Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Number of Deaths From Oklahoma Tornadoes, Storms Rises to 4
Apr 1 2015 // The death toll from tornadoes and strong storms last week in Oklahoma has risen to four people. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had earlier said that one person died when the severe weather struck a mobile home...
Philippines Braces for Super Typhoon Maysak; People Head to Beaches
Apr 1 2015 // The Philippines placed its military on its highest alert level and asked millions of people heading to beach resorts for Easter holidays to prepare for Super Typhoon Maysak, a category-5 storm expected to hit land on April...
More Counties Added to Oklahoma Earthquake Watch List
Mar 30 2015 // Oklahoma officials are expanding the number of counties that are included in earthquake “areas of interest,” and asking nearly 100 companies to prove their oil and gas waste-water disposal wells are not too...
Storms Sweep Through Oklahoma with Tornadoes, Hail
Mar 26 2015 // Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt announced that Oklahoma’s Emergency Price Stabilization Act is now in effect for 25 Oklahoma counties after Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency due to tornadoes, severe...
Texas Windstorm Insurer: Private Carrier Interested in 60K Policies
Mar 24 2015 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) announced that a carrier participating in its depopulation program has signaled an interest in around 60,000 policies that currently are on TWIA’s books. TWIA is the...
As West Bakes and Northeast Shivers, Elsewhere Tornadoes Almost Disappear
Mar 24 2015 // The same weather pattern that made the West warm and dry and the Northeast cold and snowy has contributed to keeping the rest of the U.S. relatively free of tornadoes so far this year. In the first two months of 2015,...
Feds to Release New Earthquake Hazard Map for Oklahoma
Mar 23 2015 // The U.S. Geological Survey is expected to release a new hazard map for earthquakes in Oklahoma. The Oklahoman reports that data collection has continued with the help of the Oklahoma Geological Survey after the state...
Guy Carpenter Report Reveals Greatest Tsunami Risk Lies in Taiwan
Mar 23 2015 // Guy Carpenter’s new scenario risk report for the Asia-Pacific region predicts the greatest tsunami risk in the area lies in Taiwan. The report, titled “Tsunami Risk from Magnitude 9.4 Earthquake in Manila...
CEA Kicks off Earthquake Insurance Selling Program for Agents
Mar 23 2015 // The California Earthquake Authority has again kicked off its annual “Marketing Value Program,” in which the quasi-private earthquake insurer encourages agents to sign up to receive direct mail marketing...
Wildfire in 2015: What to Expect?
Mar 23 2015 // The past two years did not result in the amount of wildfire activity that many wildfire scientists, foresters and fire responders had expected. Looking back, the 2013 season had the earmarks of a bad year, with the...
Wildfire in 2015: What to Expect?
Mar 21 2015 // The past two years did not result in the amount of wildfire activity that many wildfire scientists, foresters and fire responders had expected. Looking back, the 2013 season had the earmarks of a bad year, with the...
Crestbrook to Offer Wildfire Mitigation for High Value Homeowners
Mar 20 2015 // Crestbrook Insurance Co., an affluent market personal lines carrier, has launched Crestbrook Wildfire Solution Program in collaboration with Wildfire Defense Systems (WDS), an insurance wildfire loss prevention and...
Natural Disasters Could Cost $750 Billion Annually in 15 Years: AIR Study
Mar 19 2015 // Economic losses from global natural catastrophes likely will triple over the next 15 years, unless steps are taken to reduce bad development choices, according to preliminary results of a catastrophe modeling study...
Wildfire Spreads in Western Oklahoma, Homes Evacuated
Mar 18 2015 // Emergency personnel say about a dozen people have been evacuated from their homes because of wildfire that has burned 37 square miles in rural western Oklahoma. Woodward County emergency manager Matt Lehenbauer said on...
Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting Launches New Blast Model for Terrorist Attacks
Mar 18 2015 // Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, is applying a new blast engineering approach to provide a more realistic understanding of the potential range of losses from a terrorist...
El Nino Could Signal Tornado Activity in South: Researchers
Mar 17 2015 // The waters of the Pacific Ocean may provide some clues on what kind of tornado season will erupt across the southern U.S., according to a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience. The study found that if the Pacific enters...
Oklahoma Contractor Charged with Defrauding Moore Tornado Victims
Mar 16 2015 // Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has charged a Tulsa contractor with two felony counts of embezzlement for fraudulent business practices in rebuilding homes damaged by the May 2013 tornado. The AG’s office said...
Palomar, TriCoast Insurance Launch Windstorm-Hurricane Product in Hawaii
Mar 13 2015 // Palomar Specialty Insurance Co. has partnered with TriCoast Insurance Services, LLC to offer a residential windstorm-hurricane insurance product in Hawaii. The product is a stand-alone hurricane coverage that will be...
RMS Study Shows Significant Tsunami Risk in Caribbean, Mediterranean
Mar 12 2015 // RMS, the catastrophe risk management firm, has released a global tsunami risk study that identifies more than 20 subduction zones worldwide capable of generating a giant earthquake and tsunami – similar in scale to...
Earthquake Risks Are Rising, but Take-Up Isn’t
Mar 11 2015 // The West Coast’s risk of ruin is even greater than we previously feared. According to the just-released Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, the likelihood that California could see an earthquake of...
