Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oklahoma Commissioner Warns Insurers on Denial of Earthquake Claims
Mar 4 2015 // With the dramatic increase in the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma — which some say are at least partly attributed to waste water injection wells related to the practice of hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas drilling...
Hurricane Sandy Victims Reach First Set of FEMA Insurance Settlements
Mar 3 2015 // Federal disaster assistance officials have begun reaching settlements with more than 1,000 Hurricane Sandy victims who allege they were unfairly denied flood insurance claims or paid too little for them. Lawyers for...
Canadian Pacific Railway’s CEO Says Biggest Crude-by-Rail Fear Is Terrorism
Mar 3 2015 // Hunter Harrison, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s chief executive officer, said his greatest fear in moving crude by rail is the prospect of a terrorist attack on the company’s trains. “That’s what...
Oklahoma, U.S. Differ in Earthquake Calculations
Mar 2 2015 // The Oklahoma Geological Survey reported fewer than half the number of 4.0 magnitude and higher earthquakes in Oklahoma last year as the U.S. Geological Survey, according to agency records. While OGS reported six...
Terrorists Have Shifted from Attacking Airlines to Mass Transit: Study
Mar 2 2015 // Successful terrorists have shifted their focus in recent years away from attacking airlines to attacking subway and rail systems, according to an analysis of terrorist attacks over a 30-year period from 1982 to 2011 by a...
China’s Draft Counter-Terrorism Law Alarms Foreign Technology Firms
Feb 27 2015 // China is weighing a far-reaching counter-terrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys and install security “backdoors,” a potential escalation of what some firms view as the...
Climate Change Modeling on Cusp of Paradigm Shift
Feb 26 2015 // In the face of growing interest in climate change impacts, several big catastrophe modelers said they’ve heard from more clients interested in receiving climate-related data and they believe the field is on the cusp...
Report: Wildfire Risk to Homes in West Tops $237B
Feb 26 2015 // In the Western U.S. there are nearly 900,000 homes representing an estimated reconstruction cost of more than $237 billion considered at “very high” or “high” risk from wildfires, a report issued...
2014 Insured Losses Hit Lowest Level in Five Years: Guy Carpenter
Feb 26 2015 // Insured losses in 2014 were at the lowest level seen since 2009, according to Guy Carpenter’s annual Global Catastrophe Review. The report says that significant insured losses in 2014 totaled approximately USD33...
Kansas Earthquakes Further Damaging Century-Old Courthouse
Feb 25 2015 // Harper County officials are grappling with how to fix a century-old courthouse that was already deteriorating before a sharp increase in earthquakes began rattling south-central Kansas. The bill just to repair the...
Earthquake Authority to Study Quake’s Impact on Napa Homes
Feb 24 2015 // The California Earthquake Authority has begun surveying Napa residents to find out how well their homes withstood the magnitude 6.0 earthquake centered in the South Napa area on Aug. 24, 2014. Under an initiative that CEA...
More than 2.5K Oklahoma Agents Take Earthquake Coverage Class
Feb 23 2015 // Oklahoma insurance agents are receiving training about earthquake insurance as a swarm of temblors continues to shake the state. More than 2,500 Oklahoma insurance professionals have completed a one-hour continuing...
Earthquake Warning System in Obama Budget Pleases Lawmakers
Feb 23 2015 // President Barack Obama’s recommendation to spend $5 million next year on an early earthquake warning system for the West Coast represents a significant breakthrough, congressional supporters of the project...
Oklahoma Energy Companies Sued Over Earthquake Damage
Feb 23 2015 // An Oklahoma resident has sued two energy companies seeking class-action status for people in nine counties who were affected by recent earthquakes. Jennifer Lin Cooper of Prague filed the suit against Tulsa-based New...
Sophisticated Resilience Model in Development in Colorado – And It’ll be Free
Feb 20 2015 // Efforts are underway in Colorado to build a sophisticated computer model that will offer a look down to the minute details at just how communities may withstand – or crumble under – perils like earthquakes, hurricanes,...
Central Washington Jolted by M4.3 Earthquake
Feb 19 2015 // A magnitude-4.3 earthquake rumbled under Washington state’s Cascade Range, but no damage has been reported. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network says the quake struck at 1:04 a.m. Wednesday and was centered about 20...
PERILS Puts Initial Loss Estimate for Windstorm Elon-Felix at $374 Million
Feb 19 2015 // PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, announced that its initial loss estimate of the insured property market loss for windstorm Elon-Felix, which...
Energy Companies Sued in Oklahoma over Earthquake Damage
Feb 12 2015 // A Prague, Okla., resident has filed a lawsuit against two energy companies seeking class-action status for people in nine counties who were affected by recent earthquakes. Jennifer Lin Cooper filed the suit against...
Earthquake Warning System in Obama Budget Pleases Lawmakers
Feb 12 2015 // President Barack Obama’s recommendation to spend $5 million next year on an early earthquake warning system for the West Coast represents a significant breakthrough, congressional supporters of the project...
$324 Million: PERILS’ Final Loss Estimate for Windstorm Tini
Feb 12 2015 // PERILS AG announced that its final property insurance market loss estimate for windstorm Tini, also known as Darwin, which affected Ireland and the United Kingdom on 12 and 13 February 2014, is €286 million [$324...
