Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Increased Chance of Big One in Long-Term Quake Forecast for California
Mar 23 2015 // Chances that California will experience a magnitude 8 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years has increased from 4.7 to 7.0 percent, according to an earthquake forecast by the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners. The...
Jury Verdict Favors Texas Insurer in Hidalgo County Hail Claim Case
Mar 23 2015 // A Texas-based insurance company has prevailed in the first lawsuit to go to trial over claims from two massive hailstorms in Hidalgo County, Texas, in 2012. The 12-member jury in Amaro v. National Lloyds found that...
Wildfire in 2015: What to Expect?
Mar 23 2015 // The past two years did not result in the amount of wildfire activity that many wildfire scientists, foresters and fire responders had expected. Looking back, the 2013 season had the earmarks of a bad year, with the...
Wildfire in 2015: What to Expect?
Mar 21 2015 // The past two years did not result in the amount of wildfire activity that many wildfire scientists, foresters and fire responders had expected. Looking back, the 2013 season had the earmarks of a bad year, with the...
Crestbrook to Offer Wildfire Mitigation for High Value Homeowners
Mar 20 2015 // Crestbrook Insurance Co., an affluent market personal lines carrier, has launched Crestbrook Wildfire Solution Program in collaboration with Wildfire Defense Systems (WDS), an insurance wildfire loss prevention and...
Natural Disasters Could Cost $750 Billion Annually in 15 Years: AIR Study
Mar 19 2015 // Economic losses from global natural catastrophes likely will triple over the next 15 years, unless steps are taken to reduce bad development choices, according to preliminary results of a catastrophe modeling study...
Wildfire Spreads in Western Oklahoma, Homes Evacuated
Mar 18 2015 // Emergency personnel say about a dozen people have been evacuated from their homes because of wildfire that has burned 37 square miles in rural western Oklahoma. Woodward County emergency manager Matt Lehenbauer said on...
Boston Bombing Lesson: Risk Managers Urge Better ‘Terror Act’ Certification
Mar 18 2015 // Citing uncertainty following the Boston Marathon bombing almost two years ago, risk managers are urging the federal government to set a deadline for certifying if an event is an act of terrorism and also use...
Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting Launches New Blast Model for Terrorist Attacks
Mar 18 2015 // Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, is applying a new blast engineering approach to provide a more realistic understanding of the potential range of losses from a terrorist...
El Nino Could Signal Tornado Activity in South: Researchers
Mar 17 2015 // The waters of the Pacific Ocean may provide some clues on what kind of tornado season will erupt across the southern U.S., according to a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. The study found that if the Pacific enters...
Oklahoma Contractor Charged with Defrauding Moore Tornado Victims
Mar 16 2015 // Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has charged a Tulsa contractor with two felony counts of embezzlement for fraudulent business practices in rebuilding homes damaged by the May 2013 tornado. The AG’s office said...
Palomar, TriCoast Insurance Launch Windstorm-Hurricane Product in Hawaii
Mar 13 2015 // Palomar Specialty Insurance Co. has partnered with TriCoast Insurance Services, LLC to offer a residential windstorm-hurricane insurance product in Hawaii. The product is a stand-alone hurricane coverage that will be...
Nat Cat Risks Aggravated by Persistent Extreme Weather Conditions: Munich Re
Mar 13 2015 // Munich Re has published a report, which notes that “over the past years, persistent extreme weather conditions have triggered severe natural catastrophes and caused losses in the billion range.” In addition the...
RMS Study Shows Significant Tsunami Risk in Caribbean, Mediterranean
Mar 12 2015 // RMS, the catastrophe risk management firm, has released a global tsunami risk study that identifies more than 20 subduction zones worldwide capable of generating a giant earthquake and tsunami – similar in scale to...
Increased Chance of Big One in Long-Term Quake Forecast for California
Mar 11 2015 // Chances that California will experience a magnitude 8 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years has increased from 4.7 to 7.0 percent, according to an earthquake forecast by the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners. The...
Earthquake Risks Are Rising, but Take-Up Isn’t
Mar 11 2015 // The West Coast’s risk of ruin is even greater than we previously feared. According to the just-released Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, the likelihood that California could see an earthquake of...
Florida Ends Citizens Assessment Two Years Ahead of Schedule
Mar 10 2015 // Florida’s insurance regulators are two years ahead of schedule in ending an assessment used to retire a bond issued by the state-backed property insurer Citizens following the eight-storm 2004-2005 hurricane...
Low Catastrophe Claims Help to Boost Full-Year Profit for Hannover Re
Mar 10 2015 // Hannover Re, the world’s third-biggest reinsurer, plans to pay a special dividend after fourth-quarter profit rose more than analysts estimated, helped by low catastrophe claims. The shares climbed. Net income rose...
Jury Verdict Favors Texas Insurer in Hidalgo County Hail Claim Case
Mar 9 2015 // A Texas-based insurance company has prevailed in the first lawsuit to go to trial over claims from two massive hailstorms in Hidalgo County, Texas, in 2012. The 12-member jury in Amaro v. National Lloyds found that...
CEA Kicks off Earthquake Insurance Selling Program for Agents
Mar 9 2015 // The California Earthquake Authority has again kicked off its annual “Marketing Value Program,” in which the quasi-private earthquake insurer encourages agents to sign up to receive direct mail marketing...
