Latest Catastrophe Headlines

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

RMS Earthquake Engineer Asked by EERI to Lead Algerian Quake Damage Survey Team

May 30 2003 // California-based Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, announced that the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) has asked Dr. Fouad...

Mich. Limits Insurer Exposure Under Standard Fire Policy

May 30 2003 // Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has signed into law a bill limiting insurer exposure under the Standard Fire Policy Act. The state follows similar action earlier this year by Virginia, Minnesota and Nebraska, according...

Mold Claims Hit $4 Billion in Texas

May 27 2003 // Texas insurance companies have paid out just under $4 billion for mold claims in the past three years. According to the Insurance Council of Texas, an insurance trade association, mold claims have represented a larger...

Mich. Legislature Sends Standard Fire Policy Bill to Gov

May 27 2003 // The Michigan Legislature has passed a bill limiting insurer exposure under the Standard Fire Policy Act and sent it to the governor, whose signature is urged, according to the Alliance of American Insurers. Under the bill,...

Allmerica Financial Corp. Notes $19 Million Drop for 2Q Pre-Tax Catastrophe Losses

May 22 2003 // Massachusetts-based Allmerica Financial Corporation has incurred approximately $19 million in pre-tax catastrophe losses to date in the second quarter. The losses are primarily the result of hail, high winds, and...

New Swiss Re Publication Examines Terrorist Risks

May 21 2003 // Swiss Re announced that it has published a timely new study, “Terrorism risks in property insurance and their insurability after 11 September 2001,” which it described as a “brochure aimed at identifying...

Safeco Estimates Storm Losses

May 20 2003 // Seattle-based Safeco announced that claims stemming from the recent string of Midwest and Southern tornadoes, added to losses from violent hailstorms in Texas earlier in the quarter, are estimated at nearly $90 million in...

Insurance Losses From Tornadoes Could Be Most Costly Event Ever, Says I.I.I.

May 20 2003 // U.S. insurers have taken another hit these past few weeks as tornado season continues to wreak havoc on the nation. The tornadoes, which swept across parts of the U.S. from May 2-11, have the potential to be the costliest...

Workers’ Comp Market Analysis Shows Remarkable Improvement for Combined Ratio; Fall in Investment Income

May 16 2003 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) released its annual “State of the Line” preliminary workers’ compensation market analysis this week, with this year’s report indicating that the...

Fisher Says Industry Will Serve Okla. Tornado Survivors Well

May 16 2003 // Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher told tornado survivors he will help the insurance industry in any way possible to resolve claims resulting from the storms that hit his state in early May. Fisher made his...

May 4 Kan. Tornado Insured Damage Totals $70 Million

May 16 2003 // Insured property damages due to the May 4 tornadoes in Kansas are about $70 million, according to the state’s insurance department. Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger estimated that the damage in Northeast Kansas,...

AIR Estimates $2.2 Billion-Plus Insured Losses to Storms

May 14 2003 // AIR Worldwide Corp., a leading catastrophe modeling company, estimates that losses from the recent outbreak of severe weather in the central United States could exceed the $2.2 billion loss caused by a severe weather...

PIANJ Supports Proposed “Hurricane Deductible” Regulation

May 9 2003 // The Professional Insurance Agents of New Jersey Inc. has written a letter to Assistant Commissioner Douglas Wheeler of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, indicating the organization’s support for the...

Midwest Tornadoes Cause at Least $325 Million in Insurance Losses

May 8 2003 // Tornadoes that swept across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Tennessee earlier this week could cost insurers at least $325 million — making it one of the top five costliest tornado events, according...

ISO: Midwest Tornadoes are an Insurance Catastrophe

May 7 2003 // Even though preliminary figures are not even available yet, the Insurance Services Office Inc. has labeled the tornadoes that hit 14 Midwestern states an insurance catastrophe, meaning that insured damages are expected to...

Terrorism

May 5 2003 // Nuts & Bolts: ACE USA announced terrorism-related products providing broader solutions for U.S.-based clients. The new offering addresses coverage gaps created by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), including...

ISO Tech Conference to Explore Terrorism, Mold, Med-Mal, ID Theft

May 5 2003 // The Insurance and Technology Conference, sponsored by Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), will be held Nov. 2-4 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Dr. James Canton, futurist and author, will be the keynote speaker,...

Death Toll Rises in Turkish Earthquake

May 2 2003 // More than 100 people have reportedly died and many more are missing following the earthquake that struck a mountainous region of Eastern Turkey early Thursday morning. Rescue efforts were centered on a local school in the...

Chubb Notes Record 1stQ Net Income of $224.6M

May 1 2003 // The Chubb Corporation reported that net income in the first quarter of 2003 was a record $224.6 million, a 13.3 percent increase over net income of $198.2 million in the first quarter of 2002. Net income per share...

WASH. STATE WC TO INCLUDE ACTS OF TERRORISM

May 1 2003 // Washington taxpayers and the State Fund will get significant financial relief from the federal government in the event of an act of terrorism that results in catastrophic losses to the workers’ compensation system....