Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
2017 Hurricane Season Ranks as Costliest Ever for U.S.
Nov 28 2017 // This year’s U.S. Atlantic hurricane season is officially the most expensive ever, racking up $202.6 billion in damages since the formal start on June 1. The costs tallied by disaster modelers Chuck Watson and Mark...
Pool Re to Include Physical Damage from Cyber Terrorism, Effective April 2018
Nov 28 2017 // Pool Re, the UK’s terrorism reinsurance pool, announced it will extend its cover to include material damage and direct business interruption caused by acts of terrorism using a cyber trigger. The new cover will be...
Tourists Stranded, Evacuations Ordered as Bali Volcano’s Eruption ‘Imminent’
Nov 27 2017 // Indonesia closed the airport on the tourist island of Bali on Monday and ordered 100,000 residents living near a grumbling volcano spewing columns of ash to evacuate immediately, warning that the first major eruption in 54...
Houston Arts Groups Working to Recover from Hurricane Harvey
Nov 27 2017 // Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch looked flushed as he stood at the edge of the Hobby Center’s Sarofim Hall stage during a break in the company’s annual Jubilee of Dance performance. The Houston...
California Policyholders Have 24 Months to Collect Wildfire Insurance Money
Nov 22 2017 // California’s insurance commissioner says homeowners who lost their homes in last month’s wildfires in Northern California have up to 24 months to collect insurance payments. Dave Jones said this week some...
Florida Nursing Home to Congress: Patient Deaths After Hurricane Irma Not Staff’s Fault
Nov 22 2017 // A Florida nursing home under investigation for the deaths of 13 patients after Hurricane Irma says in a letter to Congress that staff members did everything possible but couldn’t overcome a lack of power to the...
Two Injured, Buildings Damaged by Tornadoes in Kentucky
Nov 22 2017 // The National Weather Service says two people were hurt in two moderate tornados in Kentucky. The weather service says both tornados touched down Saturday and were rated EF-1. The first happened shortly before 3:30 p.m. CST...
Reinsurance Sector’s Share of Hurricane, Quake Losses Is $20B-$25B: A.M. Best
Nov 20 2017 // Cumulative net catastrophe losses for reinsurance companies from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, along with the Mexico earthquakes, are between $20 billion-$25 billion out of an overall industry loss of $90 billion,...
Despite Recent Natural Disasters, Homeowners Fail to Enhance Coverage: Clearsurance
Nov 20 2017 // A recent online survey of 1,000 U.S. individuals uncovered that the majority (87 percent) are concerned about a natural disaster striking their area but very few have taken action to protect themselves from being uninsured...
Palomar Specialty Expands Residential Earthquake Product Into Additional States
Nov 20 2017 // Palomar Specialty Insurance Co. has expanded its Flex Choice residential earthquake insurance product into the following states: Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Utah. Flex Choice allows consumers to...
Recent Hurricanes Highlight the Need for Digital Transformation in Insurance
Nov 20 2017 // The claims for Hurricane Irma are starting to pour in and they’ll be big, $25 billion to $35 billion, forecaster AIR Worldwide says. The scenes of flooding, displaced people, wrecked homes and disrupted communities...
A Storm of Claims Likely Following 2017 Hurricane Season
Nov 20 2017 // The aftermath of this year’s hurricanes includes massive reconstruction across the impacted areas, which in turn creates an increased possibility for construction defect claims that would affect the liability...
Hurricane Harvey Caused More than $200M in Crop, Livestock Losses in Texas
Nov 20 2017 // Hurricane Harvey caused more than $200 million in crop and livestock losses, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Hurricane losses by agricultural commodity include: livestock – $93 million; cotton...
More than 63K Recreational Boats Destroyed by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma
Nov 20 2017 // More than 63,000 recreational boats were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, resulting in a damage estimate of $655 million, according to a national association dedicated to recreational boaters. Boat...
Grapes of Wrath: Insurance Fallout from the Wine Country Wildfires
Nov 20 2017 // Now that this October’s wine country fires have been contained, the ravaged San Francisco Bay area countryside can begin the rebuilding process. The effects of the wildfires, however, will be further reaching than...
Someone Else’s Wires May Have Started California Wildfires, PG&E Says
Nov 20 2017 // The deadliest of last month’s wildfires in California’s wine country may have been started by electrical equipment not owned or installed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the utility said in a court filing...
Modeler: Insured Losses for California Wildfires Could Reach $10.5B
Nov 16 2017 // Loss estimates for the October California wildfire siege could reach up to $10.5 billion, according to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide. Boston, Mass.-based AIR on Thursday updated its loss estimates for the recent...
California Utility Blamed in 3 Suits for Deadly Wildfires
Nov 16 2017 // Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was blamed in three lawsuits filed this week for negligence in the wildfires that killed more than 40 people and destroyed over 8,000 homes in Northern California last month. The lawsuits...
Insurers Had Crews Working in Heart of California Wildfires to Prevent Loss
Nov 15 2017 // “It was all hands on deck.” That apt description of the reaction to the deadly outbreak of wildfires that ravaged California in October was from Stephen Poux, global head of risk management and loss prevention...
Texas Division of Workers’ Comp: Employees Stepped Up to Help After Hurricane
Nov 15 2017 // When Hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston area two months ago, Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation employees around the state responded rapidly. DWC increased staffing on the customer...
