Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Elsa-Related Tornado Causes $1 Million in Damage in Port Royal, S.C.
Jul 16 2021 // A tornado spawned as Tropical Storm Elsa moved inland across South Carolina caused about $1 million damage to buildings in the Beaufort County town of Port Royal, officials said. At least 44 buildings in the town of 13,000...
Largest Wildfire in Oregon Prompts New Evacuations
Jul 16 2021 // Firefighters are scrambling to control a raging wildfire in southeastern Oregon that’s spreading miles a day in windy conditions, one of numerous conflagrations across the U.S. West that are straining...
Germany Reels from Flood ‘Catastrophe’; Insurers Expect Costly Claims for 2021
Jul 16 2021 // Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged swift help backed by “all the power of the state” for people affected by devastating flooding in western Germany, where at least 42 people have died and dozens are...
Western Wildfires Threatening Parched Tribal Lands
Jul 15 2021 // Fierce wildfires in the northwest are threatening American Indian tribal lands that already are struggling to conserve water and preserve traditional hunting grounds in the face of a Western drought. Blazes in Oregon and...
Pandemic Part of a Perfect Storm for Insurers, Homeowners Bracing for Bad Wildfire Season
Jul 14 2021 // A perfect storm appears to brewing for homeowners and property insurers in the drought-plagued, wildfire-riddled U.S. West – and as odd as it may sound, the trouble may have begun with the pandemic. Property insurance...
Hurricane Elsa Insured Loss Estimated To Be $290 Million
Jul 14 2021 // Total estimated insured losses on land from Hurricane Elsa will be around $290 million. About $240 million of that was from wind and storm surge in the U.S., while the Caribbean islands suffered about $50 million,...
Lake Charles Building Still Empty Months after Hurricane Laura
Jul 14 2021 // The Capital One Tower, a 22-story building that has stood tall over Lake Charles for nearly 40 years is still empty nearly a year after Hurricane Laura’s 150-mph winds knocked out windows up and down the building...
Cal/OSHA: Protect Workers from Unhealthy Air due to Wildfire Smoke
Jul 13 2021 // Cal/OSHA is cautioning California employers to be prepared to protect workers from unhealthy air due to wildfire smoke. When workers are at risk form unhealthy air from wildfires, California’s protection from...
Wildfires Burning Homes, Land Across 10 States in West
Jul 13 2021 // Wildfires that torched homes and forced thousands to evacuate burned across 10 parched Western states, and the largest, in Oregon, threatened a portion of California’s power supply. Nearly 60 wildfires tore through...
Report: Uptake of Earthquake Insurance in Missouri Drops to Historic Low
Jul 13 2021 // New report from Missouri insurance regulators shows earthquake coverage plummeting amid sharply escalating insurance premiums. The new Earthquake Insurance Market Report from the Missouri Department of Commerce and...
Canada Orders Rail Transport Restrictions in Areas with High Wildfire Risk
Jul 12 2021 // OTTAWA – Canada on Sunday ordered rail transport restrictions for areas where there is a high wildfire risk after a blaze wiped out the town of Lytton, British Columbia, and killed two people earlier this month. The...
Forecasters Raise Number of Expected Storms for Hurricane Season to 20
Jul 12 2021 // Researchers from Colorado State University boosted their prediction for named tropical storms in the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season in a revised forecast issued last Thursday. Colorado State meteorologists predicted 20...
Aftershocks From M6 Earthquake Rattle California, Nevada
Jul 12 2021 // Aftershocks have hit the region between Northern California and Nevada Friday after a magnitude 6 earthquake sent large boulders rolling into highways and knocked smaller items off shelves. The quake shortly before 4 p.m....
Heat Wave Blankets West as Wildfires Rage in Several States
Jul 12 2021 // Firefighters struggled to contain an exploding Northern California wildfire under blazing temperatures as another heat wave blanketed the West, prompting an excessive heat warning for inland and desert areas. Death Valley...
German Cyber-Security Watchdog Confirms Country’s First ‘Cyber-Catastrophe’
Jul 12 2021 // A district council in eastern Germany has declared a disaster after its computer systems were paralyzed by a hacker attack in what the federal cyber-security watchdog confirmed was the country’s first-ever...
Europe, U.S. and Canada Slammed by Record Weather Catastrophes in June: Aon
Jul 12 2021 // June 2021 left Europe with its costliest severe storm period on record. Meanwhile, over in the U.S. in Canada, record-setting heatwaves caused significant damage, according to Aon’s latest natural catastrophe...
Daily Mail in Negotiations to Sell Catastrophe Modeling Subsidiary RMS
Jul 12 2021 // Daily Mail and General Trust Plc (DMGT) said it is in discussions to sell its catastrophe modeling insurance unit, RMS, following a number of third party inquiries. DMGT said discussions are ongoing and there is no...
Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Begins Annual Rate Filing Process
Jul 9 2021 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association has begun its annual rate filing process, which will kick off with a July 21 meeting. TWIA’s Actuarial & Underwriting Committee is set to review the rate adequacy...
Tropical Storm Elsa Leaves One Dead in Florida, Several Injured at Georgia Navy Base
Jul 9 2021 // Tropical Storm Elsa was carving a destructive and soaking path up the East Coast after killing at least one person in Florida and spinning up a tornado at a Georgia Navy base that flipped recreational vehicles upside-down...
California Seeing More Wildfires So Far Than in Disastrous 2020
Jul 9 2021 // The number of wildfires and amount of land burned in parched California so far this year greatly exceed totals for the same period in the disastrous wildfire year of 2020. Between Jan. 1 and July 4, there were 4,599 fires...
