Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Charities, Businesses Call for End to Hurricane Premium Taxes
Jan 20 2011 // A coalition of Florida charitable and business groups is pressing the state to eliminate assessments charged all policyholders to subsidize the state-backed insurance provider and hurricane claims fund. In a letter to Gov....
Study Says Climate Change Link in Hurricane Losses Decades Away
Jan 13 2011 // Tropical cyclones are expected to cause more damage in the United States and Asia but it could be more than a century before insurers can point to climate change as a factor in losses from storms, scientists say. In a...
Federal Audit Rips Spending for Texas’ Hurricane Ike Cleanup
Jan 10 2011 // A scathing audit by the federal Department of Homeland Security questions whether some $45 million in public money was properly spent to remove debris in the cleanup of Chambers County, one of the Southeast Texas counties...
Jan. Reinsurance Renewals Saw ‘Orderly Rate Softening,’ Says Towers Watson
Jan 10 2011 // Record reinsurer capital levels, strong reinsurer capacity, an absence of major catastrophe losses in the U.S. and competitive pressures helped push down January 1 renewal rates for U.S. property/ casualty reinsurance...
Swiss Re Places $97 Million Windstorm Cat Bond for Groupama
Jan 7 2011 // Swiss Re Capital Markets has successfully structured and placed €75 million [app. $97 million] of notes issued by Green Fields Capital Limited covering French windstorm events. “Green Fields is a newly...
Consensus: Consumer Education Needed to Reduce Disaster Losses
Jan 6 2011 // With more than 50 percent of the country’s population living in coastal counties, there is an urgent and extensive need to convince consumers to adopt a long-term view of catastrophic risk. That is the conclusion of...
Swiss Re Concludes $170 Million Successor X Cat Bond Placement
Jan 5 2011 // Swiss Re has obtained another $170 million in protection through the Successor X Ltd. catastrophe bond program, covering Australia earthquake, North Atlantic hurricane and California earthquake risks. “The...
Australia Floods Cause ‘Catastrophic Damage’
Jan 5 2011 // Australia’s record floods are causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure in the state of Queensland and have forced 75 percent of its coal mines, which fuel Asia’s steel mills, to grind to a halt,...
Southeast Texas County Defends Hurricane Ike Spending
Jan 5 2011 // Chambers County officials are defending their spending of tens of millions of federal dollars for cleanup from Hurricane Ike after a federal audit questioned whether the money was properly used in the Southeast Texas...
Year-End Storms Cloud P/C Insurers’ Profit Picture
Jan 5 2011 // U.S. property insurers like Travelers Cos. Inc. and Chubb Corp. were expecting a relatively mild fourth quarter for catastrophe losses, but a series of punishing storms across the country in December may have blown away...
Federal Audit Rips Spending for Texas Hurricane Cleanup
Dec 31 2010 // A scathing audit by the federal Department of Homeland Security questions whether some $45 million in public money was properly spent to remove debris in the cleanup of Chambers County, one of the Southeast Texas counties...
Flagstone Re Places $210 Million Cat Bond Using RMS Paradex Indices
Dec 29 2010 // Flagstone Reassurance Suisse SA and Risk Management Solutions have announced the successful placement of $210 million of multi-peril Montana Re 2010-1 Notes, the second offering sponsored through the Montana Re shelf...
Chartis Obtains $450 Million Cat Bond with Lodestone Re
Dec 28 2010 // Chartis announced that it has entered into a reinsurance transaction with Lodestone Re, which will provide $450 million of protection to Chartis against U.S. hurricanes and earthquakes. “This represents a substantial...
Catastrophes Top 2010 List of Major Global Insurance Events
Dec 23 2010 // Natural and man-made catastrophes topped the list of the most significant events in 2010, with three major earthquakes, a near record number of hurricanes, some serious typhoons and windstorms, a volcanic eruption and a...
2010’s Top Insurance Stories in the West
Dec 23 2010 // In 2009, independent insurance agents and brokers faced a “perfect storm” with the economic downturn, premiums at a fraction of what they used to be, and unemployment and home foreclosure rates up, said Kevin...
Alabama Tornado Survivors Still Coping 10 Years Later
Dec 22 2010 // Whitney Crowder doesn’t remember the day her father died. What happened Dec. 16, 2000, has gone down in state history: Eleven people, including her father and baby brother, died when an F4 tornado hit south...
2 Years After Ike Texas Coastal Residents Still Filing Claims
Dec 22 2010 // Windstorm claims from Hurricane Ike continue to be reported more than two years after the storm made landfall. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) continues to average receiving at least one new claim every...
Fact or Fiction? Insurance Tidbits of Known and Little-Known Information
Dec 20 2010 // Have you ever wondered what big events helped shape regulation of the current U.S. insurance industry? Or if drivers of certain cars have more risk? What about the most attractive insurance job in the industry? These are...
Aon Benfield Releases Annual Cat Report; Insured Losses at $38 Billion
Dec 17 2010 // Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon Corporation, has released its Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide...
California and Feds Sign Earthquake Plan
Dec 16 2010 // California and federal emergency responders have signed a plan designed to respond to a disastrous earthquake in Southern California. A similar state-federal pact was developed two years ago for dealing with a quake in...
