Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Guy Carpenter Publishes Reinsurance Review
Jan 3 2008 // Guy Carpenter greeted the new year with the publication of “Near Misses, Plentiful Reminders: Global Reinsurance Review January 2008,” which it describes as a “briefing on the major trends driving pricing...
New Mexico Residents Still Recovering from March 2007 Tornado
Jan 3 2008 // Jim and Iris Blevins still think of their modest tan house surrounded by trees as their real home, but nowadays they live in a fifth-wheel behind the house — one of hundreds of eastern New Mexico homes damaged by...
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel Owners Sue Insurer for Earthquake Claim
Jan 3 2008 // The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii has sued one of its insurance carriers for denying a $20 million claim stemming from last year’s earthquakes. The hotel has been closed for repairs and...
Top Insurance Stories in 2007 in Southeast
Dec 31 2007 // High heat, changing winds put reputations on the line. 1. Florida’s gamble “It’s all about rates,” maintained Sam Miller, of the industry’s Florida Insurance Council. Florida lawmakers in...
Top Insurance Stories in 2007 in South Central
Dec 31 2007 // Weather, directly or indirectly, was a driving force in the insurance markets for the South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas in 2007. With the exception of Arkansas, throughout the year the South...
Maryland County Pulls Plug on Earthquake Hotline
Dec 31 2007 // Maryland’s Howard County has pulled the plug on its earthquake hotline. County Fire Department Captain Ryan Miller says the county now has other ways for residents to report and receive information during a disaster....
Top Insurance Stories in 2007
Dec 31 2007 // The debate over climate change captured the world’s attention, including the insurance industry’s, in 2007, while major hurricanes spared the United States’ coastline. The soft market took hold of...
Top Insurance Stories in 2007 in the West
Dec 31 2007 // While 2007 was a surprisingly calm year for hurricanes, that doesn’t mean Mother Nature didn’t have a tantrum or two. In 2007, the West faced its share of disasters, with freezes, floods and fires making news...
Top Insurance Stories in 2007 in East
Dec 31 2007 // New leaders tackled old issues and the region battled fire and rain. 1. No day at the beach Insurance markets for coastal properties continued to challenge insurers, agents, policymakers and property owners, despite an...
Munich Re 2007 Nat Cat Report Warns of ‘Rising Trend’
Dec 28 2007 // Munich Re’s loss figures for 2007 from natural catastrophes concludes that “despite the general absence of extreme events, overall economic losses had reached $75 billion by the end of December – an...
New Tools Can Help Underwrite, Price Winter Storm and Fire Risk
Dec 28 2007 // While winter storms do not attract the attention of mega-catastrophes such as hurricanes and earthquakes, these smaller events can add up to impact insurers’ bottom lines. However, insurers can now avail themselves...
President Signs TRIA Extension
Dec 27 2007 // With only five days left before the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act was set to expire on Dec. 31, 2007, President George Bush signed into law legislation that reauthorizes the federal backstop for seven years. Some key...
P/C Insurers’ Net Income, Surplus Rose But Profitability Dropped
Dec 27 2007 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 7.1 percent to $49.4 billion through nine-months 2007 from $46.1 billion through nine-months 2006. Fueled by the industry’s net...
Tornadoes Take Their Toll
Dec 23 2007 // While hurricanes stayed away, tornadoes did not. Powerful tornadoes killed at least 20 people and left a swath of central Florida in shambles in early February. It was the second-deadliest tornado in Florida history....
Natural Disasters, Fires, Floods, Fair Conduct Fueled Insurance Industry Discussions in 2007
Dec 23 2007 // While 2007 was surprisingly calm year for hurricanes, that doesn’t mean Mother Nature didn’t have a tantrum or two. In the past year, the West faced its share of disasters, with freezes, floods and fires making...
Weather blows through top stories of 2007
Dec 23 2007 // Weather, directly or indirectly, was a driving force in the insurance markets for the South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas in 2007. With the exception of Arkansas, throughout the year the South...
2007: Climate Change Dominates Debate While Soft Market Hits Entire P/C Market
Dec 23 2007 // The debate over climate change captured the world’s attention, including the insurance industry’s, in 2007, while major hurricanes spared the United States’ coastline. The soft market took hold of...
Survey of Analysts Projects Healthy Underwriting Profits
Dec 23 2007 // I.I.I.’s Earlybird Forecast predicts negative premium growth but continued profitability in 2008 Next year may go down on record as one of the best insurance industry underwriting performances in the past 80 years,...
Allstate’s 4th Quarter Catastrophe Losses of $100 Million Higher than ’06
Dec 20 2007 // Allstate Corp. said Tuesday October’s California wildfires plus other disasters have hiked the insurance company’s fourth-quarter catastrophe losses by about $100 million. Allstate said it received more than...
Bush Gets Terrorism Insurance Extension Bill to Sign
Dec 19 2007 // The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an extension to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) by a vote of 360 to 53 in a form closer to what the Bush Administration and the Senate would support than to an original...
