Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
House-Passed Flood Insurance Bill Includes Windstorm, Business Interruption Options
Sep 28 2007 // The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a measure updating the nation’s flood insurance program that will give homeowners the option of purchasing windstorm coverage as part of their flood policy. The...
Actuaries Oppose Wind Addition to National Flood Insurance
Sep 28 2007 // The National Flood Insurance Program is over $17 billion in debt according to the American Academy of Actuaries, adding further anxiety to a proposal to add wind peril coverage to the national plan. While the U.S. House of...
Alabama Hearing Highlights Catastrophe Plan Options
Sep 26 2007 // Whether the nation needs a federal or other governmental program to deal with insurance costs and availability for natural catastrophes in U.S. coastal states was the central question at a public hearing in Mobile, Ala.,...
La., Texas Towns Recovering Slowly 2 Years after Hurricane Rita
Sep 25 2007 // Cameron, La., and Weirgate, Texas, have something in common: both are recovering slowly two years after Hurricane Rita blew through them in September 2005. According to Associated Press reports, nearly everyone in Cameron...
Oregon Researchers Simulate Tsunami
Sep 25 2007 // A giant tsunami struck Seaside, Ore. last week — at least, a model version of the town, built by researchers at Oregon State University to demonstrate the potentially devastating effects of a real...
Fla. Insurance Commissioner Supports National Catastrophe Plan
Sep 25 2007 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty touted the need for a comprehensive national plan, and a national catastrophe fund at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Southeast Zone meeting in...
P/C Insurers’ Underwriting Results, Profitability Slip in First-Half 2007
Sep 25 2007 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s overall profitability as measured by its annualized rate of return on average policyholders’ surplus (or statutory net worth) slipped to 13.1 percent in...
Reinsurance was easier to find and cheaper in 2007
Sep 24 2007 // What a difference a year makes. Florida insurers had to look high and low for reinsurance in 2006, and pay dearly if they could find it.In 2007, it was a different story. According to Jack Mangiante, senior vice president...
Catastrophes: There is no free lunch
Sep 24 2007 // Any study that implies consumers and taxpayers have thousands of years to realize savings is immediately suspect. Since the devastating hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, some Florida politicians and a few insurers have...
Catastrophes: The time to act is now
Sep 24 2007 // Two years have passed since America’s most shocking wake-up call regarding the devastation that follows the force and fury of Mother Nature. Since that time, a variety of legislative proposals have been offered at...
Catastrophes: The time to act is now
Sep 24 2007 // Two years have passed since America’s most shocking wake-up call regarding the devastation that follows the force and fury of Mother Nature. Since that time, a variety of legislative proposals have been offered at...
The natural disaster dilemma
Sep 24 2007 // What to do about natural disasters? We can’t really prevent them, and while many people are skeptical about dire predictions regarding climate change as the probable cause of an increase in weather-related...
Declarations
Sep 24 2007 // Plumped up payments “The partnership has, over time, relieved FEMA of the need to develop, hire, and train an in-house corps of sales agents, adjusters, and others to administer flood insurance.” — A...
Montana’s wildfire suppression funding process convoluted, analysts say
Sep 24 2007 // Montana legislative analysts agreed that more money is needed to fight fires in Montana but called the state’s current system for funding wildfire suppression “convoluted” and raised concerns about some...
A small private Fla. insurer faces Citizens and the ‘perfect storm’
Sep 24 2007 // From “Happy Days” to “The Perfect Storm” is how one Florida insurance executive describes her state’s defining years between 2003 and 2007 — and she isn’t talking just about the...
Lloyd’s America’s Baker: Time for action on climate change is now
Sep 24 2007 // For an insurer, understanding climate change is a matter of understanding trends in risk and changes in those trends. For Wendy Baker, president of Lloyd’s America Inc., staying on top of those trends in the United...
Reinsurance was easier to find and cheaper in 2007
Sep 24 2007 // What a difference a year makes. Florida insurers had to look high and low for reinsurance in 2006, and pay dearly if they could find it. In 2007, it was a different story. According to Jack Mangiante, senior vice president...
News Currents
Sep 24 2007 // Industry skeptical, while Treasury opposes natural disaster pool Federal legislation that encourages states to pool their catastrophe pool risks and then transfer them to the private market has been greeted with a lukewarm...
From the Big Apple to the Corn State
Sep 24 2007 // From the executive office of the Greater New York Mutual Insurance Companies on Madison Avenue in the heart of New York City, Warren Heck, chairman and chief executive officer, can see Illinois. “It’s...
Industry skeptical, while Treasury opposes natural disaster pool
Sep 24 2007 // Federal legislation that encourages states to pool their catastrophe pool risks and then transfer them to the private market has been greeted with a lukewarm insurance industry reaction at best and outright opposition from...
