Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Fla. Plaintiffs Settle with State Farm on Hurricane Damaged Screen Enclosures
May 25 2007 // A Broward County Court has approved a class action settlement on behalf of more than 12,000 State Farm Insurance policyholders in Florida who will receive 100 percent of the damages they requested in a $6.8 million...
Study: Homeowners Could Save $11.6 Billion with Catastrophe Protections
May 24 2007 // American homeowners could save $11.6 billion annually if private funded catastrophe programs were enacted in disaster-prone states and backed by a similar national program, according to Milliman Inc., an actuarial and...
Easley: N.C. National Guard Could Handle Category 3 Hurricane
May 24 2007 // Gov. Mike Easley said he is comfortable the state could respond to a major hurricane strike, even though he has complained often that the demands of the Iraq War has left the North Carolina National Guard stretched too...
Gov. Proclaims Hurricane Preparedness Week in North Carolina
May 23 2007 // Gov. Mike Easley has proclaimed May 20-26 as “Hurricane Preparedness Week” and urged all citizens to prepare for this year’s predicted increase in storm activity by assembling disaster preparedness kits...
NOAA Predicts Busier-Than-Average East, Gulf Coast Hurricane Season
May 23 2007 // U.S. weather officials are the latest to predict above average hurricane activity for the Atlantic states this coming hurricane season that begins June 1. Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
RMS Parametric Model for Japan Typhoon Risk Securitization
May 23 2007 // Risk Management Solutions has designed the trigger mechanism and performed the risk analysis for a parametric securitization of typhoon risk in Japan. Issued by Akibare Ltd., a Cayman Islands special purpose vehicle (SPV),...
S&P Report Says Insurers’ Climate Change Concerns are Real
May 23 2007 // A new report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services – “Insurers Seek To Weather Changes In The Weather” – stresses that for the insurance industry, “climate’s impact...
Ga. Gov. Releases $7 Million to Fight Southeast Georgia Wildfires
May 22 2007 // Gov. Sonny Perdue issued an executive order that allocates $7 million in unspent state funds to fight the wildfires in southeast Georgia. The fires have burned over 130,000 acres in Georgia. “These additional funds...
Officials Plan for Fewer Hurricane Hunter Flights this Season
May 22 2007 // Although forecasters predict an active hurricane season, federal officials said crews will fly fewer hurricane hunter flights from the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.. Officials hope that reducing flights will make...
Fla. Agents Send Response Vehicle to Tornado-ravaged Kan. Town
May 22 2007 // The Florida Association of Insurance Agents’ state-of-the-art catastrophe response vehicle (CRV) arrived in Greensburg, Kan. earlier this week to assist insurance agents whose offices were demolished by the tornado...
Forecasters to Test 3-D Radar Hurricane Tracking Technique
May 21 2007 // Forecasters will test a new technique this summer that provides a detailed 3-D view of an approaching hurricane every six minutes and allows them to determine whether the storm is gathering strength as it nears land. The...
Fire outlook: 2007 wildfire season looks wicked
May 21 2007 // Fire scientists are predicting an above-average wildfire season from May through August 2007, according to the National Interagency Fire Center Predictive Services Group based in Boise, Idaho. In its “National...
News Currents
May 21 2007 // Risk managers report total cost of risk continues downward trend The commercial insurance industry continued to experience an overall decline in total cost of risk in 2006 despite coastal property premium hikes, according...
Wildfires take major toll in Georgia, Florida
May 21 2007 // Officials closed a 35-mile stretch of Interstate 75 from the Georgia-Florida state line to Lake City, Fla., as well as a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 10, from U.S. 90 to U.S. 129, as a gigantic wildfire approached them...
Spring wildfires, floods wreak havoc from coast to coast
May 21 2007 // Nature’s fury made life miserable from one end of the United States to the other, with people forced out of their homes by wildfires near both coasts and the Canadian border and by major flooding in the Midwest. And...
Claims against insurance agents and brokers: Timing is everything
May 21 2007 // Flood policies at heart of many cases against Gulf Coast producers In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many insurance agents and brokers in Louisiana and Mississippi and, to some extent, in Texas have found...
Status quo on Capitol Hill may be best
May 21 2007 // IIABA’s leader Bob Rusbuldt hopes Congress does nothing, except on TRIA Insurance Journal’s Andrew Simpson, at the IIABA’s National Legislative Conference and Convention in Washington, D.C., in April,...
Wildfires take major toll
May 21 2007 // Officials closed a 35-mile stretch of Interstate 75 from the Georgia-Florida state line to Lake City, Fla., as well as a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 10, from U.S. 90 to U.S. 129, as a gigantic wildfire approached them...
EMC Insurance reports tornado losses at $21 million
May 21 2007 // EMC Insurance Cos. said it expects to see losses of up to $21 million from storms in May, including devastating tornadoes that killed at least 11 people in Kansas. Des Moines-based EMC insures several businesses and homes...
News Currents
May 21 2007 // Spring wildfires, floods wreak havoc from coast to coast Inmates from the Georgia Department of Corrections use Class A foam and rakes Tuesday, May 1, 2007 to extinguish the remains of a fire in Waycross, Ga. As part of a...
