Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Officials Say Oklahoma Tornado Causing Financial Woes
May 2 2011 // President Barack Obama approved a request by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin for federal disaster assistance for Atoka County following an April 14 tornado that devastated the town of Tushka. The EF3 tornado cut a swath four...
Texas Wildfires Fueled by High Winds, Drought
May 2 2011 // Firefighters continued in late April to make gradual progress containing massive, wind-whipped wildfires that raged across Texas during the month. West Texas firefighters rushed to finish controlled burns in the Ft. Davis...
Tornadoes, Storms Rip South, at Least 228 Dead
Apr 28 2011 // Tornadoes and violent storms ripped through seven southern U.S. states, killing at least 228 people as they flattened neighborhoods, flipped cars and toppled trees and power lines. In the deadliest series of tornadoes in...
Asbestos: Japan Tsunami’s other Hidden Danger
Apr 28 2011 // Inside the chunks of slate and wallboard smashed and scattered by Japan’s tsunami hides a health risk that has been overshadowed by contamination from a leaking nuclear plant: the odorless and nearly invisible threat...
Weather Forecasters Agree on Active 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season
Apr 27 2011 // Weather Service International [WSI] forecasters predicted an active 2011 Atlantic hurricane season Tuesday, with 15 named storms, eight of which are expected to become hurricanes. Of these, four are expected to develop...
Hail Storm Slams Abilene, Brings Some Relief to Wildfire Area
Apr 26 2011 // Baseball size hail hit Abilene, Texas, on April 24 causing property damage to vehicles, homes and businesses. Hail fell from a line of storms that passed over the southern half of the city and continued to move eastward...
Officials Say Oklahoma Tornado Causing Financial Woes
Apr 25 2011 // A tornado that destroyed 149 structures in Oklahoma’s Atoka County on April 14 is causing a major financial strain on residents and relief agencies, officials said. About 65 percent of the people who lost houses when...
St. Louis Cleaning Up After Tornado Hits Airport, Local Communities
Apr 25 2011 // Flights began departing the St. Louis, Mo., airport on April 24 for the first time since a tornado struck two days earlier. Departures began Sunday morning at Lambert Airport, even as cleanup continued. The C concourse...
Tornadoes Confirmed in Oklahoma, Arkansas
Apr 25 2011 // The National Weather Service has confirmed at least three tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma in the night on April 22 as a line of fierce storms passed through the state, and although power was knocked out to about 1,700...
Insurers Receive Hundreds of Tornado Claims in Virginia
Apr 25 2011 // Property owners in Virginia have submitted hundreds of claims to insurers for damage caused by recent tornadoes. The Virginian-Pilot reports that State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. received about 400 claims by...
Midwest Tornadoes, High Winds Damage Homes, Businesses
Apr 22 2011 // The National Weather Service says at least five tornadoes were part of the storms that battered Ohio early on April 20. Hours before, a tornado measured as an EF3 hit near Girard, Ill., about 20 miles south of Springfield...
Newly Elected Officials Must Learn Hurricane Response: FEMA
Apr 22 2011 // Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate this week stressed how important it is for newly elected public officials to learn how to respond during hurricanes and other powerful storms and that a bad economy...
Wildfires Continue in Texas; More than 1.8M Acres Burned This Year
Apr 21 2011 // Wildfire approaching McDonald Observatory near Ft. Davis, Texas. Photo by: Frank Cianciolo / McDonald Observatory As wildfires continue to rage in almost every region of the state, the Texas Forest Service reports that...
Third Hailstorm in Two Weeks Pounds North Texas Area
Apr 21 2011 // A severe line of thunderstorms extending 100 miles pounded portions of north central Texas this week producing hail as large as tennis balls. The line extended from Denton to Hillsboro. The communities of Itasca and...
Oklahoma Governor Seeks Federal Declaration for Atoka Tornado
Apr 20 2011 // Gov. Mary Fallin is seeking a federal disaster declaration for Atoka County in the wake of a deadly tornado that swept through the southeastern Oklahoma town of Tushka. Two people were killed and 43 others were injured...
Catlin Estimates Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami Losses at $200 Million
Apr 20 2011 // The Bermuda-based Catlin Group Limited announced that its initial estimate of the financial impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated areas of northeast Japan, are expected to be around $200 million,...
Summary of Re/Insurers’ Loss Estimates from Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami
Apr 19 2011 // Some of the world’s leading insurers and reinsurers have issued initial estimates of how much the earthquake that hit Japan on March 11 will cost them and more are expected do so over the next few weeks. Risk...
Wisconsin Officials Up April 10 Tornado Count to 12
Apr 18 2011 // The storm system that hit northern and central Wisconsin on April 10 produced a record number of tornados for one day in April. The National Weather Service reported there were 12 tornadoes, surpassing the record of 10 for...
Indiana Tornado Siren Spooks Horses, Spurs Lawsuit
Apr 18 2011 // A tornado siren placed near an Indiana horse farm has prompted a lawsuit by the owners, who say the device spooks their animals every time it sounds and that local officials have refused to relocate it as promised. Jody...
US Nuclear Regulator Monitoring Plant after Tornado
Apr 18 2011 // The U.S. nuclear safety regulator said Monday it was monitoring a Virginia nuclear power plant in southeastern Virginia operated by Dominion Resources after a tornado cut its electrical power. The Nuclear Regulatory...
