Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Earthquake Survey Finds Thousands of Washington Buildings a Concern
Mar 13 2019 // Washington state’s first statewide inventory of buildings prone to crumble or collapse in an earthquake has found there are thousands of unreinforced masonry buildings that could be dangerous. The Northwest News...
2 Tornadoes Struck Mississippi in Weekend Storms
Mar 13 2019 // The National Weather Service has confirmed two tornadoes touched down in northern Mississippi over the weekend. There were no deaths or serious injuries in either storm. The weather service in Memphis, Tennessee, said the...
Deadly Alabama Tornado Highlights Human Safety Risk Despite Improved Forecasting
Mar 11 2019 // Sometimes in forecasting tornadoes, you can get everything technically right, and yet it all goes horribly wrong. Three days before the killer Alabama tornado struck, government severe-storm meteorologists cautioned that...
Trump Visits Alabama to Survey Damage from Powerful Tornado
Mar 11 2019 // Standing near the slab that’s all that is left of one family’s garage, President Donald Trump on Friday surveyed the devastation wrought by a powerful tornado that ripped through a rural Alabama town, uprooting...
36 Tornadoes Confirmed in Deadly Southeast Outbreak
Mar 8 2019 // The number of tornadoes confirmed to have touched down in a deadly weekend outbreak across the Southeast has risen to at least 36. Survey teams for the National Weather Service found evidence of the twisters in Alabama,...
Pool Re Funds £10M Initiative to Help UK Businesses Improve Resilience to Terrorism
Mar 8 2019 // Pool Re, Britain’s terrorism reinsurer, is collaborating with UK government agencies to help businesses proactively protect against the risk of terrorism. The £10 million ($13.1 million) project is being funded by...
Improved Tornado Forecasting Doesn’t Prevent All Deaths
Mar 8 2019 // Sometimes in forecasting tornadoes, you can get everything technically right, and yet it all goes horribly wrong. Three days before the killer Alabama tornado struck, government severe-storm meteorologists cautioned that...
Alabama Tornado Recovery Efforts Begin As Threat of More Storms Looms
Mar 7 2019 // All those listed as missing have been found and searches ended with no additional bodies discovered among the shattered homes, splintered pines and broken lives devastated by a tornado in rural Alabama, leaving the death...
Despite Improved Tornado Forecasting, Deaths Continue
Mar 7 2019 // Sometimes in forecasting tornadoes, you can get everything technically right, and yet it all goes horribly wrong. Three days before the killer Alabama tornado struck, government severe-storm meteorologists cautioned that...
Wildfires Threaten Towns in Rural Southeast Australia
Mar 7 2019 // More homes were being threatened Tuesday [March 5] by wildfires that have burned dozens of homes and buildings in rural southeast Australia. Victoria state Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said emergency...
Arrowhead Launches Commercial Earthquake Program in California
Mar 7 2019 // Arrowhead General Insurance Agency has launched Quake Assist — a commercial earthquake program designed to help protect California business owners. Quake Assist is underwritten by Falls Lake National Insurance Co.,...
Southeast Storm System Spawned 18 Tornadoes, ‘Monster’ EF4 in Alabama
Mar 6 2019 // Picking through the twisted debris that had been her Alabama mobile home, Carol Dean found her wedding dress and a Father’s Day note to her husband reading, “Daddy, I love you to pieces.” Her husband was...
M4.5 Earthquake Confirmed Near Colorado-Utah Border
Mar 6 2019 // A 4.5 magnitude earthquake occurred near the Utah-Colorado border and was felt in the tourist town of Moab, Utah, officials confirmed. The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reported that the earthquake hit Monday...
Death Toll Climbs After Tornadoes Strike Southeast
Mar 5 2019 // This photo shows debris in Lee County, Ala., after what appeared to be a tornado struck in the area Sunday, March 3, 2019. Severe storms destroyed mobile homes, snapped trees and left a trail of destruction amid weather...
Opinion: California’s Wildfires Burn Our Climate Illusions
Mar 4 2019 // Joan Didion’s “Holy Water,” written in 1977, is a paean to the elaborate engineering that supplied her taps in Malibu and filled drinking glasses in Hollywood restaurants. At its heart is a warning: The...
Pool Re Completes £2.3B ($3.1B) Terrorism Retrocession Placement
Mar 1 2019 // Pool Re, Britain’s state-backed terrorism reinsurer, has today completed placement of its £2.3 billion (US$3.1 billion) retrocession program with more than 50 international reinsurers, led by Munich Re. The program,...
U.K.’s Pool Re Sells Terrorism Risk Catastrophe Bond
Feb 26 2019 // A U.K. reinsurer has sold the first terror catastrophe bond, giving investors the chance to lock in high yields in return for taking on terrorism risks. The 75 million-pound ($99 million) three-year bond will pay 5.9...
Tornado Kills 1 in Mississippi; Flooding Threatens Southeast
Feb 26 2019 // Weekend storms raked parts of the Southeast, leaving deaths and injuries in their wake as a tornado smashed into a commercial district in a small Mississippi city and drenching rains fed a rising flood threat. A woman was...
Florida Woman Arrested in $68K Hurricane Irma Scam
Feb 21 2019 // A Florida woman has been arrested for alleged unlicensed practice of public adjusting and grand theft related to Hurricane Irma, according to a statement from the Florida Department of Financial Services. Mary Bruce is...
AXA Reports 66% Drop in 2018 Net Profit on U.S. Unit’s IPO Costs, Natural Disasters
Feb 21 2019 // Net profits at AXA, Europe’s second biggest insurer, fell sharply as a result of charges related to its U.S. unit’s initial public offering (IPO) and a spate of natural disasters, although AXA hoped for higher...
