Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Partnership to Improve Hurricane Preparedness
Jan 3 2005 // Floridians will long remember 2004 as the year of the hurricane. The Atlantic region had 15 named storms, nine of them hurricanes. Of those, four hit Florida in the span of six weeks. Recently, hurricane forecaster William...
Tsunami Death Toll Rises; Indonesia Hardest Hit with Nearly 100,000 Dead
Jan 2 2005 // With tales of survival few and far between, health ministry officials in Indonesia have now said the death toll in that country from last Sunday’s killer earthquake and tsunamis has topped 94,000. With those recently...
2005 P/C industry in a word: Resilience
Jan 2 2005 // The property/casualty insurance industry reported a statutory rate of return on average surplus of 9.5 percent through the first nine months of 2005, marginally below the 10.5 percent average return recorded during...
World Responds to Asia’s Aid Call
Dec 31 2004 // Just as the disaster that struck 12 countries around the Indian Ocean was unprecedented, so too has been the response from around the world to the calls for help. Private citizens, companies and the World Bank have already...
Hawaii Hurricane Insurer Raises Rates 20 Percent
Dec 31 2004 // The state’s largest provider of hurricane insurance to local homeowners has raised its rate by an average of about 20 percent, the first rate increase in the company’s four years in Hawaii. Zephyr Insurance Co....
Worldwide Response to Asia’s Agony; Calls for Donations
Dec 30 2004 // As the scope of the disaster that struck 11 countries in the Indian Ocean continues to emerge, the world’s nations are beginning to gear up for what will undoubtedly be the largest collective relief effort ever...
FEMA Extends Aid Deadline to Feb. 28
Dec 30 2004 // The deadline for anyone who suffered losses from hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan or Jeanne to apply for assistance has been extended by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Feb. 28. A U.S. Small Business...
Swiss Re Estimates Tsunami Claims Under $90 Million
Dec 30 2004 // Swiss Re has released a statement indicating that it expects its claims for the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean to be below CHF 100 million ($88.5 million). “On 26 December 2004 near the North of Indonesia, an...
Victims of Tornado Damage Still Waiting on FEMA
Dec 30 2004 // Those without insurance whose homes were damaged in the Nov. 23 tornado that ripped through Holum and Olla, Louisiana are still waiting to hear if they can expect any help from the Federal Emergency Management...
Munich Re Estimates Tsunami Claims Below $136 Million
Dec 29 2004 // Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, has issued a bulletin concerning possible losses from the tidal waves that struck many countries around the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, which estimates the company’s...
S&P Sees No Effect on Australian Insurers’ Ratings from Tsunami Losses
Dec 29 2004 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has issued a bulletin stating that it does not expect Australian general insurers to be materially affected by the cost of insurance claims arising from the Indian Ocean...
Swiss Re Continues Investigation of Tidal Wave Disaster’s Insurance Implications
Dec 29 2004 // Swiss Re has issued a bulletin commenting on the Indian Ocean disasters, indicating that the complex nature of the event, makes it extremely difficult to project loss estimates. “Tens of thousands of lives have...
Crawford & Co. Mobilizes Catastrophe Team To Southeast Asia
Dec 29 2004 // Atlanta-based Crawford & Co., an independent provider of claims management services, has mobilized a catastrophe team in response to the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia. The company is an independent...
Fitch Sees Tsunami Repercussions Varying Across Insurance Sector
Dec 29 2004 // Fitch Ratings has issued a bulletin indicating that it “expects insured losses stemming from the recent Southeast Asian earthquake and tsunami to affect the Asian primary insurance market and the worldwide...
Georgia Still Cleaning Up After Hurricane Ivan, Storms
Dec 28 2004 // More than $114 million in hurricane claim losses have been reported in Georgia by John Oxendine, Insurance Commissioner, while Hurricane Ivan accounted for $75 million in damages. A number of families in metro Atlanta are...
Best Reports P/C Industry Maintains Underwriting Profit, Despite “Unprecedented Cat Events”
Dec 28 2004 // A.M. Best Co. has released a year-end report on the U.S. P/C industry, which indicates that, “despite the colossal hurricane losses posted during the third quarter of 2004,” it “reported very strong...
NOAA: U.S. Reported Tornadoes Reaches Record High
Dec 27 2004 // The total number of tornadoes reported in the United States reached a record high during the year 2004, surpassing the previous record by almost 300, according to officials at NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center in...
Swiss Re <em>sigma</em> 2004 Catastrophe Estimates: 21,000 Dead; $105 Billion Economic Loss; $42 Billion Insured
Dec 21 2004 // According to preliminary estimates from Swiss Re’s forthcoming sigma report, more than 21,000 people around the world lost their lives as a result of natural and man-made catastrophes in 2004. Economic losses were...
Industry Sees First 9-Month Net Gain on Underwriting in Nearly Two Decades
Dec 20 2004 // Benefiting from profits on underwriting, the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 28.3 percent to $26.7 billion in the first nine months of 2004 from $20.8 billion in the first nine...
‘Girly Men’ and the Real World: The Public Role in Extreme Risk-Sharing
Dec 20 2004 // The Wharton School professor argued that insurance companies are not “girly men” when it comes to providing coverage for extreme risks such as hurricanes and terror attacks. It’s the federal...
