Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Who’s In the Path of 2010 Hurricane Season?
May 3 2010 // The North Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and lasts through November 30. Facts from the U.S. Census Bureau highlight the number of people living in areas that could be most affected by these dramatic acts of...
Price Scare
May 3 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 RIMS Benchmark Survey fell in...
Price Scare
May 3 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 RIMS Benchmark Survey fell in...
AIR Enhances Catastrophe Risk Model for Industrial Facilities
Apr 30 2010 // AIR Worldwide (AIR) has enhanced its catastrophe model for estimating property and business interruption losses for a wide variety of industrial facilities. “AIR conducts detailed, site-specific, engineering-based...
Everest Re Posts $22.7 Million Q1 Net Loss; Operating Loss $73.8 Million
Apr 30 2010 // The Bermuda-based Everest Re Group reported a net loss of $22.7 million, or $0.38 per common share, for the first quarter 2010, compared to net income of $108.6 million, or $1.76 per diluted common share, for the first...
ACE Posts $755 Million Q1 Net; Operating Income of $579 Million
Apr 30 2010 // ACE Limited reported from its headquarters in Zurich that net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, totaled $755 Million, compared to $567 million in Q1, 2009. Net income was $2.22 per share, compared with $1.69 per...
Beyond the Flood Zone: Storm Surge Multiplies Coastal Vulnerabilities
Apr 30 2010 // “Homeowners can mitigate against wind damage, but they’re powerless, really, to do anything against storm surge,” says one researcher whose job it is to develop ways to determine the vulnerability of...
Mississippi Could Be Hit with More Severe Weather This Weekend
Apr 29 2010 // Storm-weary Mississippi residents are facing another possible round of severe weather this weekend, only days after tornadoes plowed through the state and left a wide swath of destruction. National Weather Service...
Aon Employs FAConnect Platform to Meet Facultative Chile Quake Demand
Apr 28 2010 // Aon Benfield announced that it is utilizing its “groundbreaking FAConnect placement platform to respond to client demand for expanded Chile earthquake capacity.” The system opens the way for Aon’s clients...
Tornadoes in Mississippi Take 10 Lives; 700 Homes, Many Uninsured, Destroyed
Apr 27 2010 // Tornadoes that killed 10 people in Mississippi destroyed at least 700 homes and did tens of millions of dollars in damage, state authorities said Monday. Homeowners and local authorities began a clean-up operation in some...
Windstorm Claims Adding Up in Texas After Weekend Storms
Apr 27 2010 // Violent thunderstorms packing winds up to 90 miles per hour struck a six-county area southeast of Dallas early on April 24 causing thousands of windstorm claims, the Insurance Council of Texas reports. One fatality...
Zurich Estimates Chile Earthquake-related Losses at $200 Million
Apr 26 2010 // Zurich Financial Services announced that, based on preliminary estimates, it expects aggregate claims payments related to the earthquake in Chile of approximately $200 million before tax. Zurich added that the estimate is...
United Fire & Casualty Earned Premiums Down in Q1, Net Income Up
Apr 26 2010 // Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based insurance company United Fire & Casualty Co. reported a dip in premiums earned in the first quarter of 2010 compared with that in the same period in 2009, but total revenues and net income...
Tornadoes Rip Southern States; 10 Dead; 1,000 Homes Destroyed
Apr 26 2010 // Dozens of tornadoes left a path of destruction more than 50 miles long throughout the southern U.S.—including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee—over the weekend. Ten people were...
Travelers Reports Catastrophe Losses Hurt Profits in Q1
Apr 23 2010 // The Travelers Cos. Inc. reported net income for the first quarter 2010 dropped just $15 million, to $647 million in Q1 2010, compared to $662 million in Q1 2009. Operating income in the current quarter declined as well to...
Florida CEOs Urge ‘Cost Driver’ Reforms as Legislature Nears End
Apr 21 2010 // The Florida-Based Property Insurers CEO Group, representing 21 carriers, held a media conference today to discuss legislation to address the problems in the state’s property insurance market. The group downplayed the...
Gray to Lead Catastrophe Services for Dallas-based Cunningham Lindsey
Apr 20 2010 // Dallas-based independent insurance claims services company, Cunningham Lindsey, has expanded Randy Gray’s leadership responsibilities to include the Catastrophe Division. Gray currently is the vice president of...
European Insurers Expect Little Hit from Volcano Fallout
Apr 16 2010 // Airlines which stand to lose millions of euros from a cloud of Icelandic volcanic ash disrupting flights and closing airports across northern Europe are expected to have little recourse to recoup losses from insurance...
San Francisco Voters Urged to Pass $412M Earthquake Bond Measure
Apr 15 2010 // The mayor and other San Francisco officials are urging residents to approve a $412 million bond measure on the June ballot to help prepare for the next major earthquake. The measure would allocate $104 million to reinforce...
Louisiana Hurricane Researcher and Corps Critic Fails to Win Job Back
Apr 15 2010 // A federal judge refused to immediately reinstate Louisiana State University hurricane and coastal researcher Ivor van Heerden, who was stripped of most of his duties last year. Van Heerden claims he is losing his job...
