Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Complex Financial Products Aren’t the Solution to Climate Change or Pandemic: Opinion
May 8 2020 // Almost exactly four years ago the World Bank announced a pioneering project, the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility, designed to develop a new insurance market and protect the world’s poorest countries against...
Federal Aid Denied to Georgia County for Damage from April Tornado
May 8 2020 // A county in Georgia will not receive any federal relief funds after a tornado that swept through the South in April destroyed dozens of homes in the area, authorities said. Murray County Commissioner Greg Hogan told news...
Florida Makes Plans for Dealing with Pandemic During Hurricane Season
May 7 2020 // As Florida slowly reopens, officials are now contemplating what they should do if the coronavirus outbreak lingers into hurricane season, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday. Hurricane season begins June 1 and...
How to Manage Two Disasters at Same Time
May 7 2020 // On March 5, Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced the state’s first confirmed case of Covid-19. Three weeks later on Easter Sunday, tornadoes touched down outside of Chattanooga, killing four people and flattening...
Willis Paints COVID-19 Insurance Loss Big Picture: It’s a Wash or Historic Catastrophe
May 7 2020 // If the novel COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control soon, the disease’s impact on the insurance industry as a whole may be pretty much a wash. It not, the industry may be on the verge of an historic...
FERMA Forms Task Force to Find Solution for Non-Damage BI Cover – Such as Pandemic
May 7 2020 // The Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) announced the launch of a task force to create proposals to address the issue of business interruption coverage for catastrophic risks. “Our aim is to...
Wildfire Danger High in Central Wisconsin
May 5 2020 // The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning on May 3 for 12 counties in central Wisconsin as the danger of wildfires remained high. A red flag warning is issued...
RMS Releases High Definition Models for European Severe Convective Storm
May 5 2020 // RMS, the Newark, Calif.-based risk modeling and analytics firm, announced the release of new European Severe Convective Storm (EU SCS) High Definition Models. The models represent 50,000 years of simulation of hail and...
PG&E Purging Most of Board in Fallout From Bankruptcy, California Wildfires
May 4 2020 // PG&E Corp. will sweep out three quarters of its board of directors to start with a mostly clean slate when it emerges from a bankruptcy case triggered by deadly wildfires ignited in Northern California by the...
Tennessee Insurance Claims from Deadly March Tornadoes Top $1B
May 4 2020 // More than 15,600 insurance claims seeking more than $1.1 billion have been filed in Tennessee over deadly tornadoes that tore through the state early last month, state officials said last month. Tennessee Department of...
California Earthquake Authority Named Administrator of Wildfire Fund
Apr 29 2020 // The California Catastrophe Response Council, which oversees the Wildfire Fund, has formally named the California Earthquake Authority the fund’s administrator. The Wildfire Fund was established by the California...
Liberty Mutual Estimates Q1 Loss from Coronavirus to Be Like Moderate Catastrophe
Apr 28 2020 // Global insurer Liberty Mutual said the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have the most impact on its first quarter investment portfolio results, with its business in trade credit, general liability, workers compensation, and...
EF-2 Tornado Caused Significant Damage in Western South Carolina
Apr 28 2020 // The National Weather Service said Sunday that a tornado touched down Saturday night in northwestern South Carolina. The EF-2 tornado at Greenville reached its “peak intensity” of 115 mph (185 kph). It created...
11 Arkansas Counties Declared Disasters after April 12 Tornadoes, Storms
Apr 27 2020 // Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has declared 11 counties disaster areas in the wake of severe storms and tornadoes on April 12, 2020. The eleven counties are Arkansas, Bradley, Cleveland, Dallas, Drew, Grant, Hot Spring,...
Small Earthquake Confirmed in Southern Oregon
Apr 27 2020 // A magnitude-3.1 earthquake struck in southern Oregon near Ashland, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. Just before 10 a.m. Friday, the quake rumbled about 10 miles southwest of Ashland at a depth of 1.6 miles, according...
Tennessee Insurance Claims from Deadly March Tornadoes Top $1B
Apr 27 2020 // More than 15,600 insurance claims seeking more than $1.1 billion have been filed in Tennessee over deadly tornadoes that tore through the state early last month, state officials said Thursday. Tennessee Department of...
Update: At Least 7 Dead After Storms in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana
Apr 24 2020 // Severe weather moved through the South on April 23 after killing at least seven people in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, including a worker at a factory hit by an apparent tornado, a man whose car was blown off the road...
Mississippi Windstorm Insureds Eligible for Fortified Roof Replacement
Apr 24 2020 // The Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association (MWUA) will now provide – at no cost to homeowners – a FORTIFIED Roof endorsement on eligible new and renewing policies. The new endorsement will apply when a covered...
Deadly Tornadoes Slam Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas
Apr 23 2020 // At least six people were killed and dozens were injured when tornadoes swept through Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas on April 22, according to media reports. In a media release issued by the Texas governor’s office,...
Earthquake Hits Croatia, a Month After Another Tremor Causes Damages of $6B
Apr 23 2020 // An earthquake rattled Croatia’s capital, a month after a stronger tremor left Zagreb in need of $6 billion for renovation, adding to a growing list of costs as the European Union battles the coronavirus. The...
