Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Solutions to Wildfires in Time of Climate Change Are Costly, Unpopular
Nov 14 2018 // California’s deadly wildfires have a straightforward solution, experts say: stop building homes in places that are likely to burn — and make homes that already exist in those areas a whole lot tougher. That...
Weather Service Confirms Several Tornadoes Hit Northeast Mississippi
Nov 14 2018 // The National Weather Service has confirmed two tornadoes hit northeast Mississippi last week. A preliminary survey Nov. 6 showed a twister with top winds of 115 mph (185 kph) struck in Pontotoc County. The tornado, rated...
How Insurance Industry Might React to ‘New Normal’ of California’s Historic Wildfires
Nov 13 2018 // The “new normal” for California has yielded another year of record wildfires and billions of dollars in insured losses. Homeowners insurance rates inch up in high risk areas, and carriers get more cautious...
Will California See More Laws and Regulations in Wake of Wildfires?
Nov 13 2018 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv Last year’s California wildfires destroyed thousands of homes and cost billions of dollars, but they also created numerous new laws and regulations in their wake as Legislators and...
California Utilities Face Potential of Billion Dollar Wildfires Year After Year
Nov 13 2018 // California utilities are facing the very real possibility that billion-dollar blazes could become an annual occurrence, and they don’t know how to pay for them. Shares of the state’s two largest utilities...
Insurers’ Firefighting Teams Move to Limit Damage from California Wildfires
Nov 13 2018 // California’s raging wildfires are so bad that American International Group Inc. and Chubb Ltd. are deploying teams of specialists and former firefighters to spray retardants on homes. The season may soon rank among...
California Wildfire Insured Losses at Billions of Dollars and Climbing
Nov 12 2018 // An analysis by catastrophe modeler RMS shows 15 wildfires are burning more than 280,000 acres in California have collectively destroyed nearly 7,000 homes and businesses and killed 31 people. Roughly 300,000 have been...
Deaths, Damages Continue to Rise in California’s Most Destructive Wildfires
Nov 12 2018 // The most destructive wildfires in California’s history have killed at least 31 people and forced tens of thousands more to evacuate as firefighters struggle to gain control amid swirling winds. The so-called Camp...
California Wildfire Update: Thousands Flee, More Than 50K Without Power
Nov 9 2018 // Fanned by hot, dry winds, wildfires north of San Francisco and near Los Angeles have forced the evacuation of more than 150,000 people in the state, including Malibu, the coastal enclave of the rich and famous. The fires...
California Wildfire Grows to More than 20K Acres, More Blazes Erupt
Nov 9 2018 // A wildfire raging in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada foothills quadrupled in size late Thursday and another day of dry winds threatens to make it spread even farther, faster. The blaze near the community of Chico...
AXIS Capital Estimates 4Q Losses from Hurricane Michael
Nov 9 2018 // AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. announced a preliminary pre-tax loss estimate for Hurricane Michael in the range of $100 million to $120 million, which will affect its fourth quarter financial results. The loss estimate figure...
Storm May Have Spawned Tornadoes in Deep South
Nov 8 2018 // Possible tornados touched down in Louisiana and Mississippi as a line of storms moved across the Deep South. Tree limbs and power lines were down from Louisiana to Alabama early Tuesday, prompting some schools to delay the...
4 Alabama Counties Declared Federal Disaster from Hurricane Michael
Nov 7 2018 // Four south Alabama counties have been declared a disaster area because of damage from Hurricane Michael last month. The governor’s office says President Donald Trump has issued a disaster declaration that includes...
Earthquake Prompts Shut Down of Well Completion Site in Oklahoma
Nov 6 2018 // State oil and gas regulators in Oklahoma have ordered the indefinite shutdown hydraulic fracturing operations at a well site after an earthquake struck nearby. The 3.3 magnitude quake was reported Sunday night near Bridge...
Georgia Insured Losses from Hurricane Michael Near $700M
Nov 6 2018 // Georgia’s insured losses from Hurricane Michael have climbed to more than $696 million, with insurers reporting approximately 68,000 claims filed as of the end of October, according to a press release from Insurance...
Georgia Estimates $250M in Insured Losses from Hurricane Michael
Nov 5 2018 // The Georgia Department of Insurance has estimated insured property losses from Hurricane Michael will reach $250 million, according to a statement by Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens. In figures released Oct....
Power Customers in California File Claims in Pre-Emptive Wildfire Outage
Nov 2 2018 // A Northern California utility received 146 demands for reimbursement from customers who say Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s controversial decision to cut power to prevent wildfires hurt them economically. The...
Hurricane Florence Damage in North Carolina Reaches $17B
Nov 2 2018 // Hurricane Florence in North Carolina is now estimated to have caused $17 billion in damage, according to a statement from Governor Roy Cooper’s office. An Oct. 31 updated damage estimate from the North Carolina...
Georgia Farmers Face Long Recovery From Hurricane Michael Crop Losses
Nov 2 2018 // Hurricane Michael left a snowy landscape of ruined white cotton on Georgia’s red clay, destroying a crop and likely bringing hard times to the region’s many small communities built on agriculture. When the...
Florida Insured Losses from Hurricane Michael Top $2B, And Growing
Nov 1 2018 // Total estimated insured losses from Hurricane Michael have reached more than $2.1 billion, according to the most recent data from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. The current number of claims from Hurricane...
