Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Windstorm Insurer: Finances Sound at Start of Hurricane Season
Jun 1 2017 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) says it is financially sound and ready for the 2017 hurricane season by once again securing $4.9 billion in total funding. In a media release, TWIA said its 2017 season...
Coastal Texans Concerned About Rising Sea Levels Amid Hurricane Threats
May 31 2017 // Lalo Ojeda has lived with hurricanes all his life. The Houston Chronicle reports he was 14 when Hurricane Carla inundated Galveston Island in 1961. He evacuated as Hurricane Rita barreled toward the coast in 2005, then...
Average 2017 Wildfire Season Predicted for Wyoming
May 31 2017 // State forester Bill Crapser says most of Wyoming is predicted to have slightly below average to average large wildfires this year. Crapser says there could be a lot of wildfires started by lightning but most are not...
Storms Bring Tornadoes, Flash Floods, Evacuations in Midwest
May 26 2017 // Heavy rainfall that sparked flash flooding in Fort Wayne, Ind., forced motorists to flee submerged cars and prompted the evacuation of about 20 homes in the northeastern Indiana city. And in Ohio, authorities say tornadoes...
Pacific Hurricane Season Depends on El Niño: NOAA
May 26 2017 // Forecasters say the central Pacific region around Hawaii can expect a normal or slightly above-average hurricane season, depending largely on the presence of El Niño conditions. Chris Brenchley, director of the National...
NOAA Updates Forecast for Atlantic Hurricane Season, Pacific’s El NIno
May 26 2017 // The Atlantic hurricane season will likely churn out an above-average 11 to 17 named storms, in part due to fading odds than an El Nino will form in the Pacific. Of storms that emerge during the six-month season that begins...
Report: Florida Resident Sparked Wildfire With Lawn Mower
May 26 2017 // A lawn mower is being blamed for sparking a wildfire that destroyed five structures in Florida. The Naples Daily News reports that the state’s Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement concluded its investigation into...
Report: Climate Change to Increase Insured Losses from Windstorms in the U.K.
May 25 2017 // Climate change will drive up wind losses in the U.K. in coming years, according to a recent report from the Association of British Insurers, the Met Office, and Boston, Mass.-based catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide. The...
Wildfire near Leavenworth, Washington, Forces Evacuations
May 25 2017 // Evacuation orders are still in effect in as crews battle a wildfire north of Leavenworth, Washington. Brendan Cowan, a spokesman for the Northwest Incident Management Team, says the blaze covered about 40 acres as of...
Wisconsin County’s Initial Tornado Damage Estimate: $10M
May 25 2017 // The Barron County Sheriff’s Department has released initial damage estimates from a tornado that tore through the Chetek area of northwestern Wisconsin last week. The department said Sunday that the storm damaged 231...
Alaska Hosts Plate Tectonics Research Effort
May 25 2017 // Alaska averages 40,000 earthquakes per year, with more large quakes than the other 49 states combined, and America’s shakiest state is about to have its ground examined like never before. A federal agency that...
Damage Reported in North Carolina From Severe Storms That Spawned Tornado
May 25 2017 // Officials in a North Carolina county say a tornado has destroyed a fire department. The Fayetteville Observer reports Sampson County Emergency Management said the Autryville Fire Department was destroyed by a tornado on...
Damage Assessment from 7 Oklahoma Tornadoes Ongoing
May 24 2017 // Meteorologists say seven tornados that occurred in northeast Oklahoma last week have received preliminary damage ratings. The Tulsa World reports tornados near Wagoner, Red Bird and Porter reached estimated wind speeds of...
U.K. Security Services Warn of Imminent Terrorist Attack; U.S. Leaks Criticized
May 24 2017 // Soldiers are to patrol British landmarks and sporting events in their biggest homeland deployment in decades, as security services warned that another attack by terrorists who killed 22 people at a pop concert on Monday...
Colorado Hailstorm on Pace to be Most Expensive in State History
May 23 2017 // More than 150,000 auto insurance claims and 50,000 homeowners claims are estimated to be filed in the wake of a monster hailstorm that pounded Colorado’s Front Range on May 8, putting it on pace to be the...
Swiss Re Places $925M Cat Bond for California Earthquake Authority
May 23 2017 // Swiss Re Capital Markets Corp. has successfully structured and placed the issuance of $925 million of insurance-linked securities for the California Earthquake Authority. Swiss Re Capital Markets underwrote the transaction...
Insured Losses for Europe’s Windstorm Thomas Rise to $279.2M: PERILS
May 23 2017 // The latest property insured loss estimate for Windstorm Thomas, which on Feb. 23-24 hit the British Isles, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, is €249 million (US$279.2 million), according to PERILS, the independent...
Weather Co. Updates Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast
May 22 2017 // In its second seasonal tropical forecast for the North Atlantic basin for the 2017 season, IBM’s The Weather Co. said it now expects a total of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes, a slight...
Florida Hurricane Cat Fund Ready for Storm Season
May 22 2017 // The Florida fund that helps private insurers pay out claims after a hurricane continues to be in strong shape ahead of storm season. Estimates prepared by Raymond James show the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund will have...
Residents Assess Damage After Night of Tornadoes in Central U.S.
May 18 2017 // Residents of an Oklahoma subdivision and a Wisconsin trailer park that were leveled by deadly tornadoes sifted through what remained of their homes and possessions Wednesday, even as forecasters warned of another round of...
