Latest Natural Disasters Headlines

All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.

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...

California Earthquake Authority Chief Talks About 1 Million Policies

Jan 18 2018 // Glenn Pomeroy, CEO of the California Earthquake Authority, is as enthusiastic of an earthquake policy salesman as you’ll find anywhere. Pomeroy has headed the state’s privately funded, publicly managed seller...

Insurers Increasing Payments to California Wildfire Victims Sans Itemization

Jan 18 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday released the results of the formal notice he issued last month to all residential property insurers requesting they provide up to 100 percent of contents coverage...

California Commissioner and Legislators Unveil Wildfire Insurance Bills

Jan 16 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and legislators from wildfire-damaged communities across the state unveiled eight bills and two additional legislative proposals proponents say will strengthen consumer...

Philadelphia Insurance Cos. Employees Plant Trees in Wildfire-Devastated Texas Park

Jan 12 2018 // Fifty Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) employees are supporting the company’s efforts to plant 80,000 trees for the third consecutive year through a two-day project near Austin, Texas. Employees have finished...