Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
5.0M Earthquake Felt In Alaska’s Interior
Oct 22 2014 // Seismologists say a moderate earthquake struck Alaska and was felt in communities of the state’s interior. The Alaska Earthquake Center says the 5.0 magnitude earthquake occurred at 4:36 p.m. Monday. State...
New York’s Pace University Holds Disaster Preparedness Conference
Oct 21 2014 // Pace University in New York City held a conference Monday titled “Summit on Resilience: The Next Storm.” The event brought together corporate and foundation leaders and government representatives, providing a...
Remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo Bring Rain, Wind to Europe
Oct 21 2014 // The remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo battered Ireland and the United Kingdom with locally damaging winds and downpours on Monday night and Tuesday. Widespread wind gusts of 65 to 90 kph (40 to 55 mph) were reported across...
Jury Finds Texas Windstorm Insurer Adequately Paid City for Ike Claims
Oct 21 2014 // Texas’ wind and hail insurer of last resort in coastal areas announced that a judgment has been entered in its favor in a lawsuit brought by League City in Southeast Texas. The judgment signed on Oct. 16, 2014, by...
Travelers’ Profit Up 6% for Q3 on Investment Income, Lower Cat Losses
Oct 21 2014 // The Travelers Companies Inc. today reported net income of $919 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2014, up more than six percent compared to net income of $864 million in the prior year quarter. Operating income in...
Aon Benfield Launches Arabian Earthquake Model
Oct 21 2014 // Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development unit, launched a catastrophe model to estimate the financial impact of earthquakes in the Arabian Peninsula. The demand for catastrophe modeling in the...
Ana Turns From Hawaii, Downgraded To Tropical Storm
Oct 20 2014 // Hawaii residents started to relax Sunday after days of keeping a cautious eye on Hurricane Ana, which was downgraded by late afternoon into a tropical storm. After being dangerously close for several days the closest Ana...
California Earthquake Authority to Sell $350M of Bonds
Oct 20 2014 // The California Earthquake Authority, the largest seismic insurer in the U.S., is selling $350 million in bonds to strengthen its ability to pay claims, after the state’s first death due to a quake in 11 years. The...
P/C Insurers’ Net Income Rose in First-Half of 2014
Oct 20 2014 // U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income rose $1.6 billion to $26.0 billion in first-half of 2014 while pretax operating income fell $1.9 billion to $23.9 billion in first-half 2014, a decrease driven by lower...
Latest Colorado Hail Storm May Impact Insurance Industry Nationally
Oct 20 2014 // Colorado’s insurance industry is weighing its options after the latest hailstorm hit densely populated South Metro Denver — unusual for the Rockies in late September. What Coloradans might likely see down the...
Bermuda Recovering from Hurricane Gonzalo Property Damage, Power Outages
Oct 19 2014 // Hurricane Gonzalo scored a direct hit on Bermuda Friday night into Saturday morning, pummeling the tiny island chain with rain and howling winds that downed trees and knocked out power but spared it catastrophic damage or...
Mandates, Subsidies and Political Semantics
Oct 17 2014 // When the U.S. Supreme Court decided the fate of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in 2012, the nation was gripped by an intimate and personal political drama worthy of Broadway or, at least, General...
Tropical Storm Ana Forecast to Impact Hawaii This Weekend
Oct 17 2014 // A Central Pacific Hurricane Center advisory shows Tropical Storm Ana is located 315 miles south-southwest of Hilo, Hawaii, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. While Ana is gradually strengthening, and may achieve...
Hurricane Gonzalo Threatens Bermuda With Flooding, Storm Surge
Oct 17 2014 // Gonzalo, classified as a major hurricane and bearing down on Bermuda with tree-snapping winds, is forecast to bring flooding and a life-threatening storm surge as it’s projected to be the worst storm to hit the...
California Has Another Great ShakeOut
Oct 16 2014 // At 10:16 a.m. on Thursday employees at Golden Bear Insurance Co. were all under their desks practicing good risk management. Oct. 16 marked another Great ShakeOut event in California. According to California Insurance...
Hurricane Gonzalo Bears Down on Bermuda
Oct 16 2014 // The last major hurricane to strike land anywhere in the Atlantic basin was Sandy in 2012. That may change tomorrow as Hurricane Gonzalo bears down on Bermuda. Gonzalo again became a Category 4 storm today, the first since...
RMIIA: Colorado Hailstorm Caused $213M in Insured Losses
Oct 15 2014 // Insurers say a hailstorm last month carried a hefty price tag. Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association spokeswoman Carole Walker said Monday the Sept. 29 storm pounded thousands of vehicles and roofs, causing an...
Severe Storm Claims 2 Lives, Knocks Out Power in South
Oct 15 2014 // A severe storm system rolled across the South for a second day Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands as it made a mess of the morning commute in Atlanta and other Southern cities. The storm, which claimed two lives a...
Tropical Storm Ana Eyes Hawaii; Hurricane Gonzalo Threatens Bermuda
Oct 15 2014 // Hurricane Gonzalo grew into a major storm that threatens Bermuda later this week, while half a world away Tropical Storm Ana may become the second system this year to sweep Hawaii’s Big Island. Gonzalo, with top...
Dearth of Insurance Coverage Complicates San Francisco Quake Risk
Oct 14 2014 // The San Francisco region will probably be struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 6.7 in coming decades, and most of the billions of dollars of damages wouldn’t be covered by insurance. A worst-case,...
