Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Kentucky Testing Dam for Possible Earthquake Damage
Nov 28 2012 // Officials in eastern Kentucky are conducting tests on a dam to see if a recent 4.3 magnitude earthquake centered near Blackey enlarged the flow of a small stream at the bottom of the structure. Inspectors from the Kentucky...
Wildfires, Hail Take Toll On Colorado Home Insurance
Nov 27 2012 // Colorado now ranks among the top 10 for the highest share of homeowners insurance claims paid out due to catastrophes. The Insurance Research Council says catastrophes triggered only 26 percent of the claims made on...
2012 Below Average Year for Tornadoes in Alabama Thus Far
Nov 27 2012 // Forecasters say 2012 has been a below-average year for tornadoes in Alabama, at least so far. While Alabama has 40 tornadoes in an average year, the National Weather Service said only 32 tornadoes occurred in the state...
California City Building ‘Tsunami-Resistant’ Port
Nov 26 2012 // It doesn’t matter if the earth sways in Chile, Alaska or Japan, the formation of the sea floor along the U.S. West Coast generally aims any tsunami surges at the tiny California port town of Crescent City. Churning...
Swiss Re Estimates Claims from Hurricane Sandy at around $900 Million Net
Nov 26 2012 // Swiss Re announced that its estimates of claims from Hurricane Sandy are around $900 million, net of retrocession and before tax. The bulletin warned, however, that “this estimate is subject to a higher than usual...
Tsunami Debris Reported Closer to Washington Coast
Nov 21 2012 // A Seattle oceanographer who has been tracking debris from the Japanese tsunami says a huge debris field, hundreds of miles across, is about 400 miles off the Washington coast. Retired University of Washington oceanographer...
Colorado Springs Wildfire Expected to Create Jobs
Nov 19 2012 // Economists say a wildfire that burned 346 homes and scorched 28 square miles in the Colorado Springs area over the summer could provide an economic boost over the next five years. Claims for the contents and homes damaged...
Texas Commissioner: Windstorm Will Be an Issue for Texas Lawmakers
Nov 19 2012 // There may not be a hefty number of property/casualty insurance issues taken up by the Texas Legislature when it convenes in 2013, but there’s certain to be one dominating topic to counter any lack of diversity. That...
Hailstorms Are the Costliest Natural Peril in Texas
Nov 14 2012 // Hurricanes may garner more attention but in Texas, hailstorms, not hurricanes, are the most damaging weather events that Texans face annually, according to the state’s insurance regulators. And, unlike hurricanes,...
Wildfires Will Cost Wyoming Over $40M
Nov 14 2012 // State Forester Bill Crapser says this year’s wildfires have consumed all the money the state had set aside for fire suppression. Crapser says the season depleted both the state’s entire fire suppression...
Kentucky Earthquake Not Due to Mining: Geologist
Nov 14 2012 // Geologists say the 4.3 magnitude earthquake that shook eastern Kentucky last weekend was too deep to be induced by the region’s underground mining activity. The epicenter was about 10 miles west of Whitesburg, in the...
Arizona Judge Oks $3.7M In Restitution For Wildfire
Nov 13 2012 // A judge says two cousins who accidentally started the largest wildfire in Arizona history will have to pay more than $3.7 million in restitution. The amount covers the loss of homes and other property, cleanup from the...
Texas Commissioner: Windstorm Will Be an Issue for Texas Lawmakers
Nov 13 2012 // Among the hundreds of bills filed by Texas lawmakers on the first day of filing for the 2013 legislative session are a handful of proposals related to property/casualty insurance. There are bound to be more, but one...
2 Rare, Late-Season Tornadoes Hit Minnesota’s Twin Cities
Nov 13 2012 // Officials with the National Weather Service say two weak tornadoes touched down late Saturday on the south edge of the Twin Cities’ metropolitan region in Minnesota. Meteorologist Chris Franks tells the Star Tribune...
CCRIF Partners with Seismic Research Center for Quake, Volcano Risk
Nov 13 2012 // The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) of The University of the West Indies have entered into a partnership to enhance the Accelerometric Network in the Eastern...
Some Homeowners Unexpectedly Hit With ‘Windstorm Deductible’
Nov 7 2012 // In the immediate days after Superstorm Sandy, officials in the Northeastern states declared that hurricane deductibles would not apply to Sandy claims. Officials from northeastern states including New York, New Jersey and...
Colorado Springs Wildfire Expected To Create Jobs
Nov 7 2012 // Economists say a wildfire that burned 346 homes and scorched 28 square miles in the Colorado Springs area over the summer could provide an economic boost over the next five years. Insurance claims for the contents and...
Researchers Still Learning About 2002 Alaska Earthquake
Nov 6 2012 // The Denali Fault earthquake only rumbled for about 3 minutes when it shook Interior Alaska a decade ago, but some of the reverberations of that powerful seismic event are still being felt today. The 7.9 magnitude quake,...
Sandy Exposed Hospitals’ Lack of Disaster Preparedness
Nov 6 2012 // Kim Bondy was in New Orleans seven years ago when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, and scores of patients died in flooded hospitals cut off from power. She never thought that she might face that danger herself. But...
Sandy Losses Within Hurricane Models, Manageable: Reinsurer Hiscox
Nov 5 2012 // Superstorm Sandy won’t put insurers’ finances under severe strain, and may allow them to push through a profit-boosting rise in prices next year, Hiscox , the biggest London-listed reinsurer, said on...
