Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tomas Regains Hurricane Strength; Soaks Haiti Refugee Camps
Nov 5 2010 // Tropical Storm Tomas re-strengthened to a hurricane Friday as it headed between Cuba and Haiti, drenching with overnight rain crowded tent and tarpaulin camps housing vulnerable Haitian earthquake survivors. Although some...
Swiss Re Structures $386 Million ‘European Windstorm’ Notes
Nov 3 2010 // Swiss Re’s Capital Markets Division has structured €275 million [$386 million] in notes as an alternative risk transfer vehicle, covering European windstorm events, for AXA Global P&C’s Calypso Capital...
Tropical Storm Shary on Track to Hit Bermuda by Tonight
Oct 29 2010 // The 8:00 a.m. AST bulletin from the National Hurricane Center in Miami placed the season’s latest tropical storm, Shary, around 220 miles (355 kms) south–southwest of Bermuda. The storm, which coalesced from a...
Californians Asked to Volunteer to Have Earthquake Sensors in Homes
Oct 29 2010 // Scientists want to know just how much shaking is going on in California house. The U.S. Geological Survey issued a request this week for volunteer homes in Southern California to host one of its earthquake sensors. The...
272 Die in Indonesia Quake, Tsunami; Aon Benfield Analysis
Oct 27 2010 // The earthquake and the subsequent tsunami, which struck the Mentawai Islands off of the Indonesian island of Sumatra has left at least 272 dead, with over 400 people still reported missing. Indonesian authorities are also...
Hurricane Richard Hits Belize; Could Reach Mexico’s Oil Fields
Oct 25 2010 // Hurricane Richard struck the tiny Central American nation of Belize Sunday, blowing roofs off houses and knocking out electricity as tourists and residents huddled in emergency shelters. Richard, which made landfall just...
TS Richard Set to Become Hurricane; Hit Yucatan
Oct 22 2010 // Tropical Storm Richard headed toward Central America Friday, triggering a hurricane watch along the Honduras-Nicaragua border, a region already hit by months of heavy rains. The 17th named storm in the Atlantic so far this...
Record 7.7M Expected to Participate in Calif. Earthquake Drill
Oct 21 2010 // More than 7.7 million people are expected to shake, drop, cover and hold on in the country’s largest earthquake drill in history. The Great California ShakeOut is an earthquake drill in which participants practice...
Southern China Braces for Super Typhoon Megi
Oct 21 2010 // Residents scrambled to stockpile food and authorities ordered ships to remain docked as southern China geared up Wednesday for a super typhoon after it killed 15 people and wiped out crops in the northern...
AIR Estimates Philippines Typhoon Insured Losses under $150 Million
Oct 19 2010 // Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimates that insured losses to onshore properties in the Philippines from Super Typhoon Megi will likely be less than 6.5 billion Philippine pesos ($150 million. AIR said its...
Havana Takes a Hit as Tropical Storm Paula Passes
Oct 15 2010 // Tropical Storm Paula weakened further Thursday, but still packed enough punch to blast through the Cuban capital with driving rains and high winds that toppled trees, flooded streets and left large swaths of the city...
Recent Oklahoma Earthquake Among Strongest in State
Oct 15 2010 // One of the strongest earthquakes recorded in Oklahoma rattled parts of five states on October 13 and left two people with minor injuries. The earthquake struck at 9:06 a.m. about six miles east of Norman in Cleveland...
Earthquake Rattles Parts of Oklahoma
Oct 14 2010 // An earthquake has rattled parts of central Oklahoma and was felt as far away as southern Kansas. There are no reports of damage or injury. Geophysicist Don Blakeman with the National Earthquake Information Center said the...
Mexican Coast, Cancun on Alert for Hurricane Paula
Oct 13 2010 // Hurricane Paula, the ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, churned toward the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula Tuesday, putting the tourist hub of Cancun on high alert. A hurricane warning was in...
Hurricane Paula Spares Mexico’s Coast, Heads for Cuba
Oct 13 2010 // Category 2 Hurricane Paula passed 60 miles east of the resort town of Cancun, Mexico this morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, according to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide. With hurricane force...
Hurricane Paula Heads for Mexico’s Tourist Coast
Oct 12 2010 // Hurricane Paula, the ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, churned toward the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula Tuesday, putting the tourist hub of Cancun on high alert. A hurricane warning was in...
Florida Prepares for Potentially Severe Wildfire Season
Oct 8 2010 // Dry conditions in at least some parts of the state coupled with a long-range forecast calling for a significant drying cycle threaten a potentially severe wildfire season, Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services...
U.S. Avoids Major Landfall So Far in Active Hurricane Season
Oct 7 2010 // The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season has been very active in the number of storms but is likely to go down as a non-event for most people in the United States, which has so far dodged a major landfall, the top official U.S....
RMS Reviews 2010 Hurricane Season to Date
Oct 6 2010 // Risk Management Solutions reports that as of October 5, 2010, there are “exactly eight weeks left until the end of the official hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. To date, 14 named storms have...
Nevada To Expand Earthquake Lab
Oct 5 2010 // A new $12.2 million federal grant will allow the University of Nevada, Reno, to more than double the size of its earthquake research center, making it the largest quake simulation facility in the country, school officials...
