Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Suspected Arson Wildfire Forces Evacuations in Northern California
Sep 24 2021 // Thousands of people were under evacuation orders Friday and many others were on notice to be ready to flee as a destructive wildfire raged in a drought-stricken forest in California’s far north. A woman suspected of...
Insured Price Tag for Canada’s Summer Storms and Wildfires Nears C$200M
Sep 24 2021 // Two storms that raged across Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada in July and August caused C$120 million (US$94.5 million) in insured damage, while the August wildfire, in White Rock Lake, British Columbia, is now estimated...
Karen Clark & Co. Releases Version 1.0 of U.S. Wildfire Model
Sep 22 2021 // Karen Clark & Co. (KCC), the Boston-based catastrophe modeling company, announced it has released Version 1.0 of its high-resolution U.S. Wildfire Model. This advanced and fully probabilistic model provides exceedance...
Damage from Hurricane Ida to Cut Shell Oil Production Until Early Next Year
Sep 21 2021 // Royal Dutch Shell, the largest U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil producer, said damage to offshore transfer facilities from Hurricane Ida will cut production into early next year, slashing deliveries of a type of crude oil prized by...
Brit Launches Machine Learning Algorithm to Accelerate Catastrophe Claims Response
Sep 21 2021 // Brit Ltd., the London-based specialty insurer and reinsurer, announced the creation and successful proof-of-concept launch of a proprietary machine-learning algorithm, designed to accelerate the identification of...
Analysis: Ida’s Destruction May Help Louisiana’s Hurricane Laura Victims
Sep 20 2021 // Hurricane Ida’s thrashing left homes in mangled heaps across southeastern Louisiana, but in an uncomfortable twist, the storm might have been a boon to southwestern parishes still struggling to recover from last...
Aluminum Wrap Being Used to Protect Homes from California Wildfires
Sep 20 2021 // Martin Diky said he panicked as a huge wildfire started racing down a slope toward his wooden house near Lake Tahoe. The contractor had enough time to do some quick research and decided to wrap his mountain home with an...
AIR: Hurricane Ida Losses Could Reach $30B
Sep 20 2021 // Modeling firm AIR Worldwide updated its insured loss estimates for Hurricane Ida and now projects that Ida’s insured industry losses will range from $20 billion to $30 billion. The estimate includes inland flood...
No Injuries as 4.3M Earthquake Rattles Los Angeles
Sep 19 2021 // A small earthquake shook the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area Friday night, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. There weren’t any immediate reports of major damage or injuries. The magnitude-4.3 quake struck...
RMS Estimates US$31– $44 Billion in Total U.S. Onshore and Offshore Insured Losses from Hurricane Ida
Sep 17 2021 // Estimates reflect insured wind, storm surge, and inland flooding impacts in the U.S., including losses to the National Flood Insurance Program and the private flood market. Newark, CA – September 17, 2021 – RMS®, the...
Tropical Storm Nicholas Expected to Bring Flash Flooding to Deep South
Sep 14 2021 // Tropical Storm Nicholas is expected to produce life-threatening flash flooding to portions of the deep South through early Friday according to the National Hurricane Center. Nicholas was approximately 50 miles east of...
AccuWeather: Nicholas Hits Texas as Cat 1 Hurricane
Sep 14 2021 // Nicholas made landfall as a hurricane, packing 75-mph winds, on the coast of Texas on Monday night, and AccuWeather forecasters say the slow-moving storm will unleash life-threatening flooding along the Texas Gulf Coast,...
PG&E Judge Wants to Know Why Power Wasn’t Cut on Line Linked to Wildfire
Sep 14 2021 // A federal judge wants PG&E Corp. to explain why it didn’t turn off power sooner to a utility line suspected of causing the second-largest wildfire in California history. At a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge...
Tropical Storm Nicholas to Test Post-Harvey Houston Infrastructure
Sep 14 2021 // On Aug. 25, the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, which dumped about 50 inches of rain on Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that the city “is safer today as it prepares to move forward.” Now comes...
Tropical Storm Nicholas Drenches Texas, Louisiana
Sep 14 2021 // HOUSTON — Heavy rains lashed Texas and Louisiana on Tuesday as hurricane Nicholas weakened into a tropical storm, bringing the threat of widespread floods and power outages as it swept down the U.S. Gulf Coast. It is the...
67% of Northern Minnesota Wildfire Contained
Sep 13 2021 // Authorities said on Sept. 12 that a vast majority of the Greenwood Lake wildfire in northern Minnesota is contained, one month after lighting ignited the blaze in the Superior National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service...
AIR Says Hurricane Ida Insurance Losses Could Reach $30 Billion
Sep 13 2021 // Modeling firm AIR Worldwide has updated its insured loss estimates for Hurricane Ida and now projects that Ida’s insured industry losses will range from $20 billion to $30 billion. The estimate includes inland flood...
KCC Estimates Sept. 7 Mexico Earthquake Insured Losses at $200M
Sep 13 2021 // The impact from the the strong (magnitude 7.0) earthquake that occurred Sept. 7 near Acapulco City, Mexico is expected to be moderate, with insured losses of about $200 million, according to catastrophe modeling firm Karen...
U.S. Hurricane Ida, Haiti Quake, Multiple Major Wildfires Among August’s Disasters: Aon
Sep 13 2021 // Hurricane Ida will likely become one of the costliest U.S. mainland hurricanes on record both on a nominal and inflation-adjusted basis, according to Aon’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluated the...
Tropical Storm Nicholas Heads for Texas, Louisiana
Sep 13 2021 // Tropical Storm Nicholas will pass near or just offshore the coasts of northeastern Mexico and south Texas this morning, and move onshore along the coast of south or central Texas late this afternoon or evening, the...
