Latest Catastrophe Headlines

All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Risk Management Solutions Predicts Hurricane Activity to Increase Losses by 40 Percent in Florida and Gulf Coast

Mar 23 2006 // Risk Management Solutions, Newark, Calif., expects increases in hurricane landfall frequencies will increase modeled annualized insurance losses by 40 percent on average across the Gulf Coast, Florida and the Southeast,...

Coalition Supports SB98/HB 279 to Protect Fla. CAT Fund

Mar 23 2006 // A coalition of insurance organizations, bankers, realtors and home builders are petitioning state lawmakers to support SB 98/HB 279 an effort by Sen. J. D. Alexander and Rep. Kim Berfield to protect Florida’s...

Aon/Albert G. Ruben Map Details Risks to Overseas Filmmaking

Mar 23 2006 // “Disease, kidnap and ransom, and terrorism risks pose the greatest threat to global filmmaking,” according to the 2006 Risks in Global Filmmaking Map published today by Aon/Albert G. Ruben. Aon’s bulletin...

La. Commissioner Working to Generate Cat Bond Funding for State

Mar 23 2006 // The Louisiana Department of Insurance reported that Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon was invited to meet with the nation’s largest bond insurers and bond rating agencies in New York recently in a continued...

Aon Re Issues Global Study on Customer Catastrophe Segmentation

Mar 22 2006 // Aon Re Inc. has published the results of a study of companies that have implemented more sophisticated customer segmentation strategies over the past few years. The report concludes that overall returns for the personal...

Fla. Lawmaker Pushes Hurricane Insurance Surcharges for Vacation Homes

Mar 22 2006 // Owners of vacation and second homes would be slapped with a 25 percent surcharge on policies obtained from the state’s insurer of last resort under a proposal unveiled by a Senate committee chairman. That’s one...

Texas Governor Issues Order on Hurricane Evacuation Procedures

Mar 22 2006 // Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order that implements most of the recommendations of the Task Force on Evacuation Transportation and Logistics. “Our goal is to learn from the lessons that Hurricane Rita...

Volunteer Helping in Hurricane-Damaged Home Finds $30K

Mar 22 2006 // A college student was spending her spring break cleaning out hurricane-damaged homes in New Orleans when she discovered some unusual papers among the moldy plasterboard and debris, the Associated Press reported. “I...

Hartford Selects Peril Model to Set Pricing for Catastrophe Bonds

Mar 22 2006 // Risk Management Solutions, a provider of products and services for the management of natural hazard risk, said recently that its independent risk analysis of securitized collateral has enabled Hartford Fire Insurance...

Alabama Residents Fear the Worst, Prepare for Next Hurricane Season

Mar 22 2006 // A survey of residents in Alabama’s two coastal counties found many expect this hurricane season will be as bad or worse than last year, and they are making preparations, including buying generators. Forty percent of...

‘Long Overdue’ Northeast Warned to Prepare for ‘Historic’ Weather Disaster This Year

Mar 22 2006 // The northeast U.S. coast could be the target of a major hurricane, perhaps as early as this season, according to the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center. The weather experts say this year could bring the Northeast a storm...

Officials Hope ’06 Quake Centennial Prompts More to Get Insurance

Mar 20 2006 // When San Francisco resident Charlie Bott got an offer in the mail recently for earthquake insurance, he stared long and hard at the bottom line. Then he threw it away. “It was way beyond anything you pay for house...

$1.5B paid on more than 180K Rita claims

Mar 20 2006 // The Insurance Council of Texas reported that insurance companies have settled 90 percent of property claims in Texas that resulted from the devastation caused by Hurricane Rita that struck in late September 2005. According...

72 days and counting until 2006 hurricane season

Mar 20 2006 // Legislators are meeting across the Southeast to discuss a wide variety of insurance issues: Proposals in Florida would designate hurricane tax revenue to help pay for hurricane repairs; there are a dozen proposals in...

New Lloyd’s Policy Wording Covers Terrorist ‘Piracy’

Mar 20 2006 // As the oldest marine insurer in the world, Lloyd’s has long been aware of the menace pirates pose to shipping. These days, however, they aren’t the “Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum” kind of pirates,...

Cat Commercial Product Launched in Southeast States

Mar 20 2006 // In response to unmet capacity needs created by the devastating natural disasters of 2005, International Catastrophe Insurance Managers, LLC (ICAT), and National Fire and Marine Insurance Company (Berkshire Hathaway Group)...

S.C. Coastal Homeowners Offered Catastrophe Coverage Product

Mar 20 2006 // A homeowners catastrophe product for residential dwellings in South Carolina’s coastal counties has been introduced by International Catastrophe Insurance Managers, LLC and Praetorian Financial Group, Inc....

Scruggs: Whistleblower Helping in Hurricane Katrina Lawsuit

Mar 20 2006 // A high-profile litigator in Moss Point, Miss. said that a whistleblower is helping him build a case against insurers that allegedly denied thousands of claims from policyholders whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane...

Hurricane fatigue

Mar 20 2006 // One decried a system in which wealthy waterfront property owners are being subsidized by less affluent property owners and taxpayers: “If the state is going to continue to attract new residents, it will have to make...

Ensuring someone brings home the gold, silver, bronze — and green

Mar 20 2006 // While Italians sadly said farewell to the Torino 2006 XX Olympic Winter Games, held Feb. 10-26, insurers are happy the event came and went without a hitch. For the first time, the International Olympic Committee purchased...