Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
As Hurricane Season Opens, Florida’s Citizens Touts Depopulation Deals
Jun 4 2013 // Officials at Florida’s property insurer of last resort say that it is entering the 2013 hurricane season in improved financial condition thanks in part to various private insurer policy takeouts. Those takeouts have...
Coastal Homeowners Upset with Insurers, Regulators Over Surge in Insurance Costs
Jun 4 2013 // When Stan Virden moved into his 2,400-square-foot house overlooking a rock-lined canal in 1996, he paid less than $1,000 a year for homeowners insurance. Now, as he seeks to move to Atlanta to be near family, Virden says...
22K Insurance Claims Filed After May 19, 20 Oklahoma Tornadoes
Jun 3 2013 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department says more than 22,000 claims have been filed for property and vehicles damaged by tornadoes that struck the state on May 19 and 20. The agency says claims filed so far represent insured...
Amarillo Hailstorm Damage Estimated at $400M
Jun 3 2013 // A massive hailstorm that blanketed the Texas panhandle city of Amarillo on May 28 is proving costly. An estimated 35,000 vehicles and thousands of homes were damaged in the May 28 storm. Insured losses are expected to...
Weather Service Confirms St. Louis-Area Tornadoes
Jun 3 2013 // Portions of suburban St. Louis waged a soggy cleanup effort on June 1 after severe storms unleashed an outbreak of tornadoes across the region, damaging hundreds of homes and leaving tens of thousands without power. No...
Southern California Wildfire Containment Doubles Overnight
Jun 3 2013 // Firefighters working in darkness doubled containment of a massive wildfire north of Los Angeles to 40 percent overnight, as cool, moist air moved in Monday. The fire, which has fed on old brush that hasn’t burned in...
Oklahoma Tornadoes Take 13 Lives Including 3 Storm Chasers
Jun 3 2013 // Three storm chasers were among 13 people killed by tornadoes that rampaged through central Oklahoma on Friday, underscoring the high risk of tracking tornadoes and forcing the media to rethink how they cover deadly...
Hurricane Season and Florida’s Insurance System: Living on Borrowed Time?
Jun 3 2013 // Mother Nature has been kind to Florida’s coastline lately with a record run of seven years without a hurricane making landfall, allowing property insurers time to re-stock their depleted coffers. As a result, before...
Best Affirms Mitsui Sumitomo Ratings; Upgrades Aioi Nissay Dowa
Jun 3 2013 // A.M. Best Asia-Pacific Limited has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A+’ (Superior) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “aa” of Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company...
Top 10 U.S. Insurers in Tornado-Stricken States: SNL Financial
Jun 3 2013 // The Moore, Oklahoma tornado, which killed 24 people, was the deadliest tornado to touch down during a nearly weeklong outbreak across the U.S. Midwest and South Central regions. The states hardest hit have been Kansas,...
76 Tornadoes in May Caused $2B-$5B in Insured Losses: Eqecat
Jun 3 2013 // Tornadoes that struck the United States from May 18 to May 20 caused anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion in insured losses, disaster modeling company Eqecat said. The firm said most of the losses were attributed to the...
NOAA Predicts Active Atlantic Hurricane Season
Jun 3 2013 // The government’s weather center is forecasting that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1 will be an active one, perhaps even extremely active, during its six months. Experts at the National...
Atlantic Coast Told to Expect Major Hurricanes This Season
Jun 3 2013 // The government’s weather center has forecast that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1 will be an active one, perhaps even extremely active, during its six months. Experts at the National...
Agents Helping Agents in Recovery from Oklahoma Tornadoes
Jun 3 2013 // Twelve hundred homes damaged or destroyed, 33,000 people impacted and $2 billion in property losses. Those are damage estimates from the deadly F5 tornado that hit the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on May 20, just one day...
More Severe Weather and Tornadoes Forecast For Oklahoma, Ozarks
May 31 2013 // More dangerous weather, spawning baseball-sized hail and tornadoes, was predicted for Oklahoma and parts of the Ozarks on Friday after more than a dozen reported twisters in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday, U.S....
Is European Hurricane Model Better Than U.S. Model?
May 31 2013 // When forecasters from the National Weather Service track a hurricane, they use models from several different supercomputers located around the world to create their predictions. Some of those models are more accurate than...
Central U.S. Warned of Severe Storms With Tornadoes, Floods Today
May 31 2013 // Severe thunderstorms, baseball-sized hail, flooding and possibly tornadoes may sweep across parts of Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas today, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center. There’s a 45 percent chance...
Hurricane Barbara Wind, Rain, Flood Damages in Mexico: AIR Analysis
May 31 2013 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has released a preliminary analysis of the damages caused by Hurricane Barbara, when it came ashore in the state of Chiapas on Mexico’s Pacific coast on Wednesday, May 29, at...
Tornadoes Rip Through Oklahoma, Arkansas
May 30 2013 // Severe storms spawned a dozen reported tornadoes in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday, injuring at least five people and sending residents scrambling for cover 10 days after a powerful twister killed 24 people in...
Hurricane Experience Aids Fast-Food Chain In Oklahoma
May 30 2013 // The founder and CEO of a Baton Rouge-based fast-food chain says experience with disasters served the company well after a tornado ravaged Moore, Okla. Todd Graves, of Raising Cane’s, said the chain has about 50...
