Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
CoreLogic Estimates Hurricane Laura Insured Losses at $8B to $12B
Aug 28 2020 // Property information, analytics and data provider, CoreLogic, has estimated residential and commercial insured losses from Hurricane Laura in Louisiana and Texas will come in at between $8 billion and $12 billion. That...
Update: Hurricane Laura Kills 6 in Louisiana, but Damage Is Less than Expected
Aug 28 2020 // Hurricane Laura tore through Louisiana on Thursday, killing six people and flattening buildings across a wide swatch of the state before moving into Arkansas with heavy rains. Laura’s powerful gusts uprooted trees...
Fire Burns at Hurricane-Hit Louisiana Chemical Plant
Aug 28 2020 // Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Thursday asked residents in three southwestern communities to stay indoors with windows and doors shut as a plume rose from a chemical fire at a Biolab plant in an area hit by...
Why Damage from Hurricanes Keeps Rising
Aug 28 2020 // A destructive storm rising from warm waters. Again. America and the world are getting more frequent and bigger multibillion dollar tropical catastrophes like Hurricane Laura, which menaced the U.S. Gulf Coast, because of a...
Damage from Whopper Hurricanes Increasing for Many Reasons
Aug 27 2020 // America and the world are getting more frequent and bigger multibillion dollar tropical catastrophes like Hurricane Laura because of a combination of increased coastal development, natural climate cycles, reductions in air...
4 Killed as Hurricane Laura Slams Louisiana, but Less Damage Than Forecast
Aug 27 2020 // Hurricane Laura ripped through Louisiana on Thursday, destroying buildings in towns across the southwestern corner of the state and killing four people who were crushed by falling trees as they sheltered in their homes,...
Analysts Warn of Effects of Hurricane Laura Losses on P/C Insurers
Aug 27 2020 // Ratings analysts A.M. Best and Moody’s are expecting property/casualty insurers and reinsurers to suffer meaningful losses from Hurricane Laura. A.M. Best expects losses from Hurricane Laura to place added stress on...
Hurricane Laura Slows After Landfall; Inland Storm Surge Expected
Aug 26 2020 // HOUSTON, Texas, Aug 27 08:12 AM – Hurricane Laura made landfall early on Thursday in southwestern Louisiana as one of the most powerful storms to hit the state, with forecasters warning it could push a massive wall...
California Commissioner Issues Emergency Notice to Expedite Wildfire Claims
Aug 26 2020 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Wednesday issued an emergency notice to all property/casualty insurance companies doing business in California, requesting they expedite claims handling for California...
Hurricane Laura Expected to Be Category 4 When It Hits Texas, Louisiana
Aug 26 2020 // Hurricane Laura was expected to rapidly strengthen to a Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday on a steady track to hit the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast after dark, causing catastrophic damage, the National Hurricane Center...
Hurricane Laura’s Timing, Direction Bring Harvey, Katrina, Rita to Mind
Aug 25 2020 // Tropical Storm Laura morphed into a hurricane on Aug. 25, 2020 — three years to the day after Hurricane Harvey swept ashore on the Texas Gulf Coast — and is expected to make landfall just days before the 15-year...
Hurricane Laura Expected to Slam Energy Coast; On Track for $5-12B in Losses
Aug 25 2020 // Hurricane Laura is poised to strengthen rapidly and come ashore along the Texas-Louisiana coast as a tree-snapping Category 3 storm, forcing residents to flee their homes despite the threat of Covid-19. Laura’s winds...
Texas Cities Issue Mandatory Evacuation Orders as Hurricane Laura Advances
Aug 25 2020 // The mayor of Galveston, Texas, has called for a mandatory evacuation of the city after Tropical Storm Laura strengthened into a hurricane and its path shifted westward, increasing the chances that it could strike the...
Conn. Offers Coverage Guidance Due to Power Outages After Tropical Storm Isaias
Aug 25 2020 // In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and Insurance Commissioner Andrew N. Mais are reminding policyholders to review their homeowners insurance policies to understand their coverage...
Gulf Coast Fears Tropical Storm Laura Could Become Deadly Hurricane
Aug 24 2020 // Leaders on the U.S. Gulf Coast warned Monday that Tropical Storm Laura could rapidly intensify into one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the region and urged residents to prepare before landfall in Texas or Louisiana...
Earthquake Shakes Southeast Corner of Michigan
Aug 24 2020 // A magnitude 3.2 earthquake occurred on Aug. 21 near Monroe in the southeastern corner of Michigan, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The depth was about 5.7 miles (9.17 kilometers). The earthquake was felt in the Detroit...
Hedge Fund Collects $3 Billion in Bet on Wildfire Insurance Claims
Aug 24 2020 // Baupost Group, the hedge fund run by Seth Klarman, received more than $3 billion in July from its bet on insurance claims against PG&E Corp. connected to a series of deadly California wildfires, according to people...
How COVID-19 Could Impact Post-Hurricane Loss Inflation in Florida: AIR Worldwide
Aug 24 2020 // By the end of March 2020 people were wondering what the impact of COVID-19 on the upcoming hurricane season would be. There is no historical event to provide evidence for how the scenario might unfold, so we need to start...
How to Protect Your Base-Jumping, Crocodile-Wrestling, Shark-Diving, Volcano-Luging, Snake-Wrangling CEO
Aug 24 2020 // There’s a scene in the 2004 movie, Along Came Polly, when an unemployed actor named Sandy Lyle (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is stalking an executive suite like a big-game hunter on the Serengeti. His prey is a conference...
Insured Losses from Hurricane Isaias $3-$5 Billion: RMS
Aug 24 2020 // Estimated total insured losses from Hurricane Isaias will be between $3.0 and $4.5 billion in the U.S. This includes estimated losses to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) of between $400 and $700 million,...
