Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Active Hurricane Season Predicted
Aug 6 2010 // Government forecasters say record high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean will keep this hurricane season on track to be the busiest since 2005. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday said 14 to 20...
75% Chance of Major Hurricane Hitting Atlantic Coast, Says Forecaster
Aug 5 2010 // The Colorado State University forecasting team Wednesday maintained its 2010 Atlantic hurricane season forecast of 18 named tropical storms, 10 expected to become hurricanes. It predicted five of the hurricanes would be...
S.C. Officials Announce Hurricane Meeting
Aug 5 2010 // Emergency officials on South Carolina’s north coast are holding a town hall meeting to help people prepare for hurricanes. Wednesday’s meeting is being held at St. Michael Catholic Church in Garden...
Study Changes Picture of U.S. Quake Hazards
Aug 5 2010 // The risk of earthquakes in the U.S. Midwest may be more widespread than geologists have believed, but a “big one” may be less likely at Missouri’s New Madrid fault, researchers said Aug. 4. They found...
Allstate Operating Income Rises in Q2; Capital Losses Hurt Net Income
Aug 5 2010 // The Allstate Corp., headquartered in Northbrook, Ill., reported that second quarter 2010 operating income rose to $441 million compared to $297 million in the same period of 2009, reflecting improved results in both...
Montana Twisters Are More Frequent, Powerful in 2010
Aug 4 2010 // Tornadoes in Montana this year have been more frequent and more powerful than at any point over the past decade, as evidenced by twisters that destroyed an arena in Billings and killed two people in the state’s...
Utilities Market Still Softening Despite ‘Mega’ Claims: Willis
Aug 4 2010 // Insurance rates in the power sector are expected to soften further in 2010, despite the existence of many of the conditions that would normally presage a hardening market, according to the latest Power Market Review from...
Miami Has Greatest Hurricane Risk of Florida Cities
Aug 4 2010 // Perhaps not surprisingly, Miami is Florida’s most vulnerable major city to strong hurricane winds, according to Florida State University researchers who developed a new tool to estimate the frequency of extreme...
State Auto Reports Net Loss of $26.2M in Q2 2010
Aug 4 2010 // State Auto Financial Corp. has reported a second quarter 2010 net loss of $26.2 million versus a net loss of $3.2 million for the second quarter of 2009. State Auto’s combined ratio for the quarter was 115.2 versus...
Russia Declares Emergency as Wildfires Kill 40, Displace Thousands
Aug 3 2010 // Russia’s leaders declared a state of emergency on Monday in seven provinces and ordered authorities to guard weapons storage facilities from wildfires that have killed at least 40 people. Thousands more have lost...
July’s Catastrophes Cause Widespread Losses Globally: Aon Benfield
Aug 3 2010 // Floods in Pakistan and China have taken thousands of lives and damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, according to a new report on catastrophic events in July by a reinsurance team. A European heatwave, wildfires in...
Tornado Touches Down in NE Corner of Montana, Kills 2
Jul 28 2010 // A rare tornado tore through a farmhouse and killed two people inside, leaving nothing but the house’s foundation and a few twisted vehicles as it swept through Montana’s remote and sparsely populated...
Tornado Damages 18 Condos in Western New York
Jul 26 2010 // A tornado tore through western New York on Saturday, ripping the roof off a condominium and damaging 17 others and causing widespread power outages. The National Weather Service said the twister touched down in Mayville in...
Tropical Storm Threatens Gulf Oil Disaster Containment
Jul 23 2010 // BP Plc oil spill workers in the Gulf of Mexico prepared for a possible evacuation Thursday as a tropical storm threatened more delays in attempts to end the environmental disaster. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said...
Florida Braces for Tropical Storm Bonnie
Jul 23 2010 // Tropical Storm Bonnie barreled toward south Florida Friday on a track that was expected to take it over the site of BP Plc’s massive oil spill in the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico by Saturday afternoon. The fast-moving...
Typhoon Chanthu Hits South China – AIR Report
Jul 23 2010 // According to catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Chanthu slammed into southern China near Wuchuan City in Guangdong Province on Thursday, “further drenching a region already inundated by a month of...
Is Global Warming Causing More Frequent, More Powerful Hurricanes?
Jul 21 2010 // A workshop held in Lloyd’s Old Library sought to answer that question, by examining the impact global warming could have on the hurricane season. Lloyd’s cited the fact that “analysis of weather patterns...
Private Firm WSI Cuts U.S. Hurricane Forecast to 19 Named Storms
Jul 21 2010 // Private weather forecaster WSI Corp cut its forecast for named storms in the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season on Tuesday, but still sees an active season with water temperatures and wind conditions conducive to violent...
NHC Tracking Potential Tropical Storm
Jul 20 2010 // The National Hurricane Center in Miami is currently tracking a “vigorous tropical wave located over Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.” So far the disturbance has produced only “widespread cloudiness and...
Minor Earthquake Shakes Up U.S. Capital
Jul 19 2010 // Earthquakes are so rare in the Washington area that even a geology student wasn’t quite sure what was going on when a minor one hit early Friday. Was it a truck passing by? A low-flying plane? Gerasimos...
