Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Will New Legislation Help Florida’s Property Insurance Market?
Jun 7 2011 // Florida hasn’t been hit by a hurricane since the disastrous years of 2004 and 2005, but the state’s property insurance companies say they are still losing money despite collecting billions in premiums. That has...
Florida Commission Approves RMS Hurricane Model
Jun 7 2011 // Florida’s residential property insurance market is bracing for even more volatility after the state’s modeling commission approved the use of the new Risk Management Services (RMS) catastrophe model. The...
Late May Storms to Cost Insurers Up to $7 Billion: AIR
Jun 6 2011 // The severe thunderstorms that struck the United States from May 20 to the 27 will result in insured losses to residential, commercial, and industrial properties and their contents, and to automobiles of between $4 billion...
Missouri Capital City Looking to Upgrade Tornado Sirens
Jun 6 2011 // Officials in Missouri’s capital city have decided to look into improving its aging storm warning system, after a deadly tornado hit the state’s southwest. Two of Jefferson City’s 15 warning sirens...
3,500 People Evacuate as Volcano Erupts in Southern Chile
Jun 6 2011 // One of the volcanoes in the Caulle Cordon of southern Chile erupted violently Saturday, billowing smoke and ash high into the sky and prompting more than 3,500 people living nearby to evacuate. There were no reports of...
Risky Decisions
Jun 6 2011 // The percentage of homes covered by typical residential property policies varies by region. All the devastation from natural disasters that have occurred across the nation in recent months illuminates the fact that many,...
Hurricane Season Could Bring Rate Relief
Jun 6 2011 // Property and casualty insurers craving respite from a long-running drop in prices eyed the start of the U.S. hurricane season on June 1 in the hope that summer windstorms will finally turn the market. The June 1 to Nov. 30...
Catastrophes Issue Wake-Up Call on Supply Chain Risks
Jun 6 2011 // The Japanese earthquake and tsunami that occurred in March 2011 served as a wake-up call of sorts for businesses vulnerable to supply chain exposures. Subsequent intense weather events in the United States during April and...
Demise of Windstorm Association Overhaul Leads to Special Session in Texas
Jun 6 2011 // Texas lawmakers were unable to come to terms on an overhaul of the state-backed insurer for property along the Texas coast, so they’ll return to Austin in July to try again. Their failure to deal with school finance,...
Catastrophes Issue Wake-Up Call on Supply Chain Risks
Jun 6 2011 // The Japanese earthquake and tsunami that occurred in March 2011, as well as intense spring weather, served as a wakeup call of sorts for businesses vulnerable to supply chain exposures: It’s important to prepare for...
Tornado-Hit States Rank High in Uninsured
Jun 6 2011 // Many of the states hammered by what’s already the deadliest year for tornadoes in more than half a century have among the nation’s highest rates of homes without hazard insurance despite being among the most...
Declarations
Jun 6 2011 // A Bomb on Every Floor “It truly was like a bomb went off almost on every floor.” —Gary Pulsipher, chief executive at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., describes the damage caused to the...
What’s In Florida’s Property Insurance Cost Control Bill?
Jun 6 2011 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law legislation that promises to lower costs for the state’s property insurers, including what they pay on sinkhole claims. Scott said the bill (SB 408) “strengthens...
How Florida’s Agents Fared in Tallahassee
Jun 6 2011 // FAIA President Jeff Grady on Property Insurance Reform, Effects of RMS Model, Citizens For those in the industry, Florida’s recent legislative session was a long march as they tried to navigate through a process that...
Tornado Damages Philly Business
Jun 6 2011 // Weather officials have confirmed that a tornado descended on a northeast Philadelphia block late last month – tearing part of the roof off a beer distributor and bar and restaurant and demolishing a car repair...
Hurricanes and Floods
Jun 6 2011 // In light of the hurricane season that began June 1 and ongoing Mississippi and Atchafalaya flooding, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon is imploring consumers to protect themselves and their property against...
P/C Insurers Facing Record Losses from Weather
Jun 6 2011 // Devastating tornadoes, floods, earthquakes overseas and a busier-than-usual hurricane season have U.S. insurance companies bracing for record losses in 2011. Insurers could suffer as much as $10 billion from...
Florida Braces as RMS Model Makes Landfall
Jun 6 2011 // Storm Model Hits Inland Territories; Could Alter Property Insurance Political Landscape Florida’s history with hurricanes has created a series of assumptions long treated as facts, none of which is more quoted than...
States Hit Hardest by Recent Tornadoes Among Least Insured
Jun 6 2011 // Many of the states hammered by what’s already the deadliest year for tornadoes in more than half a century have among the nation’s highest rates of homes without hazard insurance despite being among the most...
2011 on Pace to Be Deadliest U.S. Tornado Year
Jun 6 2011 // The tornado that raked Joplin, Mo., was the deadliest single twister in the United States since 1953, putting 2011 on pace for a possible record year for tornado fatalities, U.S. weather experts said. As of May 25, this is...
