Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Irma Update: Tropical Storm Exits Florida for Georgia After Flooding Cities, Cutting Utilities
Sep 10 2017 // Downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, Irma flooded several northern Florida cities with heavy rain and a high storm surge on Monday as it headed out of the state after cutting power to millions and ripping roofs...
After Powerful Mexico Quake, Authorities Evaluate if Cat Bond Payout Triggered
Sep 10 2017 // At least 61 people died when the most powerful earthquake to hit Mexico in over eight decades tore through buildings and forced mass evacuations in the poor southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, triggering alerts as far...
Hedge Funds Overseeing Cat Bonds Try to Remain Calm Over Irma
Sep 8 2017 // Greg Hagood didn’t have many details to work with on Thursday afternoon. Hurricane Irma wasn’t expected to make landfall in South Florida for another 64 hours. Projections for its path were all over the place,...
Chemical Fallout from Hurricane Irma Could Be Worse than Harvey’s
Sep 8 2017 // Before flames and smoke leaped into the sky over the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, last week, Jolyn Masters was hunkered down at home on a Hurricane Harvey-flooded street a mile away. Then came a knock. A...
New York’s ‘Sixth Borough’ with Trophy Condos in Hurricane Irma’s Path
Sep 8 2017 // Beyond the bar and the palm-fringed pool, past the gold-leafed columns and floor-to-ceiling murals, workers at the grand Faena Hotel Miami Beach prepared for Hurricane Irma’s fury. Their unusual assignment: fortify...
Irma Update: Georgia Coast Evacuation Underway; Gas, Water Shortages in Miami
Sep 8 2017 // Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, drove toward Florida on Friday after lashing the Caribbean with devastating winds and torrential rain, killing 19 people and leaving a swathe of...
Rethinking Freight Flood Risk Management After Hurricane Harvey
Sep 8 2017 // A week before Hurricane Harvey walloped Houston, workers for Union Pacific Corp. began moving rail cars out of the railroad’s Englewood switching yard near downtown and brought in enough generators to fill 70 tractor...
Tackling Houston’s Flood-Damaged Cars Takes an Army of Tow Trucks
Sep 8 2017 // How do you remove hundreds of thousands of damaged cars from a massive city still mired in water and muck? Tow-truck driver Alex Toll will tell you: one vehicle at a time. Toll is part of an army of more than 1,000 tow...
New Texas Task Force Formed to Investigate Hurricane-Related Fraud
Sep 8 2017 // Federal prosecutors will lead a new Houston-based group created to help law enforcement agencies respond to an inevitable wave of fraud and other criminal activity set off by Harvey’s punishing rains. Authorities are...
Life-Threatening Hurricane Irma Heads for Miami-Dade County
Sep 8 2017 // Hurricane Irma continued on a collision course with Miami after devastating a chain of Caribbean islands, triggering the largest evacuation in Miami-Dade County history and threatening to become the most expensive storm in...
Hurricane Irma Pummels Caribbean Islands; 14 Known Deaths
Sep 7 2017 // The eye of Hurricane Irma grazed the Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday, rattling buildings after it smashed a string of Caribbean islands as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, killing 14 people on...
Hurricane Irma Devastates Chain of Caribbean Islands, Now Setting Sights on Florida
Sep 7 2017 // Irma barreled toward Florida after battering Puerto Rico and devastating a chain of small Caribbean islands, as the Category 5 hurricane threatens to turn into the most expensive storm in U.S. history. Irma, one of three...
AIR Worldwide Estimates $65B – $75B in Texas Property Damage from Harvey Flooding
Sep 7 2017 // Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has estimated property losses from the flooding in Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey’s record-breaking rainfall will be between $65 billion and $75 billion. These...
Update: Insurance Industry Preparation for Hurricane Irma in Full Swing in Florida
Sep 7 2017 // Source: National Hurricane Center Insurers are taking no chances in preparing for Hurricane Irma as the powerful category 5 storm slogs its way through the Caribbean, devastating the communities left in its wake on its...
Houston’s Small Businesses Digging Out from Hurricane Harvey
Sep 7 2017 // Josh Beasley and his fiancé bought Houston’s Body3 Personal Fitness on July 1, less than two months before Tropical Storm Harvey swamped the gym with a foot of water and left behind the dank stench of fetid...
Here’s What a Category 5 Hurricane Could Do to Florida
Sep 7 2017 // Florida hasn’t suffered a category 5 storm since Hurricane Andrew hit the north Miami area on Aug. 24 1992, but the risk of such a storm has not gone away or even declined. In fact, the state’s risk of...
Relief Slow for Small Texas Coastal Towns Recovering from Harvey
Sep 6 2017 // Some shoreline communities in Texas that bore the brunt of Hurricane Harvey still need clean water, electricity and health care more than a week after the winds and rain subsided. Locals in Port Aransas, Seadrift and...
Hurricane Irma Brings Fierce Winds, Surf and Rain to Caribbean Islands
Sep 6 2017 // Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, churned across northern Caribbean islands on Wednesday with a potentially catastrophic mix of fierce winds, surf and rain, en route to a possible...
Florida’s Private Flood Insurers Could Face Big Test from Hurricane Irma
Sep 6 2017 // Hurricane Irma could test a nascent private flood insurance market in Florida that some advocates say is a model for making U.S. flood coverage more affordable and commonplace in high-risk areas. Florida’s private...
Powerful Hurricane Irma, on Path to Slam Caribbean Then Florida, Could Surpass Katrina
Sep 5 2017 // Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm to form in the open Atlantic Ocean, made landfall in the Caribbean early Wednesday and barreled toward Puerto Rico on a path that may bring it ashore in Florida and destroy so much...
