Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
September Economic Loss from Nat Cats $15 Billion: Aon Benfield Report
Oct 9 2013 // Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, has released its latest monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report for September, which tallied the economic costs for the month at...
Tsunami Warning Centers in Alaska, Hawaii Open Despite Shutdown
Oct 7 2013 // Despite the partial government shutdown, Americans have a full team of scientists tracking every possibility for an earthquake-triggered tsunami. The nation’s two tsunami warning centers remain fully staffed and...
As Many as 9 Tornadoes Reported in Nebraska, Iowa
Oct 7 2013 // As many as nine tornadoes – at least one rated a powerful EF3 – touched down across northeast Nebraska and northwest Iowa as a storm cell moved over the region in the evening on Oct. 4, causing structural...
Ironshore Increases Global Terrorism Coverage Capacity
Oct 7 2013 // Ironshore Inc. announced that its global Terrorism & Sabotage program to protect against diverse risk exposure worldwide has increased capacity to up to U.S. $300 million. The insurance coverages are underwritten by...
China Evacuates 400,000 People Ahead of Typhoon
Oct 7 2013 // Hundreds of thousands of people in southeast China were evacuated and fishing vessels called back to shore on Sunday because of an approaching typhoon, authorities said. Typhoon Fitow was expected to make landfall early...
Tropical Storm Karen Downgraded Before Landfall
Oct 6 2013 // Tropical Storm Karen was downgraded to a depression and storm warnings were discontinued Saturday night as the weather system churned in the Gulf of Mexico before heading toward landfall in northern Florida. Karen’s...
Lloyd’s CEO Richard Ward Reflects on ‘Nearly 8’ Eventful Years
Oct 6 2013 // Lloyd’s CEO Richard Ward is stepping down from the post at the end of the year. Despite the catastrophes of 2005 and 2011, the two costliest years in the industry’s history, as well as the financial crisis, he...
Gulf Coast Braces for Flooding from Tropical Storm Karen
Oct 3 2013 // Tropical Storm Karen may bring more than 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain, isolated tornadoes and power outages to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it is expected to go ashore over the weekend, forecasters said. Karen, with top...
Bill Would Take the Florida Cat Fund in the Wrong Direction
Oct 3 2013 // Florida state Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, has filed Senate Bill 228 to maintain the current statutory requirement that the state-run Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, better known as the Cat Fund, sell $17 billion in...
Underwriting, Investment Gains Boosted P/C Insurers’ Bottom Line in First Half 2013
Oct 3 2013 // Private U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income after taxes rose to $24.5 billion in first-half 2013 from $17.2 billion in first-half of last year. Insurers’ overall profitability as measured by their...
Tropical Storm Karen Forms in Gulf; Hurricane Watch in Effect
Oct 3 2013 // Tropical storm Karen, the 11th named storm of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season, has formed over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest bulletin. Karen is packing maximum...
New Law: New York Considers First Tornado Warning System
Oct 2 2013 // New York is looking into creating its first statewide early warning system for tornadoes. A bill signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo directs a review into the feasibility of installing a system. The system could involve...
Quiet Atlantic Storm Season Humbles Forecasters
Sep 25 2013 // The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is humbling forecasters by shaping up as the first in almost two decades without a major storm, confounding predictions that it would be more active than normal. It’s been two weeks...
Canada Regulator Urges Re/Insurers to Use Cat Bonds after Flood Disaster
Sep 25 2013 // Canada’s banking regulator is urging insurers to sell catastrophe bonds for the first time to cut the risk of natural disasters, such as the record floods that inundated swathes of downtown Calgary in June. Climate...
Swarm Of Earthquakes Shake Yellowstone
Sep 24 2013 // Until recently, Bob Smith had never witnessed two simultaneous earthquake swarms in his 53 years of monitoring seismic activity in and around the Yellowstone Caldera. Now, Smith, a University of Utah geophysics professor,...
Typhoon Usagi Weakens before Hitting China Coast: AIR Worldwide
Sep 23 2013 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Severe Typhoon Usagi, the 19th named storm to form in the Northwest Pacific this year, “made landfall near the city of Shanwei (150 kilometers [94 miles]...
E&O Insights: Mother Nature’s Effect on E&O Claims
Sep 23 2013 // It seems that practically every time you turn on the news, a part of the United States is being threatened by a significant weather-related event. It’s sometimes anyone’s guess when and where the next...
Scientists Defining Cascadia Subduction Zone in Pacific Northwest
Sep 23 2013 // It was early September and scientists were just back from a month-long research cruise in the Pacific Ocean off Washington, where they were trying to find the stickiest point on a section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone,...
Cooley Masters Quake Insurance
Sep 23 2013 // Editor’s note: This is part of a series on insurance professionals in politics. This is a national series. Some of the articles focused on the Western U.S. region can be read in the pages of this issue of Insurance...
Mass. Diocese Agrees to $60M Settlement Over Tornado Damages
Sep 23 2013 // The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has agreed to a $60 million settlement with its insurer for damage done to a parochial high school and other church property by a tornado two years ago. The resolution with insurer...
