Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
RMS Analyzes Greek Wildfires
Aug 26 2009 // A bulletin from Risk Management Solutions notes that over the past 24 hours, the wildfire situation in Athens has greatly improved, but continues to be closely monitored as there is a high risk of further flare-ups. In...
Tropical Storm May Form Today
Aug 26 2009 // The U.S. National Hurricane Center said an area of disturbed weather centered about 470 miles east of Nassau in the Bahamas could become the season’s latest tropical depression, or more likely, tropical storm, later...
Numbers Tell of Reconstruction of Mississippi Since Hurricane Katrina
Aug 26 2009 // August 29 will mark four years since Hurricane Katrina pummeled Mississippi. Since then, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in partnership with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and other state and...
UPDATE – Thousands Flee Raging Wildfires in Greece
Aug 25 2009 // An overnight drop in gale-force winds offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite Monday after wildfires raged unchecked for two days north of Athens, burning houses and swathes of forest while forcing...
RMS Reports on Hurricane Bill
Aug 25 2009 // The latest bulletin from Risk Management Solutions describes Hurricane Bill making landfall in southeast Newfoundland as a weak category 1 hurricane. As of a few hours ago the storm was approximately 90 miles (145 kms)...
Atlantic Tropical Wave Could Become Cyclone, Warns U.S. Hurricane Center
Aug 25 2009 // The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday a tropical wave in the western Atlantic Ocean northeast of Puerto Rico had a high chance — greater than 50 percent — of becoming a tropical cyclone during the...
Private Forecaster Still Sees Quiet Hurricane Season
Aug 25 2009 // Private weather forecaster WSI Corp. said on Monday it still sees a quiet 2009 Atlantic hurricane season with conditions not conducive to an active year for violent storms. WSI’s updated forecast predicted a season...
Hurricane Bill Served Warning to North Carolina Island Homeowners
Aug 25 2009 // Although Hurricane Bill made no direct impact on the North Carolina coast, the seas that the storm churned up has caused worries for some homeowners. The Star-News of Wilmington reported Sunday that residents of Bald Head...
California Wildfires Called Contained
Aug 25 2009 // Firefighters have surrounded three wildfires that have been burning throughout California for weeks. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says that a wildfire that consumed about 7,800 acres (3,157...
Hurricane Bill Drenches Eastern Canada; Two Die in U.S.
Aug 24 2009 // Hurricane Bill brought rain and heavy winds to eastern Canada Sunday after pounding the U.S. East Coast with heavy seas that killed two people. A seven-year-old girl died in a hospital after she was pulled unresponsive...
Caribbean Agencies Create Partnership for Natural Disaster Management
Aug 21 2009 // The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing a partnership to facilitate capacity...
Hurricane Bill to Pass Between Bermuda, U.S. Coast Saturday
Aug 21 2009 // Hurricane Bill became less organized Friday as it pursued a path that would take it between Bermuda and the eastern United States, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Bill, a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson...
Hurricane Bill Continues on Course; Bermuda on Alert
Aug 21 2009 // Hurricane Bill continues to follow the trajectory forecast by the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm remains a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of around 115 mph, 185 km/hr, with higher...
Cleanup Starts After Tornadoes, Storms Slam Midwest States
Aug 21 2009 // Residents began cleaning up Aug. 20 after tornadoes and severe storms slammed a large part of the Midwest, tearing the roofs from buildings and overturning vehicles. The National Weather Service in Davenport, Iowa,...
Report Finds Australia’s Wildfire Warning System ‘Dangerously Flawed’
Aug 20 2009 // A major inquiry into Australia’s wildfire disaster earlier this year has found that warning systems are dangerously flawed, and residents in vulnerable areas need better, faster information to escape quick-moving...
Bill Weakens to Category 3 Hurricane; Predicted Course Unchanged
Aug 20 2009 // Hurricane Bill has weakened somewhat from a category 4 storm to category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It nonetheless remains a dangerous storm with maximum sustained winds of around 125 mph, 205 km/hr, with higher...
Hurricane Bill Could Bring Dangerous Swells, Rip Currents to U.S. East Coast
Aug 20 2009 // Powerful Hurricane Bill, a dangerous Category 4 storm with 135 mph winds, raged across the open Atlantic Wednesday, days from land but on a path that could menace Canada’s eastern provinces next week. Sweeping past...
Hurricane Bill Expected to Spare U.S. The Worst of Its Force
Aug 19 2009 // Hurricane Bill, the first of the 2009 Atlantic season, gathered strength and grew into a dangerous Category 4 storm with sustained winds of up to 135 mph (215 kph) on Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center...
Lloyd’s Assesses Impact of Heat Waves and Wildfires
Aug 19 2009 // The recent series of wildfires that ravaged parts of Spain, France, Greece and Italy in late July may well be symptomatic of the warming trend in global weather patterns according to experts at Lloyd’s of...
Gulf Coast Can’t Forget Hurricane Camille of 40 Years Ago
Aug 19 2009 // Scouring an aerial photograph taken three days after Hurricane Camille crashed ashore on Mississippi’s Gulf coast, Richard Rose points to the spot where his father’s body washed into the chimney of a ruined...
