry. They are indispensable for the...
Allstate Estimates May Catastrophe Losses at $178M
Jun 19 2015 // The Allstate Corp. has estimated its catastrophe losses in the U.S. for the month of May 2015 of $178 million before tax from eight events. Four severe weather events accounted for over 77 percent of the estimated...
Remnants of Tropical Storm Bill Headed for the Midwest
Jun 18 2015 // Tropical Storm Bill wrung out almost 12 inches of rain over parts of eastern Texas, was downgraded to a depression and then handed off from the National Hurricane Center to the Weather Prediction Center. That doesn’t...
Tropical Storm Bill Makes Landfall in Texas with 60 MPH Winds
Jun 16 2015 // Tropical Storm Bill came ashore on the Texas mainland this morning near Seadrift, packing heavy rains that will drop as much as 10 inches along the coast. Bill’s winds were 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour, up from...
Another Alaska Wildfire Prompts More Evacuations
Jun 16 2015 // Firefighters are battling a second wildfire in Alaska and officials say hundreds of homes have been evacuated and six structures have burned. The fast-moving blaze erupted Monday on the Kenai Peninsula, roughly 100 miles...
Ground Gained Large Wildfire in Northern California
Jun 15 2015 // Firefighters made progress late Sunday in battling a lightning-sparked Northern California wildfire that has been burning in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest for five days, officials said. Light winds helped firefighters...
