Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Nevada Quake Lab Has New $4M Research Project
Apr 25 2013 // The University of Nevada’s world-renowned earthquake laboratory has launched a nearly $4 million research project aimed at making nonstructural parts of buildings more earthquake proof. Engineers at the...
Wildfires Prompt Colorado Insurance Changes
Apr 24 2013 // Colorado lawmakers are close to agreement on a slate of insurance changes inspired by homeowners’ complaints after last year’s wildfires. The state Senate gave final approval this week to a bill aimed at making...
Swiss Re in Co-op Agreement with GEM Foundation for Latin America Quake Risk
Apr 24 2013 // The Swiss Re Foundation and the GEM Foundation announced a “three-year collaborative project to create the first-ever comprehensive picture of seismic risk in Latin America to incorporate social and economic...
Terrorism Risk, Flood Insurance and Green Building Hot Topics for Risk Managers: RIMS
Apr 23 2013 // Renewal of the Terrorism and Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was a much talked about topic at the annual Risk and Insurance Management Society conference on Tuesday, a four-day conference in Los Angeles, Calif., that includes...
Floridians Encouraged to Buy Flood Insurance Before Hurricane Season Gets Underway
Apr 23 2013 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is encouraging Floridians to make preparations now for the upcoming 2013 hurricane season by purchasing flood insurance. Flood insurance is administered through the National...
Earthquake Swarm Keeps Central Oklahoma All Shook Up
Apr 23 2013 // More annoying than threatening, tiny tremors are shaking portions of central Oklahoma with increasing frequency – rattling homes, knocking things over and interrupting sleep. “I feel them every time,”...
Willis Report Warns of Growing Risks from Natural Catastrophe Exposures
Apr 23 2013 // “The growing threat of natural catastrophes is raising serious challenges for corporate risk managers and the insurance industry,” according to the second issue of Resilience magazine, the risk management...
AIR Worldwide Announces New Real-Time Climate Risk Analytics Service
Apr 23 2013 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) has announced the availability of “Real-Time Climate Risk Analytics,” which it described as a “new service for corporations and emergency management agencies...
RIMS in Southern California Touts Risks
Apr 22 2013 // Risk managers will play a greater role in strategic planning in the near future, according to a report issued on Monday. That was among the plethora of risk related information delivered at the annual Risk and Insurance...
Earthquake Kills 207 People Injures 11,500 in China’s Sichuan Province
Apr 22 2013 // China’s worst earthquake in three years on Saturday killed at least 207 people and injured 11,500, 960 of them seriously, according to the latest figures available from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs. The...
Florida Hurricane Cat Fund Reform in Jeopardy
Apr 19 2013 // Plans to reform Florida’s state-backed reinsurance facility with proponents scaling back their proposals. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has been the subject of legislative reform efforts for several years as...
Missouri Senate Backs $15M of Aid After Joplin Tornado
Apr 18 2013 // Missouri senators have backed a plan that could provide $15 million to Joplin to rebuild street curbs and gutters damaged as a result of a deadly 2011 tornado. The legislation given initial approval would create a disaster...
Digital Signs to Warn Minn. Drivers About Tornadoes
Apr 18 2013 // Digital billboards in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties will be a new way to warn motorists about tornado warnings. The billboard warnings are a joint venture of the counties, billboard owners ClearChannel Outdoor, and the...
Mississippi’s Tornado-Damaged Businesses Getting Back to Business
Apr 18 2013 // In keeping with the traditional Mississippi never-say-die attitude, many Hattiesburg area business owners affected by the Feb. 10 tornado are getting back on their feet — and back in business. Employees at...
Aon Benfield ILS Report Notes Cat Bond Investor Returns Double
Apr 18 2013 // Aon Benfield Securities Insurance-Linked Securities First Quarter Update 2013 has concluded that “for the annual period ending March 31, investment returns for the Aon Benfield All Bond index had reached 12.69...
Boston Marathon Bomb Victims May Turn to BAA Insurance, Central Fund for Compensation
Apr 17 2013 // Victims of the Boston Marathon bombings will eventually win some kind of compensation, but it is far too early to know how much money there will be, whether private donors or insurers will provide most of it, and how long...
Series of Earthquakes Shakes Central Oklahoma
Apr 17 2013 // The U.S. Geological Survey says several earthquakes have shaken central Oklahoma. USGS geophysicist Jana Pursley says the temblors began about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday and all were centered northeast of Oklahoma City. She says...
Insurance for Sporting Events Could Be Affected by Marathon Bombings: RMS Expert
Apr 17 2013 // Insurance markets for sporting events and terrorism coverage could be affected by the Boston Marathon bombings, according to a risk expert offering one of the first estimates of the impact of the terrorist attack. Dr....
Powerful M7.8 Earthquake Strikes Iran-Pakistan Border: AIR Analysis
Apr 17 2013 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has issued a report on the powerful M7.8 earthquake, which struck a sparsely populated area of southeastern Iran about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the country’s border with...
CCRIF in Pact with Jamaica Government for $100,000 Sandy Disaster Relief
Apr 16 2013 // On Friday April 12, 2013 the Government of Jamaica and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), formalizing a donation of $100,000 made by CCRIF to the...
