Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Regulator Calls on Insurers to Handle Hurricane Michael Claims
Dec 31 2018 // Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier is urging Florida insurers to close the more than 42,000 Hurricane Michael claims that remain open nearly three months after the storm. In a Dec. 19 memorandum to all property...
Insurance Journal Southeast’s Top Stories for 2018: Fraud, Hurricanes, Data Security Law
Dec 31 2018 // It was a busy year in the Southeast with two major hurricanes that wreaked havoc on the region, an escalating insurance crisis in Florida, and a new industry-specific cybersecurity law in South Carolina that takes effect...
Florida County Wants Hurricane Michael Named Category 5 Storm
Dec 28 2018 // Some officials in one Florida Panhandle county are pushing for Hurricane Michael to be labelled a Category 5 storm. The News-Herald reports that some in Bay County – which was hit hard by the fierce October storm...
New South Wales Hailstorm Triggers Australia Catastrophe Declaration
Dec 28 2018 // The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) last week declared a catastrophe following storms that caused extensive hail and water damage across Sydney and the Central Coast in New South Wales (NSW). As of Dec. 21, insurers...
Most Insurers to Increase Payments to California Wildfire Victims Without Itemization
Dec 28 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said this week that most insurers were following a notice he issued requesting that residential property insurers provide at least 75 percent and up to 100 percent of contents...
5 Lessons to Take Away from the California Wildfires
Dec 28 2018 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv The California wildfires of 2018 were devastating, burning hundreds of thousands of acres, costing numerous lives and destroying thousands of properties. The California Department of...
70 Mobile Homes Damaged by Mid-December Tornadoes in Central Florida
Dec 27 2018 // A tornado damaged more than 70 homes in a mobile home park and a 90-year-old woman was taken to a hospital after a roof fell on her head after a day of wild weather in central Florida Dec. 20. Officials in Pasco County,...
Indonesia Volcano Alert Widened as Ash Clouds Affect Aviation After Deadly Tsunami
Dec 27 2018 // Indonesian authorities widened an area marked as a danger zone around the Mount Anak Krakatau as the volcano continued to send hot ash clouds into the sky after a weekend tsunami triggered by a landslide killed more than...
A.M. Best: Negative Rating Implications from Wildfires for California Capital And Subsidiaries
Dec 21 2018 // AM Best has placed under review with negative implications the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “a-” of California Capital Insurance Co. and its...
Power Restored to Last of 10K Paradise Residents Hit by California Wildfire
Dec 21 2018 // A Northern California utility says it has restored power interrupted by a wildfire six weeks ago to all customers able to receive it. Pacific Gas & Electric said this week the last of about 10,000 residents of Paradise...
Florida Man Gets 8 Years for Hurricane Irma Fraud
Dec 21 2018 // A Florida man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for taking advantage of people who suffered property damage last year during Hurricane Irma. Collier County prosecutors says 44-year-old Daniel Lawrence Ohleyer was...
Georgia Farmers Eligible for Loans to Cover Hurricane Losses
Dec 21 2018 // Some Georgia farmers are eligible for federal loans to help cover the costs of losses sustained because of Hurricane Michael. The Augusta Chronicle reported Tuesday that Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue designated...
Rare Tornado Touches Down in Washington, Damages Homes
Dec 20 2018 // A rare tornado touched down in a Seattle suburb on Tuesday, the National Weather Service confirmed. The tornado damaged several homes and toppled trees, authorities said. Based on radar imagery and video evidence, a...
Assessing Wildfires’ Impact on P/C Insurers’ 2018 Results
Dec 20 2018 // Fitch Ratings said it expects the November wildfires in California to have some but not great impact on property/casualty insurers’ year-end results and it anticipates limited or no rating actions due to the fires....
Florida Panhandle City Borrows $50M for Hurricane Cleanup
Dec 20 2018 // Officials in Florida’s Panhandle have agreed to take out a $50 million loan to help pay for Hurricane Michael-related bills until federal reimbursements are received. The Panama City Commission approved the measure...
Larger Houses Replace Smaller When Rebuilding After Hurricanes
Dec 19 2018 // A study of hurricane-hit areas of the United States has revealed a trend of larger homes being built to replace smaller ones in the years following a storm. The research, led by the University of Southampton (UK) and...
Second Earthquake in 4 Days Shakes Eastern Tennessee
Dec 18 2018 // An earthquake centered in eastern Tennessee also was felt in three other states. The U.S. Geological Survey website says the epicenter of the magnitude 3.0 earthquake early Sunday was about two miles (four kilometers)...
Los Alamos Lab Research Findings Could Lead to Earthquake Early Warning System
Dec 18 2018 // Machine-learning research published in two related papers today in Nature Geosciences reports the detection of seismic signals accurately predicting the Cascadia fault’s slow slippage, a type of failure observed to...
Allstate’s Shares Fall Under Weight of Wildfire Losses
Dec 17 2018 // Allstate Corp. tumbled for nine straight days, the longest string of losses since 2001, as coverage costs from the deadliest fires in California’s history are tallied. The company seemed to have “out-sized...
Hurricane Michael Recovery Goes On for Florida Agents
Dec 17 2018 // The page has finally turned on the tumultuous 2018 hurricane season, but for the agents who live and work in the Florida Panhandle, the story isn’t over – personally or professionally. “We all still feel...
