Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
The Harford Saw Record First Quarter Net Income; Added 250 Agents
May 1 2006 // The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., out of Hartford, Conn., reported first quarter 2006 net income of $728 million, or $2.34 per diluted share. The Hartford’s core earnings in the first quarter of 2006 were...
NOAA Aircrew Begins Hurricane Awareness Mission in Texas
May 1 2006 // With the impact of a record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season still etched on the coastline from Texas to Florida, and recovery on the minds of its residents, forecasters from the NOAA National Hurricane Center will...
Gallagher Calls On Lawmakers to Make Insurance Reforms
May 1 2006 // As state lawmakers enter the home stretch of the 2006 legislative session, Tom Gallagher, Florida’s CFO, renewed his call for immediate rate-relief, improved access to property coverage and reforms to help strengthen...
Gov. Bush Recommends $565M Hurricane Preparedness Budget
Apr 28 2006 // A $565 million hurricane preparedness budget which includes funding for response and recovery recommendations has been recommended by Gov. Jeb Bush and Lt. Governor Toni Jennings. According to Gov. Bush, the...
Fla. Approves 12-Day Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday
Apr 28 2006 // Governor Jeb Bush has signed legislation authorizing Florida’s second annual 12-day sales tax holiday for hurricane preparedness. The Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday is an important component of Governor...
Survey Says Risk Managers Spent More on Disaster Preparedness, Catastrophe Management
Apr 27 2006 // Spending for loss control services increased or remained flat for a majority of organizations in the past year, and the greatest spending increases occurred in such areas as disaster preparedness and catastrophe...
Fla. Insurance Council Describes Pending Legislation
Apr 27 2006 // The Florida House Insurance Committee and the House Fiscal Council have approved CS/CS/HB 7225, and according to the Florida Insurance Council, the next stop is the full House. FIC released a side-by-side comparison of...
La. Credit Score Bill May Harm Consumers, AIA Says
Apr 27 2006 // The Louisiana House Insurance Committee has passed legislation (H.B. 318) regarding a ban on the use of credit scoring information from 2005, which will negatively affect consumers and the overall insurance market in...
Actuaries to White House: Federal Insurance Backstop Needed
Apr 27 2006 // The American Academy of Actuaries, in response to questions posed by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, has submitted its terrorism risk insurance analysis, which concludes that a national framework...
U.S. Commercial Brokers Reiterate Call for Terrorism Backstop
Apr 25 2006 // The commercial insurance marketplace cannot effectively price and underwrite terrorism coverage because there still is no effective modeling, so any long-term solution to the terrorism risk coverage must involve the...
Zurich’s CEO Comments on Results, Future Plans at Annual Meeting
Apr 24 2006 // Zurich Financial Services’ Annual General Meeting, held April 20, evinced the considerable turn around in its fortunes under the direction of CEO James J. Schiro, who took over the faltering giant in May 2002. In his...
Willis’ Sees ‘Tumultuous Times’ for Natural Catastrophe Market
Apr 21 2006 // A bulletin from global broker Willis Group Holdings in the April 2006 online edition of “Marketplace Realities and Risk Management Solutions” describes events in the natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) segment of the...
Insurers Expected to Pay $1.38B for Q1 Cat Losses
Apr 20 2006 // U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay an estimated $1.38 billion to homeowners and businesses in insured property losses from seven catastrophe events in first-quarter 2006, according to preliminary analysis...
RMS Estimates Repeat of 1906 San Francisco Quake Would Cause $50 Billion to $80 Billion in Insured Losses
Apr 19 2006 // Based on 2006 population and property exposures in the San Francisco Bay area, Risk Management Solutions, Newark, Calif., estimates there would be at least $260 billion in damages to residential and commercial exposures if...
Engineers Working, Stretching, Bending Toward Earthquake-Proof Building
Apr 19 2006 // Sometime in the not-so-distant future, newly constructed buildings will be able to withstand earthquakes of the magnitude that destroyed San Francisco one century ago, scientists say. Working with super-strong materials...
Commonwealth Insurance Signs with Eqecat for Catastrophe Management
Apr 18 2006 // EQECAT Inc., an extreme-risk modeling company, said that Commonwealth Insurance Co., a Canadian-based insurance provider, has signed a licensing agreement to use EQECAT’s WORLDCATenterprise platform and XML interface...
Study Calculates Impact of 1906 Bay Area Quake Today
Apr 18 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...
Sound Risk Management, Strong Investment Results Prove Positive for P/C Industry
Apr 18 2006 // U.S. property/casualty insurers managed to increase earnings and add to their capital base in 2005 despite record catastrophe losses, according to ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). Sound...
Fireman’s Fund Sponsors Wildfire Seminar on San Francisco Earthquake Centennial
Apr 18 2006 // As the nation commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, one of the surviving companies from that disaster — Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., will be hosting a...
Private Firms Seize Profit Opportunities in Emergency Services
Apr 17 2006 // If government can’t do it, business will. Once the domain of government and charitable relief groups, hurricane response and preparedness are a booming billion-dollar business — from the self-heating food packets...
