Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Forrest Service Maps Shows Expansion of WUI in West as Wildfires Burn
Sep 16 2015 // A new U.S. Forest Service report shows the continued expansion of housing development near forests, an area referred to as the wildland-urban interface, with direct implications for the cost of wildfire...
Midyear Renewals Show Early Signs of Price Stabilization: JLT Re Report
Sep 16 2015 // Downward pricing pressures eased during the June 1 and July 1 renewals – the first time since January 2013 – which suggests that a reinsurance pricing floor is not far away, according to a report published by JLT...
Wildfire in California Damages Five Big Power Plants
Sep 15 2015 // A California wildfire damaged five power plants at Calpine Corp.’s Geysers geothermal complex in Lake and Sonoma Counties. The so-called Valley Fire burned local power distribution lines, cooling towers and...
FEMA Provides Federal Funds to Help Fight Oregon Wildfire
Sep 15 2015 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for the Dry Gulch Fire in Baker County, Ore. FEMA Regional Administrator Kenneth D. Murphy determined that the...
Underinsurance of Property Is Growing Global Challenge: Swiss Re Report
Sep 15 2015 // The underinsurance of property risk – particularly natural catastrophe risks – has risen steadily over the past 40 years, even though claims payments have increased significantly during that period, according to Swiss...
Aon Launches Cat Model for Marine & Energy Insurers
Sep 15 2015 // Aon Benfield announced it has invested in an innovative catastrophe model to help marine and energy insurers more accurately assess their cargo risks. While there are plenty of catastrophe models in the non-marine sector,...
Massive Northern California Wildfire Destroys 400 Homes and Businesses
Sep 14 2015 // Two fast-burning wildfires overtook several Northern California towns, killing at least one person and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses and sending thousands of residents fleeing highways lined with buildings,...
Reinsurers Seek New Markets, Underinsured Risks to Ease Price Pressures
Sep 14 2015 // Major reinsurers like Munich Re, Swiss Re, Hannover Re are looking to new markets and selling more cover to existing clients to ease price pressures after several years of falls, they said at their annual meeting in Monte...
Why Now Is Time to Privatize Flood Insurance: a Candid Conversation with Hiscox USA CEO Walter
Sep 14 2015 // The private insurance industry is ready and anxious to take on flood risk, and politicians should reform the federal program now to take advantage of this interest, according to the U.S. executive of a leading specialty...
New ILS Records Set During 12 Months Ended June 30: Aon Securities Report
Sep 11 2015 // Annual catastrophe bond issuance reached $7.0 billion – a decrease on the record-breaking prior year ($9.4 billion), yet still the third highest annual issuance in the sector’s history, according to Aon Securities,...
Hurricane Museum Seeks to Close $15M Funding Gap
Sep 11 2015 // Ten years after back-to-back storms Katrina and Rita galvanized plans for a Lake Charles, La., museum focused on hurricanes, supporters have secured about $42 million in pledges to build it. The Advocate reports supporters...
TDI Posts Summary of Bills Affecting Property/Casualty Insurers
Sep 9 2015 // The Texas Department of Insurance has produced a summary of various bills passed by the Texas Legislature this year that impact property/casualty insurance companies. Many but not all of the following were effective Sept....
California Struggles with Wildfires, Thunderstorms, Triple-Digit Heat
Sep 9 2015 // Wildfires burned amid a week of triple-digit temperatures across California, while some sections of the state saw sudden thunderstorms and flash floods. High temperatures were expected from Sacramento to San Bernardino,...
Hurricane Season’s Peak: Gone with the Wind Shear
Sep 9 2015 // The day during the Atlantic hurricane season when a tropical storm or worse is most likely to be swirling around the basin may come and go with a whimper. The best the Atlantic probably will come up with by Thursday, the...
Litigation Relief Needed for TWIA Depop Program to Work, Lawmakers Say
Sep 7 2015 // A new law that became effective Sept. 1 in Texas will give the state’s property insurer of last resort for wind and hail along the coast more leeway in its plan to reduce overall exposure by incenting private...
Hurricane Katrina: Every Number Tells a Story
Sep 7 2015 // In a 25-year span leading up to 2005, homeowners insurers in Louisiana wrote a total of $13 billion in homeowners insurance premium, from which they earned $1 billion in profit, according to the chief actuary at the state...
Study: Ventura, Oxnard in California Could Be at Greater Tsunami Risk
Sep 7 2015 // A study says two California coastal cities are at greater risk from tsunamis than previously thought. The study released in August by the American Geophysical Union examined the flooding risk if earthquake faults in the...
Kansas Earthquakes Linked to Injection Wells, Geologist Says
Sep 7 2015 // The Kansas Geological Survey believes an increase in earthquakes in two southern Kansas counties is linked to saltwater injection after oil and natural gas drilling, according to an agency scientist. The agency had said in...
Earthquake Coverage Increasingly Expensive, Hard to Find in Missouri
Sep 7 2015 // Missouri is the third largest market for earthquake insurance in the U.S., after California and Washington, but the coverage is getting more expensive and scarcer in high-risk areas, state insurance officials say. On...
Aon Benfield August Cat Report Highlights Global Droughts, El Niño, Typhoons
Sep 4 2015 // The monthly report for August from Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting catastrophe model development team cites the “severe drought conditions” in the western U.S. as resulting in “economic losses...
