Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Evacuation Orders Lifted in Washington Wildfire
Jul 14 2015 // Evacuations orders have been lifted for a Central Washington wildfire, officials said Tuesday. Firefighters worked to continue strengthening fire lines, and do mop up work on the 22,212 acre blaze, which is now 80 percent...
Southern California Wildfire Caused by Human Activity, Officials Say
Jul 14 2015 // Authorities say human activity caused a Southern California wildfire that burned four buildings and 49 square miles of forest land. However, it’s unclear whether the fire was set on purpose or by accident. The blaze...
Global Insured Cat Losses in First Half Are Below Long-Term Average: Munich Re
Jul 14 2015 // Overall losses and insured losses from natural catastrophes during the first half of 2015 were below long-term average values, according to a review of global natural catastrophes issued by Munich Re. Total natural...
As Nine Storms Roar Across the Pacific Ocean, Two Forces Are to Blame
Jul 14 2015 // The Pacific Ocean, named for placidity, is roaring. In the past week, eight tropical systems — and that includes two major typhoons — have formed across the Pacific from China to Mexico. On top of that, another...
Typhoon Chan-hom Loses Strength as It Moves Toward Korean Peninsula
Jul 13 2015 // Typhoon Chan-hom, which caused the evacuation of about a million people and the cancellation of hundreds of air flights in eastern China on Saturday, weakened as it moved northeast along the East China ocean toward the...
Texas Seeking Applications for Windstorm Insurance Assoc. Board
Jul 12 2015 // The Texas Department of Insurance is accepting applications for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association board of directors after the makeup of the board was changed by the 84th Legislature. Under Senate Bill 900, the...
UK Insurers to Stress Test Capital Reserves Against Synchronized Terrorist Attack
Jul 10 2015 // UK regulators have asked property and casualty insurers to stress test their capital reserves against catastrophes, including a synchronized terrorist attack in London, New York and one other major city. The Prudential...
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Must Report Terrorist Activity: Senate Bill
Jul 9 2015 // Social media operators such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube would have to notify federal authorities of online “terrorist activity,” according to the text of a bill approved by the U.S. Senate Intelligence...
Typhoon Chan-hom Tracks toward SE China, May Graze Taiwan: AIR Report
Jul 9 2015 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Chan-hom is “steadily intensifying as it passes over warmer-than-average ocean water.” The storm also remains on track to make land fall on Saturday...
ACE Doubles Terrorism, Political Violence and War Insurance Capacity
Jul 9 2015 // ACE Group announced it is offering increased insurance capacity of up to US$100 million/100 million euros (previously US$50 million/50 million euros) for terrorism, political violence and war risks in response to evolving...
Aon Benfield’s June Cat Report Highlights China Rains, Floods, U.S. Storms
Jul 9 2015 // Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, has released its latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluates the impact of the natural disaster events that...
5 Tornadoes Confirmed in Middle Tennessee
Jul 9 2015 // The National Weather Service says it has confirmed five tornadoes touched down in Middle Tennessee during storms July 2. The Tennessean reports two tornadoes touched down in Wilson County, two in Old Hickory and one in Mt....
PERILS 3rd Loss Estimate for Windstorm Ebon-Felix is $362 Million
Jul 8 2015 // PERILS AG has disclosed its third loss estimate for windstorm Elon-Felix which affected Western and Northern Europe between the 8th and the 12th of January 2015. The revised estimate of the property insurance market loss...
Three Steps Towards Getting Your Portfolio Ready for Hurricane Season
Jul 6 2015 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Insuring property along our nation’s coastlines can be either extremely lucrative or laden with risk. Many coastal residents are underinsured—which puts...
California Funds Incentives for Earthquake Protection
Jul 6 2015 // When California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the 2015-2016 budget, it included $3 million in funding to expand the Earthquake Brace and Bolt program and clarified that the program’s grants are income-tax exempt at the...
Wildfire Report Shows 2 Million California Homes at Risk as Drought Continues
Jul 6 2015 // A report issued in June shows California has more than 2 million homes at “high” or “extreme” wildfire risk, as the multi-year drought continues to stoke fears among some experts of a potentially...
Report Says 6.6M-Plus Atlantic, Gulf Coast Homes at Risk of Storm Surge
Jul 6 2015 // More than 6.6 million homes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of hurricane storm surge with a total reconstruction cost value estimated to be nearly $1.5 trillion, according to a recently released report. The...
How Hurricane Katrina Changed Business Preparation Planning for Disasters
Jul 6 2015 // Nearly 10 years ago, wind and storm surges as a result of Hurricane Katrina caused $41 billion in insured losses and $108 billion in total economic losses. Many of the lawsuits filed as a result of the fifth hurricane of...
‘Seismicity’: Re/insurers Ponder the Impact of Human-Caused Earthquakes
Jul 6 2015 // Earthquakes, the natural kind caused by the movements of vast tectonic plates, have been occurring since the dawn of time. But now there is a new type of quake, the study of which has been labeled “seismicity,”...
Spate of Climate Change Reports Ahead of Global Summit
Jul 2 2015 // Ahead of December’s big and much-talked about United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 or CMP11, it seems there’s been an information ramp up of sorts. I’m not just talking about Pope...
