Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Asbestos: Japan Tsunami’s other Hidden Danger
Apr 28 2011 // Inside the chunks of slate and wallboard smashed and scattered by Japan’s tsunami hides a health risk that has been overshadowed by contamination from a leaking nuclear plant: the odorless and nearly invisible threat...
Marsh Agrees: Soft Pricing Persisted Despite Catastrophe Losses in Q1
Apr 27 2011 // Catastrophe losses approached record levels in the first quarter but despite this commercial property/casualty insurance rate increases were confined to loss-affected exposures. In regions and for classes of business not...
S&P: Japan’s Rating Outlook Now Negative on Quake Costs; Affirms Debt Ratings
Apr 27 2011 // Standard and Poor’s threatened to cut Japan’s sovereign credit rating again, warning the huge cost of last month’s devastating earthquake will hurt already weak public finances unless bickering...
Weather Forecasters Agree on Active 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season
Apr 27 2011 // Weather Service International [WSI] forecasters predicted an active 2011 Atlantic hurricane season Tuesday, with 15 named storms, eight of which are expected to become hurricanes. Of these, four are expected to develop...
Hail Storm Slams Abilene, Brings Some Relief to Wildfire Area
Apr 26 2011 // Baseball size hail hit Abilene, Texas, on April 24 causing property damage to vehicles, homes and businesses. Hail fell from a line of storms that passed over the southern half of the city and continued to move eastward...
Overcapacity in P/C Insurance Keeping Commercial Prices Down
Apr 26 2011 // Most commercial lines insurance prices continued their downward trend in the first quarter, as underwriters’ efforts to hold the line on premiums buckled under the pressure of a highly overcapitalized market. Three...
Global Reinsurers at ‘Critical’ Point, Says Best’s Report
Apr 26 2011 // A new special report, compiled by A.M. Best, concludes that the string of major catastrophes, a persistent soft market and the near exhaustion of excess reserves have placed global reinsurers at a “critical”...
Officials Say Oklahoma Tornado Causing Financial Woes
Apr 25 2011 // A tornado that destroyed 149 structures in Oklahoma’s Atoka County on April 14 is causing a major financial strain on residents and relief agencies, officials said. About 65 percent of the people who lost houses when...
St. Louis Cleaning Up After Tornado Hits Airport, Local Communities
Apr 25 2011 // Flights began departing the St. Louis, Mo., airport on April 24 for the first time since a tornado struck two days earlier. Departures began Sunday morning at Lambert Airport, even as cleanup continued. The C concourse...
Tornadoes Confirmed in Oklahoma, Arkansas
Apr 25 2011 // The National Weather Service has confirmed at least three tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma in the night on April 22 as a line of fierce storms passed through the state, and although power was knocked out to about 1,700...
Insurers Receive Hundreds of Tornado Claims in Virginia
Apr 25 2011 // Property owners in Virginia have submitted hundreds of claims to insurers for damage caused by recent tornadoes. The Virginian-Pilot reports that State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. received about 400 claims by...
Japan to Launch Massive Search for Quake Victims Bodies
Apr 25 2011 // Japan will send nearly 25,000 soldiers backed by boats and aircraft into its disaster zone Monday on an intensive land-and-sea mission to recover the bodies of those killed by last month’s earthquake and tsunami, the...
Beazley Remains Confident, Despite Q1 Catastrophes
Apr 25 2011 // The first quarter of 2011 reminded the insurance industry of just how unpredictable natural catastrophes can be. Beazley plc, which is headquartered in Dublin, but whose main activities, are in the Lloyd’s market,...
Allianz Confirms Cat Bond Commitment with $40 Million U.S. Placement
Apr 25 2011 // Germany’s Allianz has reconfirmed its commitment to catastrophe bonds, as a useful and generally accepted method of transferring a certain amount of risk to the capital markets. It underlined that commitment with the...
Midwest Tornadoes, High Winds Damage Homes, Businesses
Apr 22 2011 // The National Weather Service says at least five tornadoes were part of the storms that battered Ohio early on April 20. Hours before, a tornado measured as an EF3 hit near Girard, Ill., about 20 miles south of Springfield...
Northeast Insurers Say Winter Storms Hurt Q1 Profits
Apr 22 2011 // Pennsylvania-based insurer Harleysville said severe winter storms over the last few months will hurt its first quarter profits. “We experienced unusually severe winter weather throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic and...
Newly Elected Officials Must Learn Hurricane Response: FEMA
Apr 22 2011 // Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate this week stressed how important it is for newly elected public officials to learn how to respond during hurricanes and other powerful storms and that a bad economy...
Wildfires Continue in Texas; More than 1.8M Acres Burned This Year
Apr 21 2011 // Wildfire approaching McDonald Observatory near Ft. Davis, Texas. Photo by: Frank Cianciolo / McDonald Observatory As wildfires continue to rage in almost every region of the state, the Texas Forest Service reports that...
Third Hailstorm in Two Weeks Pounds North Texas Area
Apr 21 2011 // A severe line of thunderstorms extending 100 miles pounded portions of north central Texas this week producing hail as large as tennis balls. The line extended from Denton to Hillsboro. The communities of Itasca and...
Munich Re Ups Dividend, Comments on Impact of 2011 Disasters
Apr 21 2011 // Munich Re’s annual general meeting (AGM) produced some good news for the shareholders of the world’s largest reinsurer. It announced a dividend increase to €6.25 [$9.138] per share for the financial year...
