Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Berkshire’s 14-Year Insurance Win Streak Comes to an End
Feb 26 2018 // Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s combination of insurance entities have recorded 14 consecutive years of underwriting profit worth more than $28 billion. The Oracle from Omaha has repeatedly warned his...
Kansas House Panel Rejects Earthquake-Prevention Bill
Feb 20 2018 // A Kansas House committee has rejected a bill that was designed to prevent earthquakes that experts say are caused by oil and gas production wastewater disposal methods. The Sierra Club and several Kansas residents who say...
TDI: Nearly 670K Property Insurance Claims Generated in Texas by Hurricane Harvey
Feb 19 2018 // Hurricane Harvey resulted in nearly 670,000 in combined personal and commercial property insurance claims to private insurers, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) and the Texas Fair Access to Insurance...
Europe’s Windstorm Burglind (aka Eleanor) Estimated to Cost $802.5M: PERILS
Feb 16 2018 // Initial insured losses for Extratropical Cyclone Burglind (also known as Eleanor) are estimated at €643 million (US$802.5 million), according to PERILS, the Zurich-based organization that provides industry-wide...
UK’s Pool Re Launches Terrorism Risk Assessment Tool to Help Insureds Cut Premiums
Feb 14 2018 // Pool Re, the UK terrorism reinsurer, announced the launch of the Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool (VSAT). Aimed at medium and large businesses, this tool will enable Pool Re member insurers to offer a 5 percent premium...
Nearly 670K Property Insurance Claims in Texas from Hurricane Harvey: TDI
Feb 13 2018 // Hurricane Harvey resulted in nearly 670,000 in combined personal and commercial property insurance claims to private insurers, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) and the Texas Fair Access to Insurance...
All Types of Disasters Covered at Oklahoma’s National Tornado Summit
Feb 13 2018 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department reports that national experts will share innovative strategies in recovering from tornadoes, wildfires, flooding, hurricanes and more at the 2018 National Tornado Summit to be held in...
CNA Reports Solid Q4 and Year 2017 Despite Catastrophes
Feb 13 2018 // Insurer CNA saw its fourth quarter 2017 combined ratio improve and its quarterly net income dip only slightly despite catastrophe losses. For the full year 2017, it achieved net income of nearly $900 million, which was...
False Alarms Shake Confidence in Public Alert System
Feb 13 2018 // Weather junkie John Grosso knew it was highly unlikely a monster wave was barreling toward the Connecticut coast. Still, when a tsunami warning appeared out of the blue on his phone Tuesday, he felt a twinge of fear. His...
Judge Voids Verdict on Arab Bank Liability for Terrorism; Triggers Settlements
Feb 12 2018 // A U.S. appeals court has thrown out a 2014 jury verdict finding Arab Bank Plc liable for knowingly supporting militant attacks in Israel linked to Hamas, a decision that triggers a settlement agreement with hundreds of...
Fracking Earthquakes Pop Up in Unexpected Corner of Oklahoma’s Shale Patch
Feb 9 2018 // The oil prospectors of Oklahoma, it appeared, finally had a solution to their earthquake problem. Ordered by regulators to curb the wastewater they were dumping deep into the ground, they watched with satisfaction as...
AIG’s Doubling of Q4 Loss Pinned on Wildfires, Tax Act
Feb 9 2018 // American International Group reported a net loss of $6.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to a net loss of $3.0 billion in the prior-year quarter. The fourth quarter of 2017 net loss included a charge of...
January Windstorms to Cost Europe’s Insurers More Than $2B: Aon
Feb 9 2018 // European windstorms Friederike, Eleanor and Carmen wreaked widespread damage in January, causing insured losses of more than $2 billion, according to a report published by Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s...
Managing the CEA’s growth would be easier with this one small fix
Feb 8 2018 // The California Earthquake Authority, the state’s privately funded and publicly managed earthquake “instrumentality,” is growing like mad. A spate of recent natural disasters—in combination with savvy...
U.S. Weather Service Test Became False Tsunami Warning on East Coast
Feb 8 2018 // A tsunami warning was erroneously sent Tuesday to some mobile phones along the East Coast and other coastal locations, less than a month after a false notification of a missile attack in Hawaii was sent by that...
Investments, Tax Cuts Boosted Allstate Profit in Q4
Feb 8 2018 // The Allstate Corp., like many carriers, faced an enormous hit from natural catastrophe losses in the 2017 fourth quarter. Investment returns soared by double digits, however, and the Trump tax cuts gave it a one-time gain,...
CoreLogic Identifies Flood and Wildfire as the Two Most Destructive Natural Hazards in 2017
Feb 7 2018 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis Details 2017 Natural Hazard Events CoreLogic® analyzes and evaluates the number and severity of natural hazard events...
How Disasters Expose Challenges and Opportunities for Insurance
Feb 7 2018 // Although clear challenges can come with the increasing cost and frequency of global natural disasters, there could also be untapped opportunity for insurers to tackle coverage gaps, according to panelists at the Insurance...
Aon Securities Structures Largest-Ever Earthquake Catastrophe Bond for World Bank
Feb 7 2018 // Aon Securities, the investment banking division of reinsurance intermediary and capital adviser Aon Benfield, has assisted the World Bank in structuring the largest-ever catastrophe bond covering earthquake, which provides...
Thousands of Acres Scorched by Northeastern Oklahoma Wildfires
Feb 5 2018 // Firefighters say wildfires have scorched thousands of acres of dry grasslands in northeastern Oklahoma. Dozens of firefighters fought a grassfire along Oklahoma Highway 20 in Osage County Saturday evening that officials...
