Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
A Forecast-Busting Atlantic Hurricane Season
Sep 23 2013 // The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, which forecasters had predicted would be more active than normal, has turned out to be something of a dud so far as an unusual calm has been hanging over the tropics. As the season...
Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake Hits Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture-Kyodo
Sep 20 2013 // An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 struck Fukushima Prefecture in Japan early Friday morning, Kyodo reported, quoting the Japan Meteorological Agency. No tsunami warning has been issued, the news agency...
Typhoon Usagi Heads Toward Taiwan and China: AIR Worldwide
Sep 20 2013 // AIR Worldwide’s latest report on Typhoon Usagi describes a “Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 204 km/h [127.5 mph].” It is “expected to strengthen over the coming days and could...
Brokers Urge Renewal of ‘Essential’ Federal Terrorism Insurance
Sep 19 2013 // The federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) is a “model” for public-private cooperation and should be renewed, insurance broker Marsh told lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Peter J. Beshar, executive vice...
Mexico Storms Leave 80 Dead as New Hurricane Heads for Coast
Sep 19 2013 // Hurricane Manuel formed off of Mexico’s Pacific coast, promising to bring new flooding as the nation struggles to clean up after two storms that killed at least 80 people and trapped thousands of tourists in the...
Private Market Will Dry Up If Federal Terrorism Insurance Not Renewed: Aon
Sep 18 2013 // Research by Aon shows that more than 85 percent of insurers will no longer insure terror risk if the federal backstop goes away. The brokerage firm revealed the conclusion based on its “market intelligence” in...
River Floods, Earthquakes are Highest Risk to Urban Areas: Swiss Re Report
Sep 18 2013 // River floods top the list of risks posing dangers to more people than any other natural catastrophe, according to a new Swiss Re report, which “benchmarks” the natural catastrophe risks faced by 1.7 billion...
Powerful Typhoon Man-yi Downgraded after Lashing Japan
Sep 18 2013 // Crews were cleaning up wrecked houses and assessing damage Tuesday in the wake of a powerful typhoon that lashed Japan with torrential rains, leaving at least two people dead. Typhoon Man-yi weakened into a tropical storm...
Texas A&M: Lessons We Learned From Hurricane Ike
Sep 17 2013 // Sept. 13 marked the fifth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Ike on the Texas coast. Despite its Category 2 ranking when it hit, Ike caused more than $30 billion in damage and the lessons learned from it could be...
Karen Clark & Co. Report Looks Back at New England Hurricane of 1938
Sep 16 2013 // Karen Clark & Company, independent experts in catastrophe risk, catastrophe models and catastrophe risk management, issued a report, in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the Great New England Hurricane,...
Video Interviews – Coming to Your Screen – a Sneak Preview
Sep 16 2013 // Over the next several weeks we will be releasing a series of video interviews, recorded at the Reinsurance Rendez-vous in Monte Carlo. They are wide ranging, covering a number of topics. They will air the views from some...
Thousands Evacuated in Japan as Typhoon Man-Yi Brings Floods
Sep 16 2013 // Hundreds of thousands of people were advised or ordered to evacuate in Japan as Typhoon Man-Yi brought flooding, power blackouts and flight cancellations to the western and central parts of the country. At least one person...
Hurricane Ingrid Nears Mexico as Manuel Dissipates Over Land
Sep 16 2013 // Hurricane Ingrid, bearing down on eastern Mexico as Tropical Depression Manuel dissipated over west-central areas, will probably make landfall today, with both systems forecast to bring life-threatening floods. The second...
September Tornado Spotted In Far Northern Minnesota
Sep 13 2013 // A September tornado has been spotted in far northern Minnesota. The National Weather Service says a trained spotter reported the tornado two miles northwest of Williams in Lake of the Woods County before 3:30 p.m....
Damage From Large Wisconsin Wildfire Estimated At $1M
Sep 13 2013 // A fire that damaged a 10-mile swath of forest land in northwestern Wisconsin this spring caused at least $1 million in damage, according to the timber company that owns most of the affected land. The massive blaze in...
California Wildfire More Destructive Than Thought
Sep 13 2013 // Fire officials say crews assessing the damage from a Northern California wildfire have determined 68 homes were destroyed. That’s up from the earlier tally of 37. State fire information officer Roy Del Carlo said...
Tropical Depression in Gulf of Mexico Strengthens, Closes Ports
Sep 13 2013 // A tropical depression in the southern Gulf of Mexico is strengthening, prompting the closure of two top oil export terminals, and could unleash life-threatening flooding, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on...
Texas Windstorm Insurance Rates to Rise Again in January
Sep 12 2013 // The board of Texas insurer of last resort for wind and hail along the Texas coast voted at its August meeting to raise premium rates beginning in January 2014. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association board of directors...
Mass. Diocese Agrees to $60M Settlement With Insurer Over 2011 Tornado Damages
Sep 12 2013 // The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has agreed to a $60 million settlement with its insurer for damage done to a parochial high school and other church property by a tornado two years ago. The resolution with insurer...
Insurance Pros in Politics: Cooley Masters Quake Insurance
Sep 11 2013 // When it comes to mixing insurance and politics, the two might as well be one in the same for California Assemblyman Ken Cooley. Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, started his career in the 1970s working on earthquake issues with a...
