Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tropical Storm Patty in Bahamas Is Hurricane Season’s 16th Named Storm
Oct 12 2012 // Late on Thursday, October 11, the sixteenth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season was declared – Tropical Storm Patty. As of Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the center of Patty was...
Florida Hurricane Fund in Better Shape But Could Still Be Short on Cash
Oct 11 2012 // Florida’s state-run reinsurance facility still faces a potential $1.5 billion gap to fulfill its maximum mandatory obligation, although it appears poised to be in better financial condition for the 2013 hurricane...
Utah Lawmaker Mulls Climate Concerns in Wildfire Bill
Oct 9 2012 // At the request of a youth group, a Republican Utah lawmaker plans to address concerns about climate change in a bill dealing with wildfires. State Rep. Kraig Powell of Heber City has requested the drafting of legislation...
Best Affirms Sirius International Group’s Ratings; Outlook Stable
Oct 8 2012 // A.M. Best Europe – Rating Services Limited has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a” of Sweden’s Sirius International...
Cooper Gay Launches Terrorism & Political Risk Crisis Management Service
Oct 8 2012 // London-based Cooper Gay & Co. announced that the independent insurance and reinsurance intermediary is “offering a free crisis management and business continuity consultation to its Terrorism & Political...
Study: Homeowners Insurance Claims Cost Rising Rapidly
Oct 8 2012 // The cost of homeowners insurance claims has been rising rapidly because of the combined effects of rising claim severity and increases in claim frequency, according to an insurance industry report. A new Insurance Research...
Homeowners Claim Costs On the Rise
Oct 8 2012 // The cost of homeowners insurance claims has been rising rapidly because of the combined effects of rising claim severity and increases in claim frequency, according to an insurance industry report. A new Insurance Research...
Homeowners Insurance Claims Cost Rising Rapidly: Study
Oct 8 2012 // The cost of homeowners insurance claims has been rising rapidly because of the combined effects of rising claim severity and increases in claim frequency, according to an insurance industry report. A new Insurance Research...
Studies: More Than 2 M California Homes Exposed To Wildfires; Hundreds of Thousands in West at ‘Very High Risk’
Oct 8 2012 // More than 2 million homes in California face “extreme wildfire hazards,” over 400,000 of which are in Los Angeles County, according to a study from an insurance industry group. A separate study shows at least...
Rating Hurricane Risk in Florida: How Using Geocoding Can Lead to More Accurate Pricing
Oct 8 2012 // Small companies often believe that they do not have enough homeowners data to build custom rating territories based on different perils, and therefore simply adopt the territories of a competitor. But because catastrophe...
Homeowners Insurance Claims Cost Rising Rapidly: Study
Oct 8 2012 // The cost of homeowners insurance claims has been rising rapidly because of the combined effects of rising claim severity and increases in claim frequency, according to an insurance industry report. An Insurance Research...
Report Points to Insurance Industry’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
Oct 8 2012 // A report out late last month urges the insurance industry to act to protect itself and the community against the increasing frequency of extreme weather due to climate change. In short, the report, its authors and those...
Reinsurers, Capital Markets: Competitors or Complements?
Oct 8 2012 // Investments from the capital markets in various forms now provide around 14 percent of the total capital dedicated to providing reinsurance – approximately $35 billion [$17 billion in cat bonds] out of $250 billion. The...
Katrina Victims Take on Hurricane Tour Operators
Oct 5 2012 // Some New Orleans residents and city officials are pushing back against tour operators who bus out-of-towners into the city’s Lower 9th Ward, where Hurricane Katrina unleashed a wall of water that pushed homes off...
11 Homes Destroyed in NW Minnesota Wildfire
Oct 5 2012 // State officials now say 11 homes and 24 other structures were destroyed by the wildfire that threatened the northwestern Minnesota city town of Karlstad. Jean Goad, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center,...
Aon Benfield’s Monthly Cat Recap Focuses on $7.5 Billion Asian Flood Losses
Oct 5 2012 // Asian flood losses during the third quarter of 2012 aggregated more than $7.5 billion in economic losses, of which China was the worst hit by two separate flood events that affected several provinces. “The most...
P/C Insurers’ Profits Jump in First Half as Catastrophe Losses Drop
Oct 4 2012 // U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income after taxes jumped to $16.4 billion in first-half 2012 from $4.8 billion in first-half 2011, with insurers’ overall profitability as measured by their annualized rate...
Karen Clark & Co. Introduces RiskInsight® Platform for Cat Risk Management
Oct 2 2012 // Boston-based Karen Clark & Company (KCC), independent experts in catastrophe risk, catastrophe models and catastrophe risk management, announced the release of the RiskInsight® open, global platform for catastrophe...
Feds Grant Hawaii $1.3M for Tsunami Sirens
Oct 2 2012 // The U.S. Commerce Department says it will grant Hawaii $1.3 million to upgrade its disaster preparedness system and build new tsunami warning sirens. U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said in a Friday statement that...
Typhoon Jelawat Hits Okinawa; Moves on Tokyo: AIR Analysis
Oct 1 2012 // Typhoon Jelawat remains a powerful storm, even if its wind speed has decreased from around from 155 mph, 250km/h, it passed over Okinawa on Saturday with wind speeds over 90 mph, 144 km/h, causing extensive damage, and...
