Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
CoreLogic Identifies Flood and Wildfire as the Two Most Destructive Natural Hazards in 2017
Feb 7 2018 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. Annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis Details 2017 Natural Hazard Events CoreLogic® analyzes and evaluates the number and severity of natural hazard events...
Aon Securities Structures Largest-Ever Earthquake Catastrophe Bond for World Bank
Feb 7 2018 // Aon Securities, the investment banking division of reinsurance intermediary and capital adviser Aon Benfield, has assisted the World Bank in structuring the largest-ever catastrophe bond covering earthquake, which provides...
Thousands of Acres Scorched by Northeastern Oklahoma Wildfires
Feb 5 2018 // Firefighters say wildfires have scorched thousands of acres of dry grasslands in northeastern Oklahoma. Dozens of firefighters fought a grassfire along Oklahoma Highway 20 in Osage County Saturday evening that officials...
American Families Sue Chiquita Over Terrorist Group Killings in Colombia
Feb 5 2018 // The families of six Americans kidnapped and killed in Colombia during the 1990s by the terrorist organization known as FARC are seeking potentially tens of millions of dollars in damages from banana giant Chiquita Brands...
Mississippi to Offer Free Vehicle Inspections of Hurricane-Damaged Vehicles
Feb 5 2018 // The Mississippi Insurance Department (MID) and the Mississippi Collision Repair Association have partnered to protect residents from buying cars damaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Officials say thousands of...
Winter Wildfires Scorch Oklahoma
Feb 5 2018 // Firefighters say wildfires have scorched hundreds of acres in western Oklahoma, damaging fences and equipment but causing no injuries. Capt. Forrest Valentine of the Clinton Fire Department said firefighters battled two...
Texas AG Sues Tree Company Over Deadly, Damaging 2011 Wildfire
Feb 5 2018 // Texas is suing a vegetation management company that it alleges caused the 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. The lawsuit filed on Jan. 19 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton...
Report Calls out California Wildfires Among 2017 U.S. Hazards
Feb 5 2018 // CoreLogic’s annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis released in late January shows that 2017 was a year of relatively average activity for most U.S. natural hazards with the exception of wildfires in...
Study Finds Oklahoma’s Earthquakes Strongly Linked to Wastewater Injection Depth
Feb 2 2018 // A huge increase in the number of man-made earthquakes in Oklahoma, is strongly linked to the depth at which wastewater from the oil and gas industry is injected into the ground, according to a new study involving the...
Statewide Claims for California Wildfires Reach Nearly $12B
Jan 31 2018 // Insurers have received nearly 45,000 insurance claims totaling more than $11.79 billion in losses from the wildfires that burned across the state in October and December 2017, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones...
Winter Wildfires Scorch Western Oklahoma
Jan 30 2018 // Firefighters say wildfires have scorched hundreds of acres in western Oklahoma, damaging fences and equipment but causing no injuries. Capt. Forrest Valentine of the Clinton Fire Department said Sunday firefighters battled...
Mississippi to Offer Free Vehicle Inspections of Hurricane-Damaged Vehicles
Jan 30 2018 // The Mississippi Insurance Department (MID) and the Mississippi Collision Repair Association are partnering on an initiative designed to protect residents from buying cars damaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Following...
National Hurricane Center: Harvey’s Rains Make It Second-Costliest U.S. Hurricane
Jan 29 2018 // Record-breaking Hurricane Harvey became the second-costliest storm to hit the U.S. and dropped more rain than any other system ever. Harvey, the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. since 2005, killed at least 103 people...
Alaskan Quake Highlights Complexity of Tsunami Warnings
Jan 26 2018 // The powerful earthquake that struck beneath the Gulf of Alaska early Tuesday generated a tsunami, but before gauges could show that it was very small, warnings went out to a vast swath of the state and British Columbia,...
Weather Service Confirms EF-1 Tornado in Mississippi
Jan 25 2018 // The National Weather Service confirms a tornado touched down in southern Mississippi. A mobile home was damaged in the Monday morning storm while some sheds and barns were damaged. National Weather Service meteorologist...
Insured Natural Disaster Losses in 2017 Were 38% of Economic Costs of $353B: Aon
Jan 24 2018 // Insured losses for last year’s 330 natural catastrophes reached US$134 billion, or 38 percent of their economic price tag of $353 billion, according to a report published by Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s...
M7.9 Quake Jolted Alaska, No Tsunami
Jan 24 2018 // A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck off Alaska’s Kodiak Island early Tuesday, prompting a tsunami warning for a large swath of the state’s coast and sending some residents fleeing to higher ground. Officials at...
Tree Company Sued, Blamed for 2011 Texas Wildfire that Killed 2
Jan 23 2018 // Texas is suing a vegetation management company that it alleges caused the 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Texas history. The lawsuit filed on Jan. 19 by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton...
Travelers Manages Q4 Profit Despite Wildfires, Tax Hit
Jan 23 2018 // Property/casualty insurance giant Travelers Companies Inc. reported net income of $551 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2017, a 42 percent drop compared to $943 million in the prior year quarter. The drop was...
XL Group: Loss Estimates of $45M Related to Southern California Wildfires
Jan 22 2018 // XL Group Ltd. in mid-January announced preliminary estimates of natural catastrophe net losses of roughly $45 million related to the recent wildfires in Southern California and $20 million related to other events. The...
