Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tornado-Related Insurance Claims Climb in Oklahoma
Jun 5 2013 // The total number of tornado-related insurance claims filed by Oklahomans has climbed to 32,433 since May 19, state insurance regulators report. The filings represent insured losses of nearly $250 million, including 13,938...
Louisiana Citizens Tweaks Claims Handling in Advance of Hurricane Season
Jun 5 2013 // Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. announced it has made significant enhancements to increase efficiency of claims filing, adjuster deployment and claims processing, in advance of the 2013 hurricane season. The...
Alabama Hurricane Planners Confront Residents’ Fading Memories
Jun 5 2013 // Memories have faded since Hurricane Ivan slammed Alabama in 2004, the last time the state suffered a direct hit from a hurricane. Most of the damage is gone, replaced by new structures or empty lots along the beach. So...
Rain Delays Wildfire Season in Parts Of West
Jun 4 2013 // Rain and cooler temperatures mean the wildfire season in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Montana will start later than initially predicted, officials with the National Interagency Fire Center said Saturday. But wildfire...
As Hurricane Season Opens, Florida’s Citizens Touts Depopulation Deals
Jun 4 2013 // Officials at Florida’s property insurer of last resort say that it is entering the 2013 hurricane season in improved financial condition thanks in part to various private insurer policy takeouts. Those takeouts have...
22K Insurance Claims Filed After May 19, 20 Oklahoma Tornadoes
Jun 3 2013 // The Oklahoma Insurance Department says more than 22,000 claims have been filed for property and vehicles damaged by tornadoes that struck the state on May 19 and 20. The agency says claims filed so far represent insured...
Amarillo Hailstorm Damage Estimated at $400M
Jun 3 2013 // A massive hailstorm that blanketed the Texas panhandle city of Amarillo on May 28 is proving costly. An estimated 35,000 vehicles and thousands of homes were damaged in the May 28 storm. Insured losses are expected to...
Weather Service Confirms St. Louis-Area Tornadoes
Jun 3 2013 // Portions of suburban St. Louis waged a soggy cleanup effort on June 1 after severe storms unleashed an outbreak of tornadoes across the region, damaging hundreds of homes and leaving tens of thousands without power. No...
Southern California Wildfire Containment Doubles Overnight
Jun 3 2013 // Firefighters working in darkness doubled containment of a massive wildfire north of Los Angeles to 40 percent overnight, as cool, moist air moved in Monday. The fire, which has fed on old brush that hasn’t burned in...
Oklahoma Tornadoes Take 13 Lives Including 3 Storm Chasers
Jun 3 2013 // Three storm chasers were among 13 people killed by tornadoes that rampaged through central Oklahoma on Friday, underscoring the high risk of tracking tornadoes and forcing the media to rethink how they cover deadly...
Hurricane Season and Florida’s Insurance System: Living on Borrowed Time?
Jun 3 2013 // Mother Nature has been kind to Florida’s coastline lately with a record run of seven years without a hurricane making landfall, allowing property insurers time to re-stock their depleted coffers. As a result, before...
Top 10 U.S. Insurers in Tornado-Stricken States: SNL Financial
Jun 3 2013 // The Moore, Oklahoma tornado, which killed 24 people, was the deadliest tornado to touch down during a nearly weeklong outbreak across the U.S. Midwest and South Central regions. The states hardest hit have been Kansas,...
76 Tornadoes in May Caused $2B-$5B in Insured Losses: Eqecat
Jun 3 2013 // Tornadoes that struck the United States from May 18 to May 20 caused anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion in insured losses, disaster modeling company Eqecat said. The firm said most of the losses were attributed to the...
NOAA Predicts Active Atlantic Hurricane Season
Jun 3 2013 // The government’s weather center is forecasting that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1 will be an active one, perhaps even extremely active, during its six months. Experts at the National...
Atlantic Coast Told to Expect Major Hurricanes This Season
Jun 3 2013 // The government’s weather center has forecast that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1 will be an active one, perhaps even extremely active, during its six months. Experts at the National...
Agents Helping Agents in Recovery from Oklahoma Tornadoes
Jun 3 2013 // Twelve hundred homes damaged or destroyed, 33,000 people impacted and $2 billion in property losses. Those are damage estimates from the deadly F5 tornado that hit the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on May 20, just one day...
More Severe Weather and Tornadoes Forecast For Oklahoma, Ozarks
May 31 2013 // More dangerous weather, spawning baseball-sized hail and tornadoes, was predicted for Oklahoma and parts of the Ozarks on Friday after more than a dozen reported twisters in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday, U.S....
Is European Hurricane Model Better Than U.S. Model?
May 31 2013 // When forecasters from the National Weather Service track a hurricane, they use models from several different supercomputers located around the world to create their predictions. Some of those models are more accurate than...
Central U.S. Warned of Severe Storms With Tornadoes, Floods Today
May 31 2013 // Severe thunderstorms, baseball-sized hail, flooding and possibly tornadoes may sweep across parts of Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas today, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center. There’s a 45 percent chance...
Hurricane Barbara Wind, Rain, Flood Damages in Mexico: AIR Analysis
May 31 2013 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has released a preliminary analysis of the damages caused by Hurricane Barbara, when it came ashore in the state of Chiapas on Mexico’s Pacific coast on Wednesday, May 29, at...
