Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
PERILS Expands Estimates to Include Earthquake, Flood in Italy
May 7 2013 // PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has extended its market coverage to include Italy, and will provide data for both earthquake and flood perils with...
California Wildfire Appears Accidental, Drizzle Aids Firefighters
May 6 2013 // Investigators have ruled out arson as the cause of a huge Southern California wildfire that was 75 percent contained Sunday after burning through coastal mountains and threatening thousands of homes. Continuing cool, moist...
New York Mountain Town Awaits Hurricane Relief, 20 Months Later
May 6 2013 // Rebecca Hoskins poked through the debris in her flood-wrecked house: a TV here, a light fixture there. Someone had been in and taken down the curtains. She blinked back a tear. It was a crisp early spring day and her first...
Experts Weigh Boston Bombings’ Impact on TRIA Debate
May 6 2013 // The April 15 Boston bombings could have an impact on the efforts to renew the federal government’s terrorism insurance backstop. Some experts say the Boston Marathon tragedy could help the cause of supporters of the...
RIMS Conference in LA Risks No Loss of Subject Matter
May 6 2013 // Renewal of the Terrorism and Risk Insurance Act was a much talked about topic at the annual Risk and Insurance Management Society conference, a four-day event in Los Angeles, Calif. in late April that included panels...
Time to Press Again for Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Reauthorization
May 6 2013 // Congress faces a packed agenda this year. Deficit reduction, immigration reform and gun control will dominate the agenda. But another issue must be added to the docket — reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance...
U.S. P/C Industry Posts $33.5B 2012 Income Despite Huge Catastrophe Losses of $32B
May 6 2013 // U.S. property/casualty insurers absorbed net insured catastrophe losses of more than $32 billion last year, but still managed to post $33.5 billion in net income in the aggregate — in part because catastrophe losses were...
Southern California Wildfire Causes Homes To Be Evacuated
May 3 2013 // A Southern California wildfire grew to more than 15 square miles and firefighting crews prepared Friday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather. The fire erupted Thursday in the Camarillo area, damaging 15...
XL Group Reports $350.8 Million Q1 Net Income; P&C Combined Ratio 87.7%
May 3 2013 // CEO Mike McGavick seemed quite pleased with XL’s results for, the first quarter of 2013. “XL once again delivered solid results — the kind of results we seek to routinely produce,” he wrote in the...
RenaissanceRe Posts $190.5 Million Q1 Net Income; 36.2% Combined Ratio
May 3 2013 // Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. reported net income available to common shareholders of $190.5 million or $4.23 per diluted common share in the first quarter of 2013, compared to $201.4 million or $3.88 per...
SNL Report: Cat Bond Market Continues to Progress
May 3 2013 // A report from SNL Financial cites the recent activity in the insurance linked securities (ILS), or “Cat Bond” market is continuing to be an attractive alternative for insurers. SNL’s report notes that...
Researchers Develop New Metric to Measure Destructive Potential of Hurricanes
May 1 2013 // Researchers at Florida State University have developed a new metric to measure seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone activity that focuses on the size of storms in addition to the duration and intensity, a measure that may...
Demand, Rates for Terrorism Insurance Coverage Remain Steady: Marsh
Apr 30 2013 // The recent bombing at the Boston Marathon serves as a reminder that mass violence remains a critical threat for organizations, say experts at insurance brokerage Marsh, which just issued its latest report on sales of...
Experts Weigh Boston Bombings’ Impact on Government-Backed Terrorism Insurance
Apr 30 2013 // The April 15 Boston bombings could have an impact on the efforts to renew the federal government’s terrorism insurance backstop. Some experts say the Boston Marathon tragedy could help the cause of supporters of the...
First Confirmed Japanese Tsunami Debris in California
Apr 29 2013 // A barnacle-covered fishing boat that washed ashore this month in Crescent City, California, has been confirmed as the first debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan to reach California’s shores. The National Oceanic...
To Tax or Not to Tax – ‘Foreign’ Reinsurance’ Tax Proposals on the Agenda Again
Apr 29 2013 // “Roundup the usual suspects;” here we go again. No, it’s not an unsolved murder in wartime Casablanca, simply the latest skirmish in the ongoing dispute over whether companies that write reinsurance in...
Chubb Q1 Profit Rises 30% to $656M; CEO Says ‘Market Remains Firm’
Apr 26 2013 // Chubb Corp. reported on Thursday $656 million net income for its 2013 first quarter, an increase of 29.6 percent compared to $506 million income reported during the first quarter of 2012. The insurer of businesses and...
Storms Flood Streets, Damage Houses in Southeast Louisiana
Apr 26 2013 // A fast-moving line of intense thunderstorms flooded streets, knocked out power to more than 30,000 people in southeast Louisiana on April 24 and spawned two tornadoes that damaged homes and businesses in Jefferson...
U.S. P/C Industry 2012 Income $33.5B in Spite of $32B in Cat Losses
Apr 26 2013 // U.S. property/casualty insurers absorbed net insured catastrophe losses of more than $32 billion last year, but still managed to post $33.5 billion in net income in the aggregate—in part because catastrophe losses were...
Defining Terrorism for Policies Not a Simple Task After Boston Tragedy
Apr 25 2013 // There are a number of issues involved in determining whether the Boston bombings tragedy would be considered a terrorist act for insurance purposes such as determining the applicability of terrorism exclusions and...
