Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
RMS Partners With China Earthquake Administration’s Institute of Engineering Mechanics to Develop China Earthquake Risk
May 16 2006 // Newark, Calif.-based Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has formed a partnership with the China Earthquake Administration scientific and engineering arm, the Institute of Engineering Mechanics (IEM). “This partnership...
AccuWeather Predicts Six Hurricanes Will Make Landfall
May 16 2006 // The AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center in State College, Pa. led by Chief Forecaster Joe Bastardi, has released its 2006 hurricane season forecast. An active hurricane season appears imminent, which could have major...
Citizens Property Insurance Increases Upset Policyholders in Florida
May 15 2006 // Marci L. Rose’s home and rental properties in Key West, Fla. escaped serious damage when hurricanes battered the state in 2004 and 2005, but she might lose them anyway. Like thousands of Floridians, the real estate...
Royal Palm to Offer Coverage to Allstate Floridian Customers
May 15 2006 // St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Allstate Floridian has reached an agreement with Royal Palm Insurance Co., a new property insurer in the state, to offer Allstate Floridian customers and Florida consumers property insurance...
Texas Regulators Urge Coastal Residents to Review Insurance Coverages
May 12 2006 // As hurricane season approaches, officials at the Texas Department of Insurance are reminding all Gulf Coast home and business owners that it is important to periodically review their insurance policies to ensure that...
Three Dead in North Texas Tornado
May 11 2006 // Late-night tornadoes swept through rural North Texas on May 9, killing three people, hospitalizing 10 and reducing homes to bare concrete slabs, officials said. An elderly couple were found dead in a destroyed home in the...
White Paper Cautions Reliance on Near-term View of Hurricane Risk
May 10 2006 // AIR Worldwide Analysis Concludes That Significant Uncertainty AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) issued a white paper that reviews the current state of research on climatological impacts on hurricane activity and explains the...
La. Senate Approves Bill Extending Hurricane Claims Deadline
May 10 2006 // The Louisiana Senate approved a bill that would extend the deadline for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to file claims with their insurance companies. Sen. Julie Quinn’s bill would give policyholders through...
Despite Hurricane Losses, Soft Insurance Market Continues
May 9 2006 // Although property & general liability insurance rates increased in the first quarter of 2006, all indications point to a continuing soft commercial insurance market according to the Risk and Insurance Management...
Marinas Slowly Make Comeback in Hurricane-hit La.
May 9 2006 // A growing number of marina owners and operators in southern Louisiana have scraped together whatever resources they can find to reopen their businesses. In a recent summary of the state’s fishing infrastructure, 80...
Agents Learn U.S. Insurers Withstood Record Catastrophe Losses with Strong Capitalization, Sound Risk Management
May 9 2006 // Strong capitalization, sound risk management and efficient global risk sharing enabled the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry to withstand record-setting catastrophe losses in 2005, but the industry also should keep...
Hurricane winds could be felt in professional liability markets
May 8 2006 // The professional liability market may be significantly affected by the increase in frequency and severity of hurricanes, causing greater rating agency scrutiny and changes to evaluation models. “The three recent...
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association: Challenges and solutions
May 8 2006 // The 2006 hurricane season is looming and the insurance industry already sees dark clouds on the horizon. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is considerably under-funded in the event a major hurricane makes landfall...
Tornados foretell things to come
May 8 2006 // As emergency planners and hurricane experts from across the U.S. met in April to plan and prepare for the hurricane season, the timing couldn’t have been better, as massive twisters roared down “tornado...
Tornado ploughs across Tenn., Ky., resulting in thousands of claims
May 8 2006 // In the aftermath of a large F-3 to F-4 tornado, hundreds of carriers and insurance agents in northern Tennessee and southern Kentucky are paying hundreds of claims. The storm formed April 7 at about 7 p.m., touching down...
Critics allege wind modelers following politics over science
May 8 2006 // Risk Management Solutions has defended its hurricane risk models in the face of consumer groups’ criticisms that the models are more political than they are scientific and that they are designed to justify insurance...
$25 million tornado damage in north Georgia
May 8 2006 // More than $25 million in damage occurred in late April in north Georgia when a string of twisters swept through the state, including metropolitan Atlanta, hitting homes and businesses in Cobb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Hall...
Mayfield: ‘2006 hurricane season CAN be worse than 2005’
May 8 2006 // With more than 55 million people living in coastal communities, the nation must learn its lesson from the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons and prepare now for what will happen after June 1, according to Max Mayfield,...
Lloyd’s sees 1906 San Francisco earthquake as a turning point
May 8 2006 // One of the most significant natural disasters in U.S. history, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, rolled to its centennial anniversary April 18, 2006. One hundred years ago in San Francisco, the Earth bounced and the...
Study calculates impact of 1906 Bay Area earthquake today, preparedness for another
May 8 2006 // If an earthquake like the one that devastated San Francisco, Calif., in 1906 struck today, the toll would be staggering: tens of thousands of buildings damaged and hundreds of people dead, according to a new study. The...
