Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Descartes Launches Parametric Tornado Coverage for Solar Farms
Jan 23 2025 // Descartes Underwriting has announced the launch of a parametric insurance product to protect utility-scale solar farms against tornado damage. According to a press release, the coverage uses satellite data and analytics to...
KCC Estimates Losses From Palisades and Eaton Wildfires to Be Near $28B
Jan 23 2025 // Catastrophe modeler KCC said insured loss from privately insured and California FAIR plan policies to residential, commercial and industrial properties, and autos from the Palisades and Eaton Fires will be close to $28...
New Wildfires Erupt in California, Forcing Thousands to Evacuate
Jan 23 2025 // Two new wildfires that erupted in Southern California are spreading quickly over dry hillsides and forcing evacuations, stoking new fears in a region that’s been devastated by recent deadly blazes. The Hughes Fire,...
Insurtechs’ Approach to Wildfire Insurance: Part III – Faura
Jan 23 2025 // While the Los Angeles wildfires inch closer toward containment, estimates of insured losses continue to creep higher. CoreLogic said the industry price tag of the Palisades and Eaton fires could land between $35 billion...
Ash Left Behind by LA Wildfires Might Be Toxic, Experts Warn
Jan 23 2025 // Toni Boucher threw up the first time she saw the charred remains of her home and neighborhood after this month’s deadly Los Angeles-area wildfires. Now she wonders if it’s worth it to go back to sift through...
Wildfire-Risk Models Are Struggling to Predict LA-Style Fires
Jan 22 2025 // Among natural disasters, wildfires are the great unknown. Even the most-sophisticated scientific models fail to capture all the risk factors or properly account for the increasing impact of climate change. It’s a...
Insurtechs’ Approach to Wildfire Insurance: Part II – Kettle
Jan 22 2025 // While the Los Angeles wildfires inch closer toward containment, estimates of insured losses continue to creep higher. CoreLogic said the industry price tag of the Palisades and Eaton fires could land between $35 billion...
Growing Concerns About Wildfires in Carolina Thanks to Kindling Left by Helene
Jan 22 2025 // As southern California continues to suffer from wildfires, officials in another part of the country fear their area could be next – thanks to tons of dry wood left over from Hurricane Helene’s wind and...
Insurance 101: Do Your Clients Know the Difference Between Homeowners Insurance and Flood Insurance this Hurricane Season?
Jan 22 2025 // This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync. The 2024 hurricane season just wrapped, officially ending on Nov. 30, 2024, with two major storms making news and breaking records as of this writing (Hurricanes Helene...
Insurtechs’ Approach to Wildfire Insurance: Part I – Delos
Jan 21 2025 // While the Los Angeles wildfires inch closer toward containment, estimates of insured losses continue to creep higher. CoreLogic said the industry price tag of the Palisades and Eaton fires could land between $35 billion...
Los Angeles Pushes to Rebuild Homes Fast, Despite Wildfire Danger
Jan 17 2025 // California politicians are rushing to make it easier for residents to rebuild their homes incinerated in the Los Angeles firestorms. That means waiving green construction mandates designed to combat climate change —...
Smoke, Coverage Issues Cloud Wildfire Forecast: $35-$45B Losses Insured
Jan 17 2025 // CoreLogic announced a preliminary range of insured losses for the Eaton and Palisades Fires in Los Angeles of $35 billion to $45 billion, but there are a lot of factors that could change the numbers. “We don’t...
Will California’s FAIR Plan Have Enough Cash for Its Wildfire Claims?
Jan 16 2025 // There has been some question about whether California’s insurer of last resort – the FAIR Plan – has enough cash on hand to pay for its share of wildfire claims. As surplus is inadequate and reinsurance has a...
A Los Angeles Actuary on Lessons From the Palisades Fire
Jan 16 2025 // I watched as the skies over my home in Los Angeles turned an apocalyptic orange on January 7, 2025, as wildfires raged across the state. Among the most devastating, the Palisades Fire consumed thousands of acres, leaving a...
Too High? Too Low? BMS Analyzes Early Wildfire Insured Loss Estimates
Jan 16 2025 // Industry analysts’ early estimates of insurance industry losses for the January 2025 California wildfires have already grown from $8 billion to $40 billion-plus—with many noting that it’s too early for...
Georgia Lawmakers to Take up School Safety, Hurricane Relief as Session Starts
Jan 15 2025 // ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday proposed giving public schools a one-time additional $50 million to spend on school safety, but his plan falls short of the increased counseling resources school officials...
Update: LA Wildfire Insurance-Loss Estimates Approach $40 Billion
Jan 14 2025 // The cost of wildfires ravaging swaths of Los Angeles keeps rising, with new estimates of the total losses for the insurance industry now seen as high as $40 billion. The fresh figure Jan. 14 from Keefe Bruyette & Woods...
Canadian Insured Losses From Catastrophic Events Total C$8.5 Billion in 2024: CatIQ
Jan 13 2025 // The magnitude of catastrophic events experienced across Canada in 2024 pushed the insured loss total for the region to C$8.5 billion (US$5.9 billion), according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ),...
California Wildfires Wrapup: Aerial Assault Aims to Stem LA Palisades Fire Spread
Jan 11 2025 // LOS ANGELES, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Aircraft dropped water and fire retardant on steep hills to stem the eastward spread of the Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles on Saturday as on-the-ground firefighting intensified amid...
The Most Important LA Wildfire Stories to Know About
Jan 10 2025 // As firefighters gain more control over what have become the most destructive wildfires in U.S. history in a matter of days, the scale of the destruction and losses is becoming clearer. Despite the cacophony of a world...
