Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Customer Satisfaction with Home Insurers Improves, Says J.D. Powers
Sep 1 2011 // Customer satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies this year is up from 2010, but still remains below levels achieved in 2009. Overall satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies averages 769 in...
Alabama Governor Names Tornado Recovery Panel
Sep 1 2011 // Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley chose the president and CEO of Protective Life Corp., Johnny Johns, and the publisher of The Birmingham News, Pam Siddall, this week to lead his Tornado Recovery Action Council. Bentley...
Katia Becomes Hurricane East of Leeward Islands
Sep 1 2011 // Tropical storm Katia has become the second hurricane of the season, as it passes over the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean. The most recent bulletin from the National Hurricane Center in Miami at 2:00 a.m. EDT located the...
Earthquake, Hurricane Keep Maryland Insurance Agents Busy
Sep 1 2011 // First came the earthquake; then the hurricane. Now comes the bill. And with any luck, you have a decent insurance policy that will cover the cost of most, if not all, of the damages sustained in one or both natural...
Irene’s Impact on Private Insurance Markets
Aug 31 2011 // The $7 billion in estimated losses from Hurricane Irene compound the vast damage caused by weather in the United States this year. Yet despite billions they’ve paid out for floods, tornadoes and earthquakes, big...
Irene’s Impact on Fragile U.S. Economy
Aug 31 2011 // The struggling U.S. economy should escape largely unscathed from Hurricane Irene and may even get a boost from reconstruction. Irene, which killed about 40 people when it dumped 5 to 15 inches (12 to 38 cm) of rain over...
Can Federal Flood Insurance Handle Irene Losses?
Aug 31 2011 // The only thing worse than getting flooded out of your home once is getting flooded out of it twice. Or, for that matter, over and over again. Margaret Wert bought her Wayne, New Jersey house in 1999, relying on assurances...
Swiss Re Sigma Study Examines Government/Private Sector Coverage
Aug 31 2011 // Swiss Re’s latest sigma study – “State involvement in private insurance” – examines the increasing symbiosis between governments and the private insurance sector. The report notes that...
Moody’s Sees Stable Outlook for Personal Lines Insurers
Aug 30 2011 // The personal lines insurance sector maintains a stable outlook in the face of a highly competitive environment, 2011 catastrophe losses and sluggish economic conditions, according to a report from Moody’s Investors...
Oregon Wildfires Threaten Homes
Aug 30 2011 // Weather conditions improved for firefighters trying to contain a 45,000-acre grass fire in central Oregon, after red flag warnings expired. A dispatcher at the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville said...
Typhoon Nanmadol Departs Taiwan, Heads for China
Aug 30 2011 // Typhoon Nanmadol headed to southeastern China on Monday after dumping more than 20 inches (half a meter) of rain in southern Taiwan, where wide swaths of agricultural land were flooded and some 8,000 people evacuated. The...
Tropical Storm Katia Forms in Eastern Atlantic
Aug 30 2011 // The Miami-based National Hurricane Center is currently tracking Tropical Storm Katia, which formed earlier today out of tropical depression 12. The latest tropical storm of the already busy hurricane season is...
Pacific Coast Towns Rethink Tsunami ‘Vertical’ Evacuation Options
Aug 29 2011 // When the next devastating earthquake strikes off the Northwest coast, it is expected to send a tsunami so fast that it could leave coastal communities with perhaps 20 minutes to escape the surge of water. For small towns...
Colorado Says It Has No Funds to Aid Earthquake Victims
Aug 29 2011 // Colorado officials say they have no money to help earthquake victims in southern Colorado. Department of Local Affairs spokeswoman Linda Rice said the state is providing technical assistance, including geological analysis,...
P/C Industry ‘Adequately Capitalized’ Says Best, Despite Irene Losses
Aug 29 2011 // A.M. Best has begun an assessment of the potential financial impact Hurricane Irene’s passage through the Caribbean and up the East coast of the U.S. might have on the property/casualty industry in the U.S.,...
AIR Estimates Irene Insured Caribbean Losses at $500 Million to $1.1 Billion
Aug 29 2011 // AIR Worldwide has estimated that insured losses in the Caribbean from Hurricane Irene will be between $500 million and $1.1 billion. AIR said it “expects the Bahamas will account for more than 60 percent of the...
8 Dead as Typhoon Nanmadol Slams Northern Philippines
Aug 29 2011 // Slow-moving Typhoon Nanmadol remained dangerous Sunday despite weakening as it struck the tip of the mountainous northern Philippines, leaving at least eight people dead and scuttling a visit by a U.S. Navy battleship...
Irene Floods Northeast; Manhattan Spared Worst
Aug 29 2011 // Hurricane Irene swept through Manhattan Sunday but reserved the worst of its fury for towns and suburbs up and down the northeastern United States, where driving rain and flood tides inundated homes and cut power to...
Earthquake Showed Difficulties of Evacuating D.C.
Aug 29 2011 // The nation’s capital has prepared for emergencies with sleek communication systems, intelligence fusion centers and chemical detention centers at train stations. What showed during the 5.8-magnitude quake that shook...
Investors Placed Their Bets On Hurricane Irene
Aug 28 2011 // While people in New York and the rest of the U.S. East Coast on Friday were buying batteries and water ahead of Hurricane Irene, some investors were more focused on placing their bets just in case this really is “the...
