Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
East Coast Warned Hurricane Florence May Visit Next Week
Sep 6 2018 // As the remains of Tropical Storm Gordon soak the Mississippi Valley, forecasters are tracking a major hurricane deep in the Atlantic Ocean that could threaten the U.S. East Coast next week. Hurricane Florence, a Category 4...
U.S. Report Says Lack of Staff, Resources, Planning Hurt FEMA’s 2017 Disaster Response
Sep 6 2018 // The federal government’s chief watchdog slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the hurricane that killed thousands of people in Puerto Rico last year, saying it was unprepared and failed...
Update: Weakened Gordon Dumps Heavy Rains; Hurricane Florence Heads Toward Bermuda
Sep 5 2018 // Tues., Sept 6, 1:16 am— Tropical Depression Gordon was expected on Thursday to dump more heavy rains that could cause flooding in central U.S. states as Hurricane Florence, a monster Category 3 storm, churned toward...
California Bridge Under Construction Gets Sensors to Gather Earthquake Data
Sep 5 2018 // A replacement bridge under construction at the second-busiest port in the U.S. isn’t just a crucial route for cargo trucks and Southern California commuters – it’s a concrete-and-steel science experiment for...
Typhoon Jebi Hits Osaka in Japan, Leaving a Trail of Damage, Airport Closed
Sep 5 2018 // Regions around Osaka, Japan’s second biggest population center, struggled to recover from damage left by Typhoon Jebi, which left 10 people dead, hundreds of thousands of buildings without power and the area’s...
Florida Insurance Chief Warns of AOB Scams as Storm Gordon Lingers Over Gulf Coast
Sep 5 2018 // Florida’s top insurance regulator has issued a warning to residents facing damage from Tropical Storm Gordon, the first major storm to impact the state in the 2018 Hurricane Season. Florida Insurance Commissioner...
Update: Tropical Storm Gordon Weakens as It Makes Landfall
Sep 4 2018 // Tropical Storm Gordon weakened after making landfall just west of the Alabama-Mississippi border and lashing the U.S. Gulf Coast with high winds and heavy rain early on Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC)...
California Lawmakers OK Bill to Help PG&E Pay for Wildfire Costs
Sep 4 2018 // California lawmakers passed legislation to help utility giant PG&E Corp. pay for billions of dollars in potential liabilities from wildfires that ravaged Northern California wine country last year. The state Assembly...
Record Numbers of Named Hurricanes Form in Pacific, with Much Quieter Atlantic
Sep 4 2018 // Hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans follow a see-saw pattern — when one region is down, the other is usually up. And with the Atlantic quiet this year, the Pacific is setting records. There’s been a...
Typhoon Jebi Makes Landfall in Japan as Strongest Storm to Hit Country in 25 Years
Sep 4 2018 // Typhoon Jebi made landfall in western Japan on Tuesday, the strongest tropical cyclone to come ashore in Japan in 25 years, and has picked up speed as it bears down on one of Japan’s most densely populated areas. The...
Tropical Storm Gordon to Become Hurricane, Strike Gulf Coast Tuesday; Flood Damage Expected
Sep 3 2018 // Tropical Storm Gordon will grow into a hurricane as it grazes offshore natural gas and oil fields, where it has already sparked evacuations, before coming ashore over the lower Mississippi Valley later on Tuesday or early...
A Tale of Two Floridas: Hurricane Irma’s Belated Impact on Reinsurers
Sep 3 2018 // Reinsurers expressed different views of loss developments related to Hurricane Irma, when executives reviewed the impact of the Florida event on second-quarter earnings reports last month. Everest Re was among those...
6 Small Businesses Share Disaster Recovery Stories
Aug 31 2018 // As small business owners in Hawaii and California clean up following Hurricane Lane and wildfires, they’ll find there’s no one formula for recovery. The same disaster can devastate businesses in divergent ways...
ILS Issuance in H1 Tops $7B, Reflecting Capital Markets’ Re/Insurance Appetite: Swiss Re
Aug 31 2018 // The first half of 2018 aptly demonstrated that the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has an undiminished appetite to provide re/insurance protection – despite last year’s expensive insured natural...
Calm August No Guarantee of Hurricane-Free September
Aug 31 2018 // Where are all the big Atlantic storms? A year ago, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, kicking off a parade of destructive storms that made 2017 the costliest Atlantic season ever. So far in 2018, the region has been...
Houston Eyeing Designer Bonds to Pay for $15B Ike Dike
Aug 30 2018 // A massive dike to hold back storm-driven floods surging in from the Gulf of Mexico was first proposed after Hurricane Ike devastated the Houston-area coast a decade ago. Last year’s Hurricane Harvey disaster brought...
Virginia Reminds Homeowners to Review Property Coverage Before a Hurricane
Aug 30 2018 // Although hurricane activity in the Atlantic has been relatively quiet so far for 2018 with only five named storms to date, the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) Bureau of Insurance is reminding Virginians...
Judge Says FEMA Can End Motel Payments for Hurricane Maria Evacuees
Aug 30 2018 // A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request to block the U.S. government from cutting off aid to hundreds of Puerto Rican families who fled the hurricane-ravaged island in 2017 and are living in hotels and motels across...
California Legislature Passes Bill Aimed Collecting Data and Helping Wildfire Victims
Aug 29 2018 // The California Legislature has passed Senate Bill 824, a bill aimed at provided information to the California Department of Insurance related to fire risk information on the residential property policies issued by...
A.M. Best: Insurers Equipped to Handle Hurricane Lane Losses
Aug 29 2018 // A.M. Best is expecting Hurricane Lane to be considered more of a flood event than a wind event. As a result, the storm that buffeted Hawaii should bring a potential triggering of the National Flood Insurance...
