Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mobile Response Units Readied As Citizens Prepares for Hurricane Wilma
Oct 21 2005 // With Hurricane Wilma threatening to strike Florida, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is preparing to handle possible resulting claims. The state’s insurer of last resort is also readying its mobile response units to...
St. Paul Travelers Readies Catastrophe Response Team in Florida for Wilma
Oct 21 2005 // St. Paul Travelers and its member company First Floridian have mobilized their Catastrophe Response Team to assist policyholders that may be affected by Hurricane Wilma. The company has deployed team members to Tampa and...
Floridians Prepare for Hurricane Wilma to Make Landfall Sunday; Could Veer Across the Peninsula to Other Coast
Oct 20 2005 // Floridians along the southwestern coast of the peninsula are closely watching as Hurricane Wilma slowly move along the southwestern Caribbean. National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami predict after Wilma crosses...
UPDATE: Wilma “A Catastrophic Category Five Hurricane;” Lowest Pressure Ever Recorded
Oct 19 2005 // Hurricane Wilma, the 12th of the season, has become “a catastrophic category five hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale” states the latest bulletin from Miami’s National Hurricane Center. In less than 24...
Hurricane-Related Insurance Claims Paid Top $1.2B in Miss.
Oct 19 2005 // Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance George Dale reported that insurance companies have paid out approximately $1,266,828,689 billion in claims related to hurricanes in Mississippi so far. Approximately 319,959 claims...
General Casualty Assists with Hurricane Relief Help
Oct 19 2005 // For the second time in less than a year, Wisconsin-based General Casualty and its employees answered a call for financial help, donating more than $42,000 this week to the American Red Cross Response Fund in support of...
Fla. Insurance Industry Preps for Wilma
Oct 19 2005 // Hurricane Wilma, with a barometric pressure of 882 mb, is now the most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin. After rapid intensification Tuesday night, Wilma is now a potentially catastrophic Category 5...
Small Earthquake Strikes Near San Diego; No Damages Reported
Oct 19 2005 // A small earthquake occurred in the ocean off San Diego early Wednesday. The magnitude 4.1 quake hit at 1:51 a.m., 54 miles west of San Diego, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Institute of...
Mold a Threat After Hurricane Rita
Oct 19 2005 // Homeowners, renters and business owners affected by Hurricane Rita need to know that failure to remove mold and mildew properly can result in serious, long-term health problems, including asthma and other respiratory...
Wilma Forms into Hurricane, Rotating off Coast of Honduras
Oct 18 2005 // Wilma, the 21st named storm of the current season, strenthened to hurricane force today with sustained winds in excess of 75 mph (120 km/hr). The storm is still slowly rotating off the coast of Honduras, and hurricane...
Safeco Unveils Q3 Report; Hurricanes Play Major Role
Oct 18 2005 // Seattle-based Safeco reported solid third-quarter results, with net income of $101.1 million, or $0.80 per diluted share. This figure includes estimated after-tax net catastrophe losses of $115.8 million, or $0.91 per...
UPDATE: Wilma Gains Hurricane Status; U.S. Gulf Keeps Watch
Oct 18 2005 // Gaining a better defined center, Tropical Storm Wilma strengthened into a hurricane Tuesday on a path that could pose a threat to Florida by the weekend. At 11 a.m. EDT, Wilma had top sustained winds of near 75...
A.M. Best: P/C Insurers Report Strong Gains for First Half of 2005
Oct 17 2005 // The U.S. property/casualty industry recorded an underwriting profit of $13.2 billion during the first six months of 2005, a substantial gain from the record results posted during the comparable period of 2004, according to...
Fitch Utilizing AIR Worldwide’s CAT Models for Industry Capital Analysis
Oct 17 2005 // To help assess the capital adequacy and financial strength of insurance companies in North America and Europe, Fitch Ratings now utilizes AIR Worldwide’s (AIR) catastrophe risk management systems to assist in...
Transatlantic Updates Q3 Losses
Oct 17 2005 // Transatlantic Holdings Inc. announced that its preliminary estimate of pre-tax cost, net of reinsurance, related to Hurricane Rita approximates $50 million, or $33 million on an after-tax basis for the full year of...
Continuing Battle against Wildfires Fuels Need for Insurance
Oct 17 2005 // As firefighters battled into last week trying to contain one of a number of brush fires in the Los Angeles area, residents throughout California are keeping a close eye on weather conditions and their insurance policies,...
PIA of Fla. Answers Hurricane Planning Questions
Oct 17 2005 // Forty key catastrophic planning questions and answers were presented by Ron Silverman, a Professional Insurance Agents of Florida instructor and owner of Silverman Insurance Agency in Deltona Beach, Fla., during...
Editor’s Note: A Silver Lining?
Oct 17 2005 // The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the tsunami of December 2004, Katrina, Rita, the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan/India. What can we make of all these man-made and natural catastrophes? They are bigger than...
News Briefs
Oct 17 2005 // Arkansas Employment up in Ark. A recent report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed that employment in Ar-kansas is at a high point-1.1734million-but warned that hurricane refugees could strain state...
Dual Hurricanes Blew in Big Problems for Agribusiness in Louisiana,Texas
Oct 17 2005 // In addition to the immense destruction in heavily populated urban centers and coastal communities caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast region in August and September 2005, agricultural interests...
