Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
More than 600 Southern California Homes Lost to Unchecked Wildfires
Oct 23 2007 // Hundreds of homes were reduced to ashes Monday as wildfires blown by fierce desert winds raced across a huge swath of Southern California extending from Malibu to the Mexican border, forcing a quarter of a million people...
Council says Hurricane Humberto Caused $30M in Losses in Texas
Oct 22 2007 // Officials with the Insurance Council of Texas say Hurricane Humberto, which hit the state last month, caused about $30 million in insured losses in Texas. Humberto made landfall on Sept. 13 near High Island, a coastal town...
California Wildfire Threatens Pepperdine U., Upscale Neighborhoods
Oct 22 2007 // A wildfire driven by powerful Santa Ana winds in California’s Malibu Hills on Sunday threatened a university, destroyed at least one home and forced the evacuation of hundreds more, authorities said. About 400...
Fla.: Tornado Damages Pensacola Mall, Church and Daycare Center
Oct 21 2007 // A tornado damaged a church, a daycare center and the city’s major shopping mall as violent thunderstorms made their way across the western Florida Panhandle last week. There were no reports of injuries. The Oct. 18...
Tennessee’s Wildfire Season is off to a Brisk Start
Oct 19 2007 // The Tennessee wildfire season is here, but a hot and dry summer brought an early start. East Tennessee has been hardest hit, with fires burning more than 23,000 acres. Firefighters contained a wildfire that covered about...
Mortgage Funds Available to Rebuild Tornado-damaged N.D. Homes
Oct 19 2007 // State money normally reserved for first-time North Dakota home buyers will be available to Northwood residents who want to replace their tornado-damaged homes, a housing official says. Michael Anderson, director of the...
Survey: Calif.’s Hayward Fault “Ready to Pop”
Oct 19 2007 // “Time is not on our side,” when it comes to suffering damage from an earthquake along Northern Californa’s Hayward Fault, according to a new map by the U.S. Geological Survey. This week, USGS released a...
Aon Places $260 Million Japanese Quake Cat Bond
Oct 18 2007 // Aon Corp. announced that its investment banking group, Aon Capital Markets, has successfully completed the private placement of $260 million of principal at-risk variable rate notes for MIDORI Ltd. The placement provides...
San Bernardino Mountains Wildfire Recovery Will Take Years
Oct 18 2007 // Forestry officials say recovery will take years in the San Bernardino Mountains area scarred by last month’s 13,825-acre Butler II wildfire. People, animals and roadways will be threatened for years, and the...
Senate Panel Releases Compromise Terrorism Insurance Bill
Oct 17 2007 // Senate leaders have agreed on a bill to renew the federal terrorism reinsurance program, although without some of the added provisions and for not as long as the House of Representatives wants. The Senate Banking...
FEMA Expands Program to Help Hurricane Evacuees Move Home
Oct 17 2007 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency has expanded eligibility for a program to pay travel costs for Gulf Coast hurricane victims moving back home. The one-time grant, still capped at $4,000, is now open to applicants...
Lloyd’s, UK’s Met Office Prepare for Repeat of 1987 Windstorm
Oct 16 2007 // Risk management Solutions commemorated the 20th anniversary of the destructive 1987 windstorm that struck Southern England and Northern France with a warning (See IJ web site Oct. 15). Lloyd’s and the UK’s Met...
Feds Drawing Up Plans for Major Disasters in 4 Key States
Oct 16 2007 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency is quietly drawing up plans for a handful of disasters: devastating earthquakes beneath San Francisco and St. Louis and catastrophic storms in South Florida and Hawaii, FEMA’s...
Indiana University Builds Data Center to Stand Up to F5 Tornado
Oct 16 2007 // Indiana University has started construction on a data center that will protect technology resources, including the Big Red supercomputer, during storms, power outages or even a tornado. The $32.7 million Indiana University...
Mo. National Guard Trains in Earthquake Preparedness
Oct 16 2007 // The Missouri National Guard spent the weekend engaged in Operation Cracked Earth, training exercises to test communication abilities in the event that there is a major earthquake in the New Madrid fault zone. The New...
Risk Modeler Says Repeat of 1987 Windstorm Could Cost $14 Billion
Oct 15 2007 // Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has released an impact study of the potential losses from a windstorm of the force and velocity of the one that hit Southern England and Northern France in 1987, if it occurred today. The...
Mass. AG Calls for 18% Cut in Home Insurance Rates Charged by FAIR Plan
Oct 12 2007 // Homeowners insurance rates for many in Massachusetts insured through the state’s secondary market insurer, the FAIR Plan, would drop 18 percent if Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley gets her...
Hiscox Launches Combined War, Terrorism, Political Violence Cover
Oct 12 2007 // The world is a dangerous place, and sometimes a very confusing one. Specialist insurer Hiscox has met the challenge of trying to separate outbreaks of “war, terrorism and political violence” as they...
AIR Raises Typhoon Krosa Loss Estimates – $200 to $600 Million
Oct 12 2007 // AIR Worldwide’s preliminary estimates of insured losses caused by Typhoon Krosa originally assessed the damage in Taiwan (See IJ web site Oct. 11). However, the storm subsequently crossed the South China Sea, and has...
Agents Fear N.Y. Coast Insurance Market Worse; Pols Weigh Options
Oct 11 2007 // New York lawmakers are considering taking action to improve coastal insurance availability while insurance agents are telling them they fear market restrictions are worsening. Insurance companies, meanwhile, claim the...
