Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Terrorists Have Shifted from Attacking Airlines to Mass Transit: Study
Mar 2 2015 // Successful terrorists have shifted their focus in recent years away from attacking airlines to attacking subway and rail systems, according to an analysis of terrorist attacks over a 30-year period from 1982 to 2011 by a...
China’s Draft Counter-Terrorism Law Alarms Foreign Technology Firms
Feb 27 2015 // China is weighing a far-reaching counter-terrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys and install security “backdoors,” a potential escalation of what some firms view as the...
Report: Wildfire Risk to Homes in West Tops $237B
Feb 26 2015 // In the Western U.S. there are nearly 900,000 homes representing an estimated reconstruction cost of more than $237 billion considered at “very high” or “high” risk from wildfires, a report issued...
Kansas Earthquakes Further Damaging Century-Old Courthouse
Feb 25 2015 // Harper County officials are grappling with how to fix a century-old courthouse that was already deteriorating before a sharp increase in earthquakes began rattling south-central Kansas. The bill just to repair the...
Earthquake Authority to Study Quake’s Impact on Napa Homes
Feb 24 2015 // The California Earthquake Authority has begun surveying Napa residents to find out how well their homes withstood the magnitude 6.0 earthquake centered in the South Napa area on Aug. 24, 2014. Under an initiative that CEA...
More than 2.5K Oklahoma Agents Take Earthquake Coverage Class
Feb 23 2015 // Oklahoma insurance agents are receiving training about earthquake insurance as a swarm of temblors continues to shake the state. More than 2,500 Oklahoma insurance professionals have completed a one-hour continuing...
Earthquake Warning System in Obama Budget Pleases Lawmakers
Feb 23 2015 // President Barack Obama’s recommendation to spend $5 million next year on an early earthquake warning system for the West Coast represents a significant breakthrough, congressional supporters of the project...
Oklahoma Energy Companies Sued Over Earthquake Damage
Feb 23 2015 // An Oklahoma resident has sued two energy companies seeking class-action status for people in nine counties who were affected by recent earthquakes. Jennifer Lin Cooper of Prague filed the suit against Tulsa-based New...
Central Washington Jolted by M4.3 Earthquake
Feb 19 2015 // A magnitude-4.3 earthquake rumbled under Washington state’s Cascade Range, but no damage has been reported. The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network says the quake struck at 1:04 a.m. Wednesday and was centered about 20...
PERILS Puts Initial Loss Estimate for Windstorm Elon-Felix at $374 Million
Feb 19 2015 // PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organization that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, announced that its initial loss estimate of the insured property market loss for windstorm Elon-Felix, which...
Energy Companies Sued in Oklahoma over Earthquake Damage
Feb 12 2015 // A Prague, Okla., resident has filed a lawsuit against two energy companies seeking class-action status for people in nine counties who were affected by recent earthquakes. Jennifer Lin Cooper filed the suit against...
Earthquake Warning System in Obama Budget Pleases Lawmakers
Feb 12 2015 // President Barack Obama’s recommendation to spend $5 million next year on an early earthquake warning system for the West Coast represents a significant breakthrough, congressional supporters of the project...
$324 Million: PERILS’ Final Loss Estimate for Windstorm Tini
Feb 12 2015 // PERILS AG announced that its final property insurance market loss estimate for windstorm Tini, also known as Darwin, which affected Ireland and the United Kingdom on 12 and 13 February 2014, is €286 million [$324...
Firefighters Gain on California Wildfire That Destroyed 40 Homes
Feb 9 2015 // Firefighters on Sunday evening gained the upper hand on a wind-driven wildfire that destroyed 40 homes, burned nearly 11 square miles and forced about 150 people to leave two small California towns at the eastern base of...
Work on ‘Tsunami-Proof’ School on Washington Coast Underway
Feb 9 2015 // Ground has been broken for a new school building on the Washington coast at Westport that officials say is designed to be tsunami-proof. The planned “vertical evacuation structure” will be an addition to the...
Geologists Look for Earthquake, Fracking Connection in Kansas
Feb 6 2015 // For at the last 15 months, Kansas geologist Rex Buchanan estimates, he’s spent 90 percent of his time studying something once relatively rare in the state — earthquakes. He has learned a lot, said the director of...
Minor Damage to Courthouse after Northern Oklahoma Earthquake Swarm
Feb 6 2015 // A swarm of earthquakes has shaken parts of Alfalfa County in northern Oklahoma. The U.S. Geological Survey says four earthquakes have been recorded around Cherokee and Helena since late on Feb. 4, including a magnitude 4.3...
Palomar Specialty, Civil Service Employees Insurance to Offer Earthquake Coverage
Feb 2 2015 // Palomar Specialty Insurance Co. has partnered with Civil Service Employees Insurance Co. to offer a comprehensive residential earthquake solution for CSE’s customers. Palomar Specialty’s residential earthquake...
Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission Develops Earthquake Plan
Feb 2 2015 // The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission now has a plan for future earthquakes after two small quakes rattled an area in Weld County that officials later determined were likely caused by a nearby injection...
Obama Budget: Taxes, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Crop Insurance, Wildfires
Feb 2 2015 // President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal year 2016 that sets up a battle with Republicans over programs to boost the middle class that are funded by higher taxes on corporations and...
