Latest Windstorm Headlines
All the headlines from our Windstorm Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Many in Tornado Alley Still Rely on Warning Sirens
Jun 4 2012 // Warnings sent directly to cell phones and broadcast over the airwaves can provide a detailed heads-up before dangerous storms. But for many parts of Tornado Alley, storm sirens remain so ubiquitous that one official says...
Colorado Researchers Raise Atlantic Storm Forecast
Jun 4 2012 // Colorado State University researchers on Friday raised their forecast for the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season to 13 tropical storms, with five hurricanes and two major hurricanes. In April they forecast 10 tropical storms,...
Mass. Tornadoes in 2011 Caused $200M in Insured Damages
Jun 4 2012 // Massachusetts officials said that insurers so far paid out $200 million in claims related to devastating tornadoes in western and central Massachusetts that occurred on June 1, 2011. The Massachusetts Insurance Division...
Baseball Goes to Bat for Tornado Victims
Jun 4 2012 // Major League Baseball and a charitable foundation run by players are working with Habitat for Humanity to build nine homes for the tornado-ravaged communities of Joplin, Mo., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., with more than half of...
Florida Hurricane Fund May Come Up Short If Big Storm Hits
Jun 4 2012 // Florida may not have enough money to pay off hurricane insurance claims if a big storm hits this year. An advisory panel recently concluded that the state may fall nearly $2 billion short of the total needed to cover all...
Mass. Church Rebounds After 2011 Tornado; Insurance Covers $2M Repair
Jun 1 2012 // A year after a tornado downed its steeple, The First Church of Monson Congregational in Monson, Mass., is rebounding.Photo credit: The First Church of Monson CongregationalThe town’s oldest church became a disaster...
Oklahoma’s Emergency Price Stabilization Act in Effect After Storms
Jun 1 2012 // Oklahoma’s Emergency Price Stabilization Act is now in effect for 35 Oklahoma counties after Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency due to severe storms, straight line winds and flooding that began on May 29,...
Kentucky’s April Hail Storm Cost Insurers $175 Million
May 30 2012 // A major hail storm last month in Kentucky is estimated to have caused $175 million in insured losses and damages when balls of ice as large as baseballs battered cars and homes and knocked out power to thousands. The PSC...
Florida Readies Storm Plan for Republican Convention
May 24 2012 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott will have the final say whether to cancel the Republican National Convention in the event of a hurricane. The convention where Mitt Romney is expected to be formally nominated as the Republican...
Kauai, Maui to Get $400K For Storm Cleanup Efforts
May 23 2012 // Officials say Maui and Kauai will get a combined $400,000 to clean up damage from heavy storms that hit Hawaii in March. The money will fund 20 temporary jobs for people to clean and repair damaged homes, land and public...
Insurers Paid $200M to Victims of June 1, 2011 Massachusetts Tornadoes
May 23 2012 // Massachusetts officials said that insurers so far paid out $200 million in claims related to devastating tornadoes in western and central Massachusetts that occurred on June 1, 2011. The Massachusetts Insurance Division...
After Joplin Tornado, Town Looked Like a War Zone, Adjusters Say
May 22 2012 // “One of the eeriest things was … the lack of noise. There were no birds. There was no sound. There was no vegetation. There was nothing. There were no dogs. There were no cars. It was just mounds of rubble,”...
Tropical Depression Alberto is Atlantic’s First Named Storm
May 22 2012 // It may not be much of a storm compared to what may follow, but Alberto, which formed off the coast of North Carolina, has become the first named storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. However, Alberto poses no threat...
Season’s First Tropical Storm Forms Off Carolina Coast
May 21 2012 // Tropical Storm Alberto emerged off South Carolina’s coastline Sunday, the first storm of its kind to form in a hurricane season that doesn’t officially begin until June 1. The storm was not expected to approach...
$20M-Plus Crop Damage When Storm Shreds Central California Orchards
May 21 2012 // A fierce spring storm that shredded Central California orchards last month caused more than $20 million damage in Kings County. Other San Joaquin Valley counties are still tallying the damage to crops when quarter-sized...
Major League Baseball to Help Tornado Victims
May 21 2012 // Major League Baseball and a charitable foundation run by players are working with Habitat for Humanity to build five homes in Joplin, Mo. State Farm Insurance Co. is providing more than half of the funding. Crews will work...
A Year after Joplin Tornadoes, $2.16B in Insurance Claims Paid
May 18 2012 // The tornado that swept through Joplin, Mo., on May 22, 2011, has generated $2.16 billion in insurance claims payouts to Missouri policyholders, according to an Insurance Information Institute analysis of data from...
Crop Damage in Central California From Storm Tops $79M
May 18 2012 // San Joaquin Valley’s crop damage estimate from a hail storm last month has reached more than $79 million. The Fresno Bee reports that Kings County, among the hardest hit areas of the region, recently increased its...
Hurricane Andrew Remembered at Storm Conference
May 17 2012 // Florida’s emergency managers are preparing for the upcoming tropical storm season by reexamining the lessons learned from Hurricane Andrew. This August will mark the 20th anniversary of Andrew’s catastrophic...
PERILS Q1 Report on European Windstorms Shows ‘Very Active Season’
May 17 2012 // PERILS, the Swiss-based insurance data provider, reports that “in contrast to an unusually quiet European windstorm season in 2010/11, the 2011/12 season was very active.” PERILS said it had “investigated...
