Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Cat Fund Has $13 Billion As Hurricane Season Starts
May 16 2014 // Florida is heading into hurricane season with good news. The state-created fund that backs up private insurers in Florida appears to be in very good financial shape again this year. New projections show that the Florida...
Africa Launches First Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pool
May 16 2014 // In the 1980s images of skeletal Ethiopian babies and their parents, dying from hunger during a devastating famine, helped galvanize global humanitarian and financial aid to drought-ravaged African countries. Three decades...
House Republicans Offer Road Map for the Future of Terrorism Insurance
May 15 2014 // Having previously played (and arguably, lost) two prior rounds of legislative “chicken” with the insurance industry, congressional conservatives are making it known that, this time around, they’re quite...
Role Of Faith After Oklahoma Tornado Depicted in Film
May 15 2014 // The massive tornado that hit Moore nearly a year ago killed 24 people and affected the lives of virtually everyone in the Oklahoma City suburb, and a new film captures the role that faith played in the lives of some...
Tornado Confirmed in Ohio, Storm Damage Cleanup Begins
May 15 2014 // Crews at Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) Valley National Park in northeastern Ohio are cleaning up from a storm that washed out trails and damaged the tracks that carry the park’s scenic railroad. Storms on Monday...
No Hurricanes to Hit Southeast This Year, Say Coastal Carolina Forecasters
May 15 2014 // Scientists at Coastal Carolina University expect no hurricane to make landfall on the East Coast or in the Gulf of Mexico this year. The forecast Tuesday anticipates a “below to near normal” hurricane season in...
City Near San Diego on Evacuation Alert, Several Wildfires Ongoing
May 15 2014 // Several communities around San Marcos, Calif. were on evacuation alert Wednesday afternoon due to a massive wildfire burning, one of several fires now plaguing the area. An immediate evacuation for several neighborhoods...
California’s Next Mega Fire, This Could be The Year
May 13 2014 // When Thomas Jeffery visits states like California, he likes to take some time out to drive around and take a hard look at the conditions and the landscape. As a scientist, Jeffery feels this helps put first-person...
New Mexico Wildfire Spreading Uncontained
May 13 2014 // An uncontained wildfire in New Mexico is approaching 5,000 acres is threatening several structures, ranches and campgrounds, and has forced some evacuations, according to fire officials. The Signal Fire 10 miles north of...
75 Homes Destroyed in Texas Panhandle Wildfire
May 13 2014 // Emergency officials say about 75 homes are destroyed and hundreds of people have evacuated the area after a wildfire burned up to 2 square miles in the Texas Panhandle. The Texas Department of Public Safety said in an...
Wildfire Season Starts Early Amid Drought; Costs to Top $1 Billion
May 13 2014 // U.S. states plagued by historic drought are bracing for an early wildfire season with a cost that may rise as high as $1.8 billion, or almost $500,000 more than what’s available to control the blazes. Oklahomans...
EF2 Tornado Hammers Missouri Town, State of Emergency Declared
May 12 2014 // Residents in a small northwest Missouri town that took a direct hit from an EF2 tornado were busy on May 11 assessing damage and rescheduling events, like the coming high school graduation. The tornado Saturday evening in...
Insured Disaster Losses Higher in Oklahoma Than in Any Other State in 2013
May 12 2014 // May 20, 2014, marks the one-year anniversary of the deadly tornado outbreak in Moore, Oklahoma, which contributed to the state’s designation as the site of the costliest U.S. natural disasters in 2013, according to...
Mississippi Approves $17M for Tornado Recovery
May 12 2014 // The Mississippi Legislature met in a three-hour session Thursday approved $17 million to help pay for recovery from disasters, including tornadoes that recently pounded the state. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the...
There’s Devils in Big Data, but Help is Available from Inhance
May 12 2014 // Computer technology has revolutionized the collection and use of massive amounts of data, and yet, somewhat ironically, it’s frequently harder to find what one actually needs. Aphorisms abound – “big...
Swiss Re CFO Warns Cat Bond Yields May Attract Inexperienced Buyers
May 9 2014 // Swiss Re’s new Chief Financial Officer, David Cole, said high yields for insurance-linked securities [ILS], such as catastrophe bonds, may lure inexperienced buyers not prepared for the risks they carry. “The...
Investigators Say Controlled Burn not Cause of Oklahoma Wildfire
May 8 2014 // A stubborn wildfire that has killed one person and destroyed at least 10 homes continued to burn north of Oklahoma City on as investigators narrowed down the cause of the blaze. The wildfire in rural Logan County has...
Mississippi to Hold Special Session to Address Tornado Costs
May 8 2014 // Gov. Phil Bryant has called the Mississippi Legislature into special session starting Thursday to help pay state government’s share of recovery costs after the deadly April 28 tornadoes. The governor said Tuesday...
Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting Highlights U.S. Losses in April Cat Report
May 8 2014 // Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting’s latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, Highlights the “multi-day outbreak of severe weather and flash flooding in the U.S.”, which, the...
April’s Storms in U.S. Take Toll on Economy, Insurance
May 8 2014 // April’s outbreak of severe weather and flash flooding in the U.S. will likely be the first billion-dollar economic loss event of 2014 attributed to convective thunderstorms, according to a report by Aon...
