Latest Earthquake Headlines

All the headlines from our Earthquake Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Earthquake Awareness: Not Just a California Thing Anymore

Jun 25 2001 // Residents in Oregon and Washington would probably be surprised to know that more than 1,000 earthquakes per year are recorded in the two states by the seismology lab at the University of Washington. The biggest reason for...

Banning Major Earthquakes-A Savvy, Market-Saving Move

Jun 25 2001 // Apparently, we’ve licked that quake insurance problem. Faced with the devastation (property and market) wrought by the Northridge Earthquake and the realization by insurers that the loss models they had carefully...

$7M VERDICT REACHED

Jun 25 2001 // A jury awarded almost $7,000,000 in earthquake repair costs and bad faith damages on June 15 to a Culver City condominium homeowners association in a lawsuit against Scottsdale Insurance Company. According to the Los...

$7M Jury Verdict Reached in Northridge Case

Jun 19 2001 // A jury awarded almost $7,000,000 in earthquake repair costs and bad faith damages on June 15 to a Culver City condominium homeowners association in a lawsuit against Scottsdale Insurance Company, according to Brian S....

New Findings Indicate Major Earthquake Danger for Portland

May 31 2001 // Geologists in Oregon have found new evidence that the lengthy Portland Hills Fault is active and capable of generating an earthquake, the Oregonian reported yesterday. A recent discovery at Rowe Middle School in Milwaukie,...

AIR Releases New Latin American Earthquake Models

May 21 2001 // Boston’s Applied Insurance Research, Inc. announced the release of new models covering Latin American earthquake risks, combining new information and new technology. “The models incorporate the most recent data...

SAFECO to Pay Out $15 Million for Seattle Quake

Apr 5 2001 // SAFECO announced that claims from the Puget Sound-area earthquake on Feb. 28 will add up to approximately a $15-million payout. This is expected to affect first-quarter income by $0.08 per diluted share on an after-tax...

U.S. Scientists Build Internet-enabled Quake Alert System

Mar 22 2001 // Scientists at the California Institute of Technology and the U.S. Geological Survey are working on an Internet-enabled earthquake early-warning system for the state of California. For the last five years, Caltech and the...

QUAKE TO COST $1 BILLION

Mar 19 2001 // The insurance industry could pay up to $1 billion in claims to people whose property was damaged by the earthquake that struck Washington State in February, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The preliminary...

Claims from Seattle Quake Estimated at $330 Million

Mar 19 2001 // U.S. insurers are likely to pay out less than previously expected in claims caused by the earthquake that rattled Seattle on Feb. 28, according to preliminary estimates published March 16 by Insurance Services Office...

ISO Estimates $330 Million in Claims Payments for Northwest Earthquake

Mar 16 2001 // Property/casualty insurers will pay $330 million to homeowners and businesses for insured property damage from the earthquake that struck Seattle and nearby areas of Washington and Oregon, according to preliminary...

Seattle Earthquak Wracks Up Insured Losses

Mar 12 2001 // The most telling number about the earthquake that hit Western Washington on Feb. 28 was neither its 6.8 magnitude nor the fact that it was the largest temblor in the state in more than half a century; it was its depth,...

Insured Losses from Seattle Earthquake Could Reach $1 Billion

Mar 6 2001 // The insurance industry could pay up to $1 billion in claims to people whose property was damaged by the earthquake that struck Washington State last week, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The I.I.I. noted...

From Pin Maps to the World Wide Web

Mar 5 2001 // Since the 1800s, the insurance industry has used technology to track and control catastrophic exposures. Insurers first used mapping after companies were hit by major fires in cities such as Boston, Chicago and...

Earthquake Seminars To Hit the West Coast This Month

Feb 1 2001 // This month, Applied Insurance Research Inc., a Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm, will be offering free seminars in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco to demonstrate a new site-specific risk assessment capability...

Calif. Earthquake Authority Selects Financial Modeler

Jan 17 2001 // As the California Earthquake Authority continues its strategic planning process, its most recent step was to select Paratus Consulting, a newly founded San Francisco-based consultancy, as its financial modeler. Paratus...

PIFC Looks Back on the Seven Years Since the Northridge Quake

Jan 17 2001 // Exactly seven years ago to the day, America experienced its most costly insurance disaster as the Northridge earthquake rumbled through California, killing 60 people and destroying or damaging thousands of homes,...

Northridge Earthquake Class Action Suit Filed Against 21st Century

Jan 4 2001 // A class action lawsuit was filed Tuesday against 21st Century Insurance Co. on behalf of policyholders who filed timely property damage claims stemming from the 1994 Northridge earthquake but whose claims were mishandled,...

Arrowhead Adds New Senior V.P. to Earthquake Division

Dec 5 2000 // San Diego-based Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. announced that Steve Bouker joined the company as senior vice president of the newly formed Residential Earthquake Division. Bouker, who was previously with Pacific...

AGF To Issue Wind/Earthquake Cat Bonds

Nov 23 2000 // AGF/IART, a unit of AGF the French arm of Germany’s Allianz, will issue natural catastrophe securities covering windstorm damages in France and earthquake risks in Europe through Mediterranean Re, a special purpose...