Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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...
Tallying Tsunami Losses
Apr 18 2011 // Damage estimates from the March tsunami resulting from the Japanese 9.0 magnitude earthquake have increased. California Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brad Alexander said the most recent damage estimate was $48...
San Francisco 1906 Earthquake: What If It Happened Today?
Apr 14 2011 // Seismologists predict a major earthquake, similar in size to the 1906 quake, can hit the San Francisco area at any time. With inflation and exposure added, the total property loss if such an event occurred today could be...
Aon Benfield Partners with Shanghai Institute on Typhoon Research
Apr 14 2011 // Global reinsurance broker Aon Benfield and Shanghai Typhoon Institute (STI) of China Meteorological Administration – the only state-funded typhoon research institute in China – have entered into an exclusive strategic...
National Weather Service Confirms 4 Tornadoes Hit North Texas
Apr 13 2011 // A National Weather Service storm survey team has confirmed that at least four tornadoes struck rural areas south and east of Dallas and Fort Worth on April 11. A line of savage thunderstorms packing damaging winds and...
Cleanup Continues in Wisconsin After 4 Tornados Hit
Apr 13 2011 // The sounds of chain saws filled the air on April 11 in several central Wisconsin towns as people cleared downed trees and other debris from streets and damaged homes after thunderstorms and at least four tornados hit the...
Cleanup of Tornado-Swept Iowa Town to Take Months
Apr 12 2011 // Tom Sanford stepped carefully through his tornado ravaged home in Mapleton, Iowa, his work shoes crunching on broken glass and wood splinters scattered across the floor. In the living room, next to his busted television,...
