Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Colorado Residents Cleaning Up After Tornadoes, Hail
May 23 2008 // Colorado residents affected by powerful storms are beginning to sort through the wreckage and pick up the pieces. According to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, it is too early to estimate the total...
Weather Officials Confirm Tornado Touched Down in South Carolina
May 23 2008 // The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in Bamberg County on May 20. Forecasters say the twister had winds up to 90 mph and moved from just north of Olar to near Ehrhardt in the late afternoon. The...
Alabama and Mississippi Officials Ready for Hurricane Response
May 23 2008 // With no Gulf Coast hurricane since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Alabama and Mississippi officials have worried that residents and tourists could become complacent about the seriousness of orders to flee the next disaster...
Iowa City Votes Down Purchase of Earthquake Insurance
May 22 2008 // City leaders in Johnston, Iowa have decided against earthquake insurance in the wake of two tremors this spring in Illinois and Missouri. The City Council on Tuesday, May 20th rejected spending $4,000 a year for an...
RMS Launches New Catastrophe Modeling Analysis Service
May 22 2008 // Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has unveiled its new RMS RiskAnalytics operation, which provides a team of highly skilled analysts to perform catastrophe modeling activities as a seamless extension of a company’s...
Tornado Strikes Northern Colorado
May 22 2008 // A large tornado struck Northern Colorado on May 22, 2008, striking several areas in the town of Windsor, which is about 80 miles north of Denver. Initial reports indicate one person was killed, but there were no official...
Nobel Peace Prize Winners Honor Catastrophe Model Pioneer Clark
May 22 2008 // Karen Clark, who developed the first hurricane catastrophe model, has been recognized by a climate change group that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Clark, president and chief executive officer of Karen Clark & Co. in...
Scientists Predict $200B in Damage from Southern California Earthquake
May 22 2008 // The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Geological Survey (CGS) have jointly published a report detailing a hypothetical scenario the impact a 7.8 magnitude earthquake — similar to the recent earthquake...
Officials Say April Earthquake a Dress Rehearsal for Future Events
May 21 2008 // Missouri emergency management officials say they’re better prepared for a major earthquake, thanks in part to last month’s 5.2 quake in southern Illinois. Susie Stonner of the State Emergency Management Agency...
Central Pacific Hurricane Center Predicts 3-4 Cyclones
May 21 2008 // The Central Pacific Hurricane Center is predicting slightly fewer than normal tropical cyclones to develop in the Central Pacific basin during the upcoming season. Forecasters at National Oceanic Atmospheric...
Financial Relief on the Way to Alabama for Tornado Damage
May 20 2008 // Residents and business owners in several northeast Alabama counties will get financial help to rebuild and repair property affected by the severe storms and tornado on May 11. Officials announced May 16 that beginning May...
A.M. Best: Credit Woes May Cause Turbulence in Catastrophe Markets
May 19 2008 // The credit crunch in the U.S. financial markets that boiled over after the subprime mortgage meltdown may affect the ability of insurers and reinsurers that cover coastal areas to raise cash for claims if a major hurricane...
Twisters Hit Record High Early in Season in Midwest
May 19 2008 // One account said that the tornado that hit Seneca, Mo., was a mile wide and traveled 60 miles on the ground before starting to dissipate. On May 4, 2008, the residents of Greensburg, Kan., remembered the anniversary of the...
Tornadoes Kill 15 in Southwestern Missouri; Governor Calls in National Guard
May 19 2008 // Category K-4 tornadoes that cut across three states on Saturday (May 10) night killed 15 people in southwestern Missouri. The hardest areas hit were in rural southwestern Missouri about eight miles north of Seneca and 10...
Alabama Students Hope Balloons Lead to Improved Tornado Warnings
May 19 2008 // Studying balloons’ payload could be first step toward programming Doppler radar to recognize tornado debris Three hot-air balloons dropped asphalt shingles, lumber, sticks, leaves and pine needles onto a north...
Damages Mount – again – In Storm-battered South Central States
May 19 2008 // Storms have caused more than $3 billion in damages this year, insurance group says As the town of Picher, Okla., began to climb out of the wreckage of the deadly tornadoes that swept across Southeastern Oklahoma, Missouri...
Nine Catastrophes to Cost P/C Insurers $3 Billion in First Quarter
May 19 2008 // U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $3.35 billion for first-quarter property losses resulting from nine catastrophes. The nine events identified as catastrophes by the...
Munich Re, Aon Securitize Japanese Earthquake Risks
May 16 2008 // Munich Re, working with Aon, has arranged a securitization for Japanese insurer Zenkyoren, the National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, through Muteki Ltd., an exempted company in the Cayman...
Florida Hurricane Conference Presents Message of Preparedness
May 16 2008 // Preparing for hurricanes, despite two slow previous storm seasons, is key to the survival of Floridians and recovery efforts, officials said. About 2,800 people attended the 22nd Annual Governor’s Hurricane...
Firefighters Get Upper Hand on Florida Wildfire, Schools Open
May 16 2008 // Firefighters hoped to make further major gains against a wildfire that has charred thousands of acres along Florida’s Atlantic coast, as police questioned a man seen tossing a Molotov cocktail into nearby...
