Latest Catastrophe Headlines

All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Latest Colorado Hail Storm May Impact Insurance Industry Nationally

Oct 20 2014 // Colorado’s insurance industry is weighing its options after the latest hailstorm hit densely populated South Metro Denver — unusual for the Rockies in late September. What Coloradans might likely see down the...

Bermuda Recovering from Hurricane Gonzalo Property Damage, Power Outages

Oct 19 2014 // Hurricane Gonzalo scored a direct hit on Bermuda Friday night into Saturday morning, pummeling the tiny island chain with rain and howling winds that downed trees and knocked out power but spared it catastrophic damage or...

Mandates, Subsidies and Political Semantics

Oct 17 2014 // When the U.S. Supreme Court decided the fate of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in 2012, the nation was gripped by an intimate and personal political drama worthy of Broadway or, at least, General...

Tropical Storm Ana Forecast to Impact Hawaii This Weekend

Oct 17 2014 // A Central Pacific Hurricane Center advisory shows Tropical Storm Ana is located 315 miles south-southwest of Hilo, Hawaii, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. While Ana is gradually strengthening, and may achieve...

Hurricane Gonzalo Threatens Bermuda With Flooding, Storm Surge

Oct 17 2014 // Gonzalo, classified as a major hurricane and bearing down on Bermuda with tree-snapping winds, is forecast to bring flooding and a life-threatening storm surge as it’s projected to be the worst storm to hit the...

California Has Another Great ShakeOut

Oct 16 2014 // At 10:16 a.m. on Thursday employees at Golden Bear Insurance Co. were all under their desks practicing good risk management. Oct. 16 marked another Great ShakeOut event in California. According to California Insurance...

Hurricane Gonzalo Bears Down on Bermuda

Oct 16 2014 // The last major hurricane to strike land anywhere in the Atlantic basin was Sandy in 2012. That may change tomorrow as Hurricane Gonzalo bears down on Bermuda. Gonzalo again became a Category 4 storm today, the first since...

RMIIA: Colorado Hailstorm Caused $213M in Insured Losses

Oct 15 2014 // Insurers say a hailstorm last month carried a hefty price tag. Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association spokeswoman Carole Walker said Monday the Sept. 29 storm pounded thousands of vehicles and roofs, causing an...

Severe Storm Claims 2 Lives, Knocks Out Power in South

Oct 15 2014 // A severe storm system rolled across the South for a second day Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands as it made a mess of the morning commute in Atlanta and other Southern cities. The storm, which claimed two lives a...

Tropical Storm Ana Eyes Hawaii; Hurricane Gonzalo Threatens Bermuda

Oct 15 2014 // Hurricane Gonzalo grew into a major storm that threatens Bermuda later this week, while half a world away Tropical Storm Ana may become the second system this year to sweep Hawaii’s Big Island. Gonzalo, with top...

Dearth of Insurance Coverage Complicates San Francisco Quake Risk

Oct 14 2014 // The San Francisco region will probably be struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.7 in coming decades, and most of the billions of dollars of damages wouldn’t be covered by insurance. A worst-case,...

Tornado Warning in Washington County Now Expired

Oct 13 2014 // The National Weather Service issued an emergency tornado warning for Pierce County, Wash. over the weekend though a tornado did not develop. The News Tribune reported the warning was issued shortly after noon on Saturday...

Scientists in New Mexico Predict Post-Wildfire Erosion Risks

Oct 13 2014 // It’s nearly impossible to predict when and where the next major wildfire will be and whether an ill-timed thunderstorm could result in tons of ash and charred debris being washed down the bare mountainsides once the...

RMS: ‘Big One’ in Northern California Could Cause $200B in Losses

Oct 13 2014 // Earthquake risk in the San Francisco Bay Area is on the rise while earthquake insurance penetration statewide has dropped significantly since the Loma Prieta earthquake that rocked the Bay Area 25 years ago, causing nearly...

4.3 Magnitude Earthquake Recorded in Oklahoma

Oct 13 2014 // The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded a 4.3 magnitude earthquake near Cushing in north-central Oklahoma. Cushing Emergency Management Director Bob Noltensmeyer says there are no injuries or major damage as a result of...

Atlantic Hurricane Season Could Still Surprise

Oct 12 2014 // The Atlantic hurricane season isn’t dead yet. As weather-watchers focus on Typhoon Vongfong in the Pacific and Cyclone Hudhud in the Bay of Bengal, a subtropical depression has formed south of Bermuda late last week,...

Atlantic Hurricanes Still Threaten to Brew

Oct 10 2014 // As weather-watchers focus on Typhoon Vongfong in the Pacific and Cyclone Hudhud in the Bay of Bengal, there are signs that the Atlantic may have a storm of its own, or more, in the next few weeks. A patch of showers and...

Abacus Brokers, Golden Bear Launch Online Earthquake Program

Oct 9 2014 // Abacus Insurance Brokers Inc., a Los Angeles-based program manager that distributes specialty insurance products online, has partnered with Golden Bear Insurance Co. for its new online residential earthquake program. The...

Tornado Touched Down Near New Mexico City: Weather Service

Oct 6 2014 // The National Weather Service says a tornado briefly touched down and caused some damage near Chama, in a sparsely populated mountainous area of northern New Mexico earlier this week. According to the weather...

P/C Insurers’ Net Income Rose, Operating Income Fell in First Half

Oct 6 2014 // U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income rose $1.6 billion to $26.0 billion in first-half of 2014 while pretax operating income fell $1.9 billion to $23.9 billion in first-half 2014, a decrease driven by lower...