Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Wildfire in 2015: What to Expect?
Mar 23 2015 // The past two years did not result in the amount of wildfire activity that many wildfire scientists, foresters and fire responders had expected. Looking back, the 2013 season had the earmarks of a bad year, with the...
Wildfire in 2015: What to Expect?
Mar 21 2015 // The past two years did not result in the amount of wildfire activity that many wildfire scientists, foresters and fire responders had expected. Looking back, the 2013 season had the earmarks of a bad year, with the...
Crestbrook to Offer Wildfire Mitigation for High Value Homeowners
Mar 20 2015 // Crestbrook Insurance Co., an affluent market personal lines carrier, has launched Crestbrook Wildfire Solution Program in collaboration with Wildfire Defense Systems (WDS), an insurance wildfire loss prevention and...
Natural Disasters Could Cost $750 Billion Annually in 15 Years: AIR Study
Mar 19 2015 // Economic losses from global natural catastrophes likely will triple over the next 15 years, unless steps are taken to reduce bad development choices, according to preliminary results of a catastrophe modeling study...
Wildfire Spreads in Western Oklahoma, Homes Evacuated
Mar 18 2015 // Emergency personnel say about a dozen people have been evacuated from their homes because of wildfire that has burned 37 square miles in rural western Oklahoma. Woodward County emergency manager Matt Lehenbauer said on...
Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting Launches New Blast Model for Terrorist Attacks
Mar 18 2015 // Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, is applying a new blast engineering approach to provide a more realistic understanding of the potential range of losses from a terrorist...
El Nino Could Signal Tornado Activity in South: Researchers
Mar 17 2015 // The waters of the Pacific Ocean may provide some clues on what kind of tornado season will erupt across the southern U.S., according to a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. The study found that if the Pacific enters...
Oklahoma Contractor Charged with Defrauding Moore Tornado Victims
Mar 16 2015 // Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has charged a Tulsa contractor with two felony counts of embezzlement for fraudulent business practices in rebuilding homes damaged by the May 2013 tornado. The AG’s office said...
Palomar, TriCoast Insurance Launch Windstorm-Hurricane Product in Hawaii
Mar 13 2015 // Palomar Specialty Insurance Co. has partnered with TriCoast Insurance Services, LLC to offer a residential windstorm-hurricane insurance product in Hawaii. The product is a stand-alone hurricane coverage that will be...
RMS Study Shows Significant Tsunami Risk in Caribbean, Mediterranean
Mar 12 2015 // RMS, the catastrophe risk management firm, has released a global tsunami risk study that identifies more than 20 subduction zones worldwide capable of generating a giant earthquake and tsunami – similar in scale to...
Earthquake Risks Are Rising, but Take-Up Isn’t
Mar 11 2015 // The West Coast’s risk of ruin is even greater than we previously feared. According to the just-released Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, the likelihood that California could see an earthquake of...
CEA Kicks off Earthquake Insurance Selling Program for Agents
Mar 9 2015 // The California Earthquake Authority has again kicked off its annual “Marketing Value Program,” in which the quasi-private earthquake insurer encourages agents to sign up to receive direct mail marketing...
USGS: M5.7 Earthquake Off Alaska Over Weekend Felt by Few
Mar 9 2015 // The U.S. Geological Survey says there was a magnitude-5.7 earthquake in the western Aleutian Islands but it wasn’t felt by any Alaska communities. The quake hit early Saturday at a depth of about 6 miles. The...
More than 2.5K Oklahoma Agents Take Earthquake Coverage Class
Mar 9 2015 // With earthquake swarms steadily increasing in Oklahoma, the state insurance department reports that more than 2,500 Oklahoma insurance professionals have completed a one-hour continuing education course on earthquake...
Oklahoma, U.S. Differ in Earthquake Calculations
Mar 9 2015 // The Oklahoma Geological Survey reported fewer than half the number of 4.0 magnitude and higher earthquakes in Oklahoma last year as the U.S. Geological Survey, according to agency records. While OGS reported six...
Report: Wildfire Reconstruction of West’s Riskiest Homes – $237B
Mar 9 2015 // In the Western United States there are nearly 900,000 homes representing an estimated reconstruction cost of more than $237 billion considered at “very high” or “high” risk from wildfires, a report...
Oklahoma Commissioner Warns Insurers on Denial of Earthquake Claims
Mar 4 2015 // With the dramatic increase in the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma — which some say are at least partly attributed to waste water injection wells related to the practice of hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas drilling...
Hurricane Sandy Victims Reach First Set of FEMA Insurance Settlements
Mar 3 2015 // Federal disaster assistance officials have begun reaching settlements with more than 1,000 Hurricane Sandy victims who allege they were unfairly denied flood insurance claims or paid too little for them. Lawyers for...
Canadian Pacific Railway’s CEO Says Biggest Crude-by-Rail Fear Is Terrorism
Mar 3 2015 // Hunter Harrison, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s chief executive officer, said his greatest fear in moving crude by rail is the prospect of a terrorist attack on the company’s trains. “That’s what...
Oklahoma, U.S. Differ in Earthquake Calculations
Mar 2 2015 // The Oklahoma Geological Survey reported fewer than half the number of 4.0 magnitude and higher earthquakes in Oklahoma last year as the U.S. Geological Survey, according to agency records. While OGS reported six...
