Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Windstorm Insurer Names New Controller and VP of Claims
Jan 18 2012 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) recently named Pete Gise as controller and David Williams as vice president of claims. As controller, Gise manages financial reporting, accounts receivable processing and...
Swiss Re Report Examines Insurance Role in Earthquake Disasters
Jan 17 2012 // Swiss Re’s new report – “Lessons from recent major earthquakes,” focuses on the most recent series of devastating quakes, which have caused extensive loss of life and injuries, along with widespread...
Report Suggests Arizona Wildfire Was Accident
Jan 17 2012 // A government report suggests that someone working for a proposed silver mine accidentally started a wildfire last year in the Patagonia Mountains. The Arizona Daily Star reports that the report by the U.S. Forest Service...
National Hurricane Center Chief Reed to Retire
Jan 17 2012 // National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read, who took over the forecasting agency during a time of turmoil and leaves it much calmer, announced Saturday he will retire effective June 1. Read, 62, said he never intended to...
Report: Louisiana Homeowners Insurance Rates Rising More Slowly
Jan 16 2012 // Homeowners insurance premiums in Louisiana remain among the nation’s highest, but are rising much more slowly than they did in the first two years after Hurricane Katrina, new data from by the National Association of...
Alabama Man Tracks Earthquakes from Basement
Jan 16 2012 // Down in the basement of Steve Jones’ southeast Huntsville home, just past the electrical workshop, is a door into an unfinished sub-basement. Here, on a concrete base on a rock outcropping, sits Jones’ latest...
North Carolina Farmers Hurt by Hurricane Irene Eligible for Federal Help
Jan 13 2012 // North Carolina farmers hurt by Hurricane Irene last August and by tornadoes in April can now get more help from the federal government with more loan options and payments to recover from crop losses. State officials...
2012 Off to Bad Weather Start for P/C Insurers
Jan 13 2012 // A tree lays in a yard after a possible tornado roared through Icard, N.C,. on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012.Damaging hailstorms in Australia. Unprecedented tornadoes in the southeastern United States. Constant windstorms in...
2 Tornados Confirmed in Houston Area From Storms
Jan 12 2012 // Forecasters say two tornados hit the Houston area during recent thunderstorms that flooded roads and knocked out power. The National Weather Service said a tornado with 95 mph winds touched down on Jan. 9 in Mission Bend,...
Australia’s QBE Slashes 2011 Forecast; Shares Dive
Jan 12 2012 // Australia’s QBE Insurance Group said on Thursday its 2011 net profit would fall by as much as 50 percent after record catastrophe claims and it would cut its final dividend, sending its shares down as much as a...
Property Damage Prompts Search for Signs of Houston-Area Tornadoes
Jan 11 2012 // National Weather Service teams are surveying parts of the Houston area to determine if tornadoes are responsible for damage to homes and a suburban shopping mall. Some roads flooded and nearly 20,000 Houston-area residents...
RiskMeter.com Adds Texas Wildfire Report to Service
Jan 11 2012 // RiskMeter.com, a provider of real-time natural hazard risk reports, has added a Texas wildfire report to its service. This report will return a property’s proximity to wildfire risk by simply entering an address or...
Aon Benfield 2011 Catastrophe Study: $107 Bn Insured Losses; $435 Bn Economic
Jan 10 2012 // Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon Corp, has issued its “Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report,” which aggregates and analyses the natural disaster perils that...
2012 Brings Operational Changes for Texas Windstorm Insurer
Jan 10 2012 // The New Year ushered in changes to the operation of Texas’s insurance company of last resort for wind and hail along the Texas coast. Many of the operational changes will affect insurance agents who handle Texas...
Earthquake Rumbles North Of Anchorage
Jan 9 2012 // A small earthquake rumbled in Alaska that was felt in several small communities north of Anchorage. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 4.0 temblor struck shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday and was centered about...
Windstorm Andrea, First of 2012, Causes Damage in Europe: AIR Report
Jan 9 2012 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Windstorm Andrea passed through the U.K. earlier this week, fast on the heels of Windstorm Ulli, which brought widespread travel and power disruptions to Scotland. The...
Oklahoma’s Commissioner Doak Had a Full Plate in 2011
Jan 9 2012 // In his first year as insurance commissioner of Oklahoma, John Doak was a busy man. Doak and the agency he leads had their hands full implementing reforms in the workers’ compensation system, dealing with a host of...
Despite Losses, Insurers Not Hiking Prices Broadly
Jan 9 2012 // Despite more than $100 billion in disaster losses around the world this year, insurers are not yet experiencing a broad and sustained increase in pricing power, defying predictions from a year ago that even half those...
Wishing You a Happy New Year
Jan 9 2012 // The year 2011 is now behind us — and what a year it was for the P/C insurance industry. There were many headlines. But it will be remembered mostly for record-high catastrophe losses. In May, we saw a tornado that ripped...
Conn. Updates Coastal Underwriting Guidelines
Jan 9 2012 // Connecticut insurance department amended its coastal underwriting guidelines last month to clarify when hurricane deductibles can be applied. Regulators have been working on making the changes in the wake of criticisms...
