Latest Catastrophe Headlines

All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Florida Insurers Head Into Hurricane Season with Fingers Crossed

Jun 7 2010 // Florida’s property insurance companies haven’t suffered hurricane losses for nearly five years, but many claim to be losing money even while collecting hefty premiums. It’s a complex paradigm for almost...

Storm Management

Jun 7 2010 // The Atlantic hurricane season forecasts are in and they aren’t pretty. All the major forecasters have predicted the season will be much more active than last season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric...

Price Scare

Jun 7 2010 // Seven years and running, the soft market shows few signs of loosening its grip on commercial insurance pricing, according to a new industry study. Average premiums in every line tracked by the Risk and Insurance Management...

Aon Scientist Analyzes Insurance Coverage for Volcanic Eruptions

Jun 4 2010 // Volcanic eruptions are right up there with hurricanes and earthquakes on the list of nature’s most formidable catastrophes. The April eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland was but one manifestation...

Guy Carpenter Terrorism Report: Insurance Supply Outpaces Demand

Jun 3 2010 // Guy Carpenter, Marsh’s reinsurance brokerage and risk assessment division, has published “Terrorism: Reinsurers Standing By.” It concludes that “insurers and reinsurers have become increasingly...

Aon Sees Progress Against Terrorism, But Threats are Evolving

Jun 3 2010 // In conjunction with the release of the latest version of its “Terrorism Threat Map,” Aon’s Crisis Management division analyzes the current state of the ongoing efforts to combat terrorist activities. The...

2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season: 76% Chance Major Storm to Hit U.S.

Jun 3 2010 // The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be even more active than feared, leading U.S. forecasters said Wednesday as they predicted 10 hurricanes, five of them major, with a 76 percent likelihood that a major hurricane...

Florida’s Emergency Chief Hopes Agency Turmoil Is Over

Jun 2 2010 // Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, under a second director since Craig Fugate left a year ago to run its federal counterpart, is getting a jump start on the hurricane season. With the storm season to begin...

CSU Team Increases 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Forecast to 10

Jun 2 2010 // The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to produce 10 hurricanes, five of them major, the Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team said Wednesday, increasing a previous estimate for a “very...

Tropical Storm Agatha Kills 99 in Central America

Jun 1 2010 // The death toll in Central America from landslides and flooding triggered by the year’s first tropical storm surged to 99 on Sunday, as authorities struggled to clear roads of debris and reach cut-off...

AIR Report Analyzes Potential Hurricane ‘Implications’ of Gulf Oil Spill

Jun 1 2010 // Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide has released a report that examines the implications of the Gulf oil spill on the upcoming hurricane season as well as indications of what this might mean to wildlife,...

10 Catastrophe Bonds Closed Before Hurricane Season Opening

Jun 1 2010 // Reinsurers transferred $2.35 billion in catastrophe risk to capital markets before the U.S. hurricane season that began Tuesday, higher than the $1.4 billion last year, as the catastrophe bond sector starts to resume...

Florida Officials Worry About Complacency Over Hurricanes

May 28 2010 // It’s been more than 1,600 days since Florida was hit by a hurricane, and that one — Wilma — walloped Natalie Premock’s home. But since then, nothing. And time has faded memories. The 31-year-old...

Hurricanes May Snap Gulf of Mexico Pipelines, Study Says

May 28 2010 // Hurricanes could rupture underwater oil and natural gas pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico, which is already struggling with the worst oil spill in U.S. history, according to a new study by researchers at the U.S. Naval...

Recent Patterns Heighten Threat of Active Atlantic Hurricane Season

May 27 2010 // The threat of an above-average 2010 Atlantic hurricane season has heightened over the past month and it now promises to be “a hell of a year,” a leading U.S. forecaster said Wednesday. William Gray, the...

NOAA Cites Factors Supporting Forecast of Busy Hurricane Season

May 27 2010 // An “active to extremely active” hurricane season is expected for the Atlantic Basin this year, according to the seasonal outlook issued today by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center – a division of the...

U.S. Hurricane Center Director Says Haiti is ‘Biggest Concern’

May 26 2010 // U.S. National Hurricane Center director Bill Read said Tuesday that earthquake-ravaged Haiti was his biggest concern as another Atlantic hurricane season gets under way. He also acknowledged that a powerful storm could...

Insurers Paid $768 Million in Losses from 2009 Colorado Windstorm

May 25 2010 // An insurance organization says a windstorm that brought two weak tornadoes, rain and hail to the western Denver suburbs last July caused $768 million in insured losses to vehicles and homes. The Rocky Mountain Insurance...

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Urges Flood, Hurricane Preparedness

May 25 2010 // Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon kicked off his summer storm tour to raise awareness for hurricane and flood preparedness by urging consumers to protect themselves and their property against Louisiana’s...

Tropical Storm Risk Forecasts Active 2010 Hurricane Season

May 25 2010 // Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) provides “real-time mapping and prediction of tropical cyclone wind fields worldwide.” The firm is co-sponsored by Aon Benfield, with RSA and Crawford & Company. It has just...