Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
36 Tornadoes Confirmed in Deadly Southeast Outbreak
Mar 8 2019 // The number of tornadoes confirmed to have touched down in a deadly weekend outbreak across the Southeast has risen to at least 36. Survey teams for the National Weather Service found evidence of the twisters in Alabama,...
Pool Re Funds £10M Initiative to Help UK Businesses Improve Resilience to Terrorism
Mar 8 2019 // Pool Re, Britain’s terrorism reinsurer, is collaborating with UK government agencies to help businesses proactively protect against the risk of terrorism. The £10 million ($13.1 million) project is being funded by...
Australia Floods Cost Insurers US$635M in February: Aon’s Catastrophe Recap
Mar 8 2019 // Australia’s Northern Queensland experienced widespread flooding from Jan. 26 to Feb. 7, which cost insurers more than A$893 million (US$635 million) with total economic losses of at least A$1.7 billion (US$1.2...
Improved Tornado Forecasting Doesn’t Prevent All Deaths
Mar 8 2019 // Sometimes in forecasting tornadoes, you can get everything technically right, and yet it all goes horribly wrong. Three days before the killer Alabama tornado struck, government severe-storm meteorologists cautioned that...
Alabama Tornado Recovery Efforts Begin As Threat of More Storms Looms
Mar 7 2019 // All those listed as missing have been found and searches ended with no additional bodies discovered among the shattered homes, splintered pines and broken lives devastated by a tornado in rural Alabama, leaving the death...
Despite Improved Tornado Forecasting, Deaths Continue
Mar 7 2019 // Sometimes in forecasting tornadoes, you can get everything technically right, and yet it all goes horribly wrong. Three days before the killer Alabama tornado struck, government severe-storm meteorologists cautioned that...
Wildfires Threaten Towns in Rural Southeast Australia
Mar 7 2019 // More homes were being threatened Tuesday [March 5] by wildfires that have burned dozens of homes and buildings in rural southeast Australia. Victoria state Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said emergency...
Arrowhead Launches Commercial Earthquake Program in California
Mar 7 2019 // Arrowhead General Insurance Agency has launched Quake Assist — a commercial earthquake program designed to help protect California business owners. Quake Assist is underwritten by Falls Lake National Insurance Co.,...
Southeast Storm System Spawned 18 Tornadoes, ‘Monster’ EF4 in Alabama
Mar 6 2019 // Picking through the twisted debris that had been her Alabama mobile home, Carol Dean found her wedding dress and a Father’s Day note to her husband reading, “Daddy, I love you to pieces.” Her husband was...
M4.5 Earthquake Confirmed Near Colorado-Utah Border
Mar 6 2019 // A 4.5 magnitude earthquake occurred near the Utah-Colorado border and was felt in the tourist town of Moab, Utah, officials confirmed. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reported that the earthquake hit Monday...
Industry Eyes Renewal of U.S. Terror Reinsurance and Alternatives Should Congress Fail
Mar 5 2019 // U.S. insurers are pushing for the extension of a federal terrorism risk insurance program, hoping to fend off a possible gap that would leave their clients scrambling for alternate coverage. The program, which expires at...
Death Toll Climbs After Tornadoes Strike Southeast
Mar 5 2019 // This photo shows debris in Lee County, Ala., after what appeared to be a tornado struck in the area Sunday, March 3, 2019. Severe storms destroyed mobile homes, snapped trees and left a trail of destruction amid weather...
Opinion: California’s Wildfires Burn Our Climate Illusions
Mar 4 2019 // Joan Didion’s “Holy Water,” written in 1977, is a paean to the elaborate engineering that supplied her taps in Malibu and filled drinking glasses in Hollywood restaurants. At its heart is a warning: The...
Pool Re Completes £2.3B ($3.1B) Terrorism Retrocession Placement
Mar 1 2019 // Pool Re, Britain’s state-backed terrorism reinsurer, has today completed placement of its £2.3 billion (US$3.1 billion) retrocession program with more than 50 international reinsurers, led by Munich Re. The program,...
Liberty Mutual Boosted Q4, 2018 Profit Helped by Lower Catastrophe Losses
Feb 28 2019 // Liberty Mutual Holding Co. and its subsidiaries reported net income of $249 million for the fourth quarter 2018 and $2.160 billion for the full year 2018, increases of $44 million and $2.143 billion over the same periods...
Insurer Group Warns on Property Losses Due to Climate Change
Feb 27 2019 // Insurers are increasingly worried that rising temperatures will lead to a slump in property values that could spark broader financial turmoil. Those were the conclusions a group run out of the University of Cambridge...
U.K.’s Pool Re Sells Terrorism Risk Catastrophe Bond
Feb 26 2019 // A U.K. reinsurer has sold the first terror catastrophe bond, giving investors the chance to lock in high yields in return for taking on terrorism risks. The 75 million-pound ($99 million) three-year bond will pay 5.9...
Tornado Kills 1 in Mississippi; Flooding Threatens Southeast
Feb 26 2019 // Weekend storms raked parts of the Southeast, leaving deaths and injuries in their wake as a tornado smashed into a commercial district in a small Mississippi city and drenching rains fed a rising flood threat. A woman was...
Florida Woman Arrested in $68K Hurricane Irma Scam
Feb 21 2019 // A Florida woman has been arrested for alleged unlicensed practice of public adjusting and grand theft related to Hurricane Irma, according to a statement from the Florida Department of Financial Services. Mary Bruce is...
Ironshore’s Shrubb Joins AXA XL’s Terrorism Insurance Team in U.S.
Feb 20 2019 // Morgan Shrubb has joined AXA XL Insurance as underwriting manager for War, Terrorism & Political Violence insurance. Shrubb joins AXA XL from Ironshore International where she served as a production specialist, charged...
