Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
PG&E Decided Not to Cut Power as Winds Raged Before California Wildfire
Nov 28 2018 // In the days before California’s deadliest wildfire erupted near a PG&E Corp. power line during a windstorm, the company kept a close eye on the weather, warned customers it might shut off electricity in the area,...
Managing Natural Disasters Becomes Priority for Nation’s Governors
Nov 28 2018 // Governors have a wide range of priorities they want to tackle in the coming year, from tax reform to education. Yet it’s a topic that receives less attention on the campaign trail and in their speeches that could...
Florida CFO: Insurers Must Step Up Response to Hurricane Michael Claims
Nov 28 2018 // Citing a “troubling” number of Hurricane Michael-related consumer complaints and claims denials, Florida’s top financial regulator is urging insurers to respond more quickly and adequately to consumers...
2 Tornadoes Cause Damage in North Carolina
Nov 27 2018 // Two tornadoes have caused damage in coastal North Carolina. The National Weather Service said two tornadoes touched down Saturday afternoon. One tornado hit Emerald Isle and the other hit near Cape Carteret. There were no...
Report: Hurricane Harvey Was a Sign of Things to Come, Climate-Wise
Nov 27 2018 // Texas should brace for more — and worse — Hurricane Harveys, according to a major scientific report made public on Nov. 23 by the Trump administration. Based on the research of hundreds of government and academic...
Report Puts Losses from California Wildfires at $15B to $19B
Nov 27 2018 // Total losses from the wildfires in Northern and Southern California could reach from $15 billion to $19 billion, a report out on Tuesday shows. The report from industry data provider CoreLogic shows total losses from the...
Bill to Give PG&E Relief from California Wildfire Burden Nears, But Long-Term Fix Elusive
Nov 27 2018 // PG&E Corp., suspected of starting California’s deadliest wildfire, may soon get help from state lawmakers – just not the help it most wants. An assemblyman plans to introduce a bill in January that would give...
Wildfire Relief for PG&E in California May Not Include Fix Utility Wants
Nov 26 2018 // PG&E Corp., suspected of starting California’s deadliest wildfire, may soon get help from state lawmakers – just not the help it most wants. As early as Dec. 3, a lawmaker plans to introduce a bill that would...
Researchers: Houston Skyscrapers Slowed Hurricane Harvey, Causing More Rain
Nov 21 2018 // Humans helped make recent devastating U.S. hurricanes wetter but in different ways, two new studies find. Hurricane Harvey snagged on the skyscrapers of Houston, causing it to slow and dump more rain than it normally...
Earthquake Confirmed in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula
Nov 21 2018 // A magnitude 4.1 earthquake has shaken an area beneath Olympic National Park south of Port Angeles, the U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed. The USGS reported the earthquake hit just after 3 a.m. Monday. There were no...
A.M. Best Assesses Wildfires’ Effect on Home Insurance Market, Insurers’ PG&E Exposure
Nov 20 2018 // Roughly one-in-10 insurers have exposures to PG&E bonds, which could potentially used to payout on losses from the California wildfires, according to ratings agency A.M. Best. It was recently determined that a second...
PG&E’s $1.4B in Wildfire Insurance May Not Be Enough, But Was ‘Regular Amount’
Nov 20 2018 // PG&E Corp.’s $1.4 billion in wildfire insurance may not be enough to cover all its potential liabilities from the deadliest blaze in California history. But the company wasn’t necessarily skimping on...
Florida Picks Up the Pieces from Powerful Hurricane Michael
Nov 20 2018 // This photo shows debris and destruction in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018, after Hurricane Michael went through the area on Oct. 10. Mexico Beach, the ground-zero town, was nearly obliterated by the hurricane,....
3 Louisiana Parishes Designated USDA Natural Disaster Areas
Nov 19 2018 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated three Louisiana parishes as contiguous disaster areas as the result of excessive rain and flooding that occurred April 1 to June 30, 2018, according to Agriculture...
Latest Estimates of Insured Losses from California Wildfires at $9B to $13B
Nov 19 2018 // Insured losses from the Camp and Woolsey wildfires in California will be between $9 billion and $13 billion, according to the latest estimates from catastrophe modeler RMS. RMS’ latest estimates released on Monday...
PG&E Says There Was Another Outage on Morning of California Wildfire
Nov 19 2018 // California utility PG&E Corp , facing investor concerns over its possible role in the deadly Camp Fire in Northern California, has reported another power-line outage that it experienced on the morning of Nov. 8 when...
28 Streamflow Records Broken in Carolinas by Hurricane Florence Floods
Nov 19 2018 // A federal report shows Hurricane Florence broke records in a key flooding measure at more than two-dozen stream gauges in the Carolinas. The U.S. Geological Survey released a report Nov. 13 on streamflow, which measures...
S&P Says Insurers and Reinsurers Can Absorb Losses from California Wildfires
Nov 16 2018 // S&P Global Ratings expects both the primary insurers and reinsurers to be able to absorb losses from the California wildfires, limiting them to an earnings event. However, the mounting bills from more frequents large...
Insurance Industry Kept Promises to Hurricane Victims; Now Tested by Wildfires
Nov 16 2018 // Between the devastating wildfires in California and the destructive forces of Hurricanes Florence and Michael on the East Coast earlier this fall, the property/casualty insurance market has been put to the test this...
Insurance Agent at Heart of Heartbreaking California Wildfire
Nov 14 2018 // Derek Ross has his hands full with the Woolsey Fire in Southern California for three reasons. He’s an insurance agent with numerous clients affected, he’s the president of the board of a school district...
