Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Wildfire Appears Accidental, Drizzle Aids Firefighters
May 6 2013 // Investigators have ruled out arson as the cause of a huge Southern California wildfire that was 75 percent contained Sunday after burning through coastal mountains and threatening thousands of homes. Continuing cool, moist...
New York Mountain Town Awaits Hurricane Relief, 20 Months Later
May 6 2013 // Rebecca Hoskins poked through the debris in her flood-wrecked house: a TV here, a light fixture there. Someone had been in and taken down the curtains. She blinked back a tear. It was a crisp early spring day and her first...
Time to Press Again for Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Reauthorization
May 6 2013 // Congress faces a packed agenda this year. Deficit reduction, immigration reform and gun control will dominate the agenda. But another issue must be added to the docket — reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance...
Southern California Wildfire Causes Homes To Be Evacuated
May 3 2013 // A Southern California wildfire grew to more than 15 square miles and firefighting crews prepared Friday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather. The fire erupted Thursday in the Camarillo area, damaging 15...
Researchers Develop New Metric to Measure Destructive Potential of Hurricanes
May 1 2013 // Researchers at Florida State University have developed a new metric to measure seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone activity that focuses on the size of storms in addition to the duration and intensity, a measure that may...
Demand, Rates for Terrorism Insurance Coverage Remain Steady: Marsh
Apr 30 2013 // The recent bombing at the Boston Marathon serves as a reminder that mass violence remains a critical threat for organizations, say experts at insurance brokerage Marsh, which just issued its latest report on sales of...
Experts Weigh Boston Bombings’ Impact on Government-Backed Terrorism Insurance
Apr 30 2013 // The April 15 Boston bombings could have an impact on the efforts to renew the federal government’s terrorism insurance backstop. Some experts say the Boston Marathon tragedy could help the cause of supporters of the...
First Confirmed Japanese Tsunami Debris in California
Apr 29 2013 // A barnacle-covered fishing boat that washed ashore this month in Crescent City, California, has been confirmed as the first debris from the 2011 tsunami in Japan to reach California’s shores. The National Oceanic...
Defining Terrorism for Policies Not a Simple Task After Boston Tragedy
Apr 25 2013 // There are a number of issues involved in determining whether the Boston bombings tragedy would be considered a terrorist act for insurance purposes such as determining the applicability of terrorism exclusions and...
Wildfires Prompt Colorado Insurance Changes
Apr 24 2013 // Colorado lawmakers are close to agreement on a slate of insurance changes inspired by homeowners’ complaints after last year’s wildfires. The state Senate gave final approval this week to a bill aimed at making...
Terrorism Risk, Flood Insurance and Green Building Hot Topics for Risk Managers: RIMS
Apr 23 2013 // Renewal of the Terrorism and Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was a much talked about topic at the annual Risk and Insurance Management Society conference on Tuesday, a four-day conference in Los Angeles, Calif., that includes...
Floridians Encouraged to Buy Flood Insurance Before Hurricane Season Gets Underway
Apr 23 2013 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is encouraging Floridians to make preparations now for the upcoming 2013 hurricane season by purchasing flood insurance. Flood insurance is administered through the National...
Earthquake Swarm Keeps Central Oklahoma All Shook Up
Apr 23 2013 // More annoying than threatening, tiny tremors are shaking portions of central Oklahoma with increasing frequency – rattling homes, knocking things over and interrupting sleep. “I feel them every time,”...
Earthquake Kills 207 People Injures 11,500 in China’s Sichuan Province
Apr 22 2013 // China’s worst earthquake in three years on Saturday killed at least 207 people and injured 11,500, 960 of them seriously, according to the latest figures available from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs. The...
Florida Hurricane Cat Fund Reform in Jeopardy
Apr 19 2013 // Plans to reform Florida’s state-backed reinsurance facility with proponents scaling back their proposals. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has been the subject of legislative reform efforts for several years as...
Missouri Senate Backs $15M of Aid After Joplin Tornado
Apr 18 2013 // Missouri senators have backed a plan that could provide $15 million to Joplin to rebuild street curbs and gutters damaged as a result of a deadly 2011 tornado. The legislation given initial approval would create a disaster...
Digital Signs to Warn Minn. Drivers About Tornadoes
Apr 18 2013 // Digital billboards in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties will be a new way to warn motorists about tornado warnings. The billboard warnings are a joint venture of the counties, billboard owners ClearChannel Outdoor, and the...
Mississippi’s Tornado-Damaged Businesses Getting Back to Business
Apr 18 2013 // In keeping with the traditional Mississippi never-say-die attitude, many Hattiesburg area business owners affected by the Feb. 10 tornado are getting back on their feet — and back in business. Employees at...
Series of Earthquakes Shakes Central Oklahoma
Apr 17 2013 // The U.S. Geological Survey says several earthquakes have shaken central Oklahoma. USGS geophysicist Jana Pursley says the temblors began about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday and all were centered northeast of Oklahoma City. She says...
Powerful M7.8 Earthquake Strikes Iran-Pakistan Border: AIR Analysis
Apr 17 2013 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has issued a report on the powerful M7.8 earthquake, which struck a sparsely populated area of southeastern Iran about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the country’s border with...
