Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Drones Will Be Used to Investigate Cause of Alberta Wildfires
May 9 2016 // Fire-ravaged Alberta will use drones to investigate the cause of a huge blaze that has scorched the Canadian province and displaced some 88,000 people. Elevated Robotic Services, which has also deployed drones for mining...
Alberta Wildfires Set to Veer from Oil Sands Operations, Spreading More Slowly
May 9 2016 // Wildfires raging through Alberta are set to move away from the main oil-sands facilities north of Fort McMurray after knocking out an estimated 1 million barrels of production from Canada’s energy hub. A cold front...
Weather Service Confirms Tornado Near Wilmington, North Carolina
May 9 2016 // The National Weather Service says a tornado struck northern New Hanover County, uprooting trees and damaging some homes. The storm hit in the Ogden area about 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The National Weather Service in Wilmington...
Weather Service Confirms Weak Tornado Stuck Western Indiana
May 6 2016 // The National Weather Service confirmed this week that a tornado touched down briefly in western Indiana on Sunday. The weather service rated the tornado as an EF-0, estimating it had peak winds of 70 mph. The weather...
Alberta Wildfire Insured Losses Could Total $7.3B, Covering Area Bigger Than NYC
May 6 2016 // The wildfires ravaging Canada’s oil hub in northern Alberta have rapidly spread to an area bigger than New York city, prompting the air lift of more than 8,000 evacuees as firefighters seek to salvage critical...
Earthquake Resilience Topic at Southern California Conference
May 5 2016 // Most people aren’t prepared for the big one. If there was one common theme at a three-day earthquake conference in downtown Long Beach, Calif., that was it. The National Earthquake Conference, which runs through...
Natural Disaster Losses Hit Five-Year High in April: Aon Catastrophe Report
May 5 2016 // The global economy suffered the worst April natural disaster losses for five years, according to Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team. Earthquakes, convective storms and flooding...
U.S. Insured Catastrophe Losses from 13 Events in Q1 Add Up to Worst in Decade
May 5 2016 // Catastrophe activity in the U.S. led to $3.8 billion in insured losses in 29 states during the 2016 first quarter, with much of the damage hitting Texas. Those events were the worst in a decade in terms of frequency and...
Alberta Wildfire Could Become Canada’s Costliest Natural Catastrophe
May 5 2016 // A wildfire in the Alberta city of Fort McMurray is set to become the costliest ever Canadian natural disaster for insurers, with 1,600 buildings destroyed and another 19,000 under threat, analysts and industry sources...
Officials: 9 Tornadoes in Oklahoma, Arkansas Last Week
May 5 2016 // Meteorologists have identified tornado damage in Muskogee County nearly a week after a string of at least nine weak tornadoes across northeastern Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Tulsa World reports that the National Weather...
Louisiana Tornado Confirmed by Weather Service
May 4 2016 // The National Weather Service confirms that a tornado hit rural parts of northern St. Landry Parish and southern Avoyelles Parish in Louisiana on Saturday. Forecaster Jonathan Brazzell said Sunday that the Weather Service...
Update: Canadian Wildfire Rages, Leading to Evacuation of 80,000 People
May 4 2016 // Fire raged unchecked through the Canadian city of Fort McMurray overnight as authorities raced to complete the evacuation of its population of 80,000, fearful that hot, dry winds forecast for Wednesday would further fan...
Utah Earthquake Country Examined
May 2 2016 // Signs of earthquakes are everywhere in the chaotically beautiful geology of southwest Utah and the region where the mile-high Colorado Plateau falls off into the corrugated Basin-and-Range landscape that dominates...
XL Catlin Names Huang as Asia U/W Manager, War, Terrorism & Political Violence
May 2 2016 // XL Catlin’s insurance operations announced that Carrie Huang has been promoted to the position of Asia underwriting manager for War, Terrorism and Political Violence. Based in Singapore, she will be responsible for...
3.0 Earthquake Hits Western Alabama
May 2 2016 // No injuries are being reported following a small earthquake in Alabama’s Tuscaloosa County. The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 3.0 earthquake occurred around 4 a.m. Friday about halfway between Tuscaloosa...
University of Alabama Partners With Industry on Tornado Preparedness Guide
May 2 2016 // The Alabama Center for Insurance Information and Research at The University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce has partnered with the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, the Alabama Department of...
Earthquake Insurance Rates a Concern in Oklahoma
May 2 2016 // Concerned about a lack of competition in the state’s earthquake insurance market, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak has set a public hearing to investigate rising rates. The May 24 hearing will include data...
San Antonio Hailstorm: Costliest Ever in Texas?
May 2 2016 // A hailstorm that covered a swath of nearly 70 miles hit the San Antonio area on April 12 and is estimated to become the costliest such storm in Texas history, an insurer trade group says. The storm was concentrated in the...
PERILS Joins Singapore’s NatCatDAX, Aiming to Close Asia Nat Cat Protection Gap
Apr 28 2016 // PERILS, the Zurich-based independent organization providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, announced it has joined the Singapore-based Natural Catastrophe Data and Analytics Exchange (NatCatDAX) Alliance, which...
Lloyd’s Market Urged to Use Oasis Open-Source Cat Models for Wider Risk View
Apr 28 2016 // Lloyd’s managing agents should take full advantage of Oasis, the open source catastrophe modeling platform, in order to get wider views on catastrophe risks, urged Tom Bolt, Lloyd’s director of performance...
