Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Report Japan Earthquake Worries
Aug 14 2000 // A report by the Associated Press reveals increasing concern in Japan that “a big one” may occur at any time, and could reach or exceed the level of the 1923 earthquake which killed over 100,000 people in Tokyo...
Montana State Auditor Orders Insurers to Drop Wildfire-Related Moratoriums
Aug 4 2000 // State Auditor Mark O’Keefe told all property and casualty insurance companies doing business in Montana to lift all blanket wildfire-related moratoriums on new or increased levels of property insurance, or face...
Western States Blazing Away in Summer Wildfires
Aug 3 2000 // Thirty-five major wildfires are blazing across the Western states in the dry months of late summer, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The fires are currently being tackled by 20,000...
Minnesota Tornado Damage Estimated at $8.1 Million
Jul 28 2000 // The tornado that pummeled Granite Falls, Minn. earlier this week is estimated to have caused $8.1 million in damage to homes and other property. Homeowners suffered $3 million in losses and $2.8 million in damage to...
Zephyr Markets Hawaiian Hurricane Policies
Jul 24 2000 // Hawaii’s newest local insurance company has begun writing hurricane insurance and reinsurance. Zephyr Insurance Company will initially write only hurricane insurance for the residents of Hawaii and has already begun...
VESTA COMPLETES CAT BOND DEAL
Jul 24 2000 // Vesta Insurance Group’s operating units have completed an insurance securitization transaction through the private placement of $50 million in catastrophe reinsurance-linked notes and common stock, according to Dow...
EQECAT and AER Announce Advanced Hurricane Forecasting
Jul 21 2000 // EQETrac EQECAT and Atmospheric and Environmental Research have made available the EQETrac, an advanced proprietary real-time hurricane forecasting system. The system provides subscribers with probabilistic estimates of...
Vesta Insurance Completes $50 Million Catastrophe
Jul 14 2000 // Vesta Insurance Group’s operating units have completed an insurance securitization transaction through the private placement of $50 million in catastrophe reinsurance-linked notes and common stock according to a...
ISO Estimates U.S. Insurers Will Pay $1.4 Billion
Jul 10 2000 // U.S. property/casualty insurers will pay $1.4 billion to homeowners and businesses for insured property losses from 10 catastrophic events in the second quarter of this year, according to initial estimates from the...
Calif. Earthquake Authority to Fund Research Project
Jun 27 2000 // The Governing Board of the California Earthquake Authority gave its approval to a $300,000 research project aimed at providing new guidelines for the earthquake insurance claim process, as well as improving repairs to...
ALLSTATE’S CATASTROPHE LOSSES HIGH
Jun 26 2000 // There were no April Showers or May Flowers for Allstate Corp. this year. Rather the two spring months produced $340 million in catastrophe losses for the direct writer, whose announcement June 15 triggered a 7 percent...
HURRICANE FORECAST REVISED
Jun 26 2000 // Colorado State University’s hurricane forecast team led by William Gray has revised its April forecast, now predicting 12 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes for the 2000 season, which began June...
Lloyd’s To Use RMS Service To Monitor Hurricanes
Jun 23 2000 // Lloyd’s will make Menlo Park based Risk Management Solutions’ (RMS’) RiskOnline.com service available to members to track the progress of hurricanes in real time for the rest of the year 2000. Access will...
EQE International Holds Insurance Risk Conference in Paris
Jun 22 2000 // A veritable who’s who in the insurance industry attended the two day conference in Paris organized by Oakland based EQE International and EQECAT, Inc. its catastrophe modeling arm, to hear an exhaustive review of...
Allstate’s Announced Catastrophe Losses Trigger Stock Downturn
Jun 16 2000 // There were no April Showers or May Flowers for Allstate Corp. this year. Rather the two spring months produced $340 million in catastrophe losses for the direct writer, whose announcement yesterday triggered a 7 percent...
Quake Authority Looks to Develop a Five-Year Strategic Plan
Jun 12 2000 // After the Northridge earthquake rumbled through California on Jan. 17, 1994, destroying or damaging more than 200,000 homes, injuring 12,000 people and killing 60, and damaging or leaving uninhabitable 114,000 buildings,...
High-Stakes Hurricane Season Arrives
Jun 12 2000 // Residents along the East and Gulf Coasts and in the Caribbean Islands should brace for an above-average 2000 Atlantic hurricane season on par with last year’s season. Forecasters with both the National Oceanic and...
Quake Bills Could Create Shaky Ground for Insurers
Jun 12 2000 // On May 24, the California Senate passed SB 1899 despite opposition from industry groups. The bill, sponsored by Senator John Burton (D-San Francisco), has been referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee for further...
Natural Disaster Reform Legislation Reaches a Turning Point
Jun 12 2000 // Nobody likes to lose their shirt, least of all insurers. So it’s no surprise that, following the huge losses caused by natural disasters in the past few years, insurers have bolted from the homeowners market, leaving...
AIR Introduces New Earthquake Catastrophe Model
Jun 9 2000 // Boston based Applied Insurance Research (AIR) announced a potential breakthrough in earthquake catastrophe modeling with the introduction of the”Advanced Component Method or ACM (TM).” The computer technology...
