Hurricane Harvey News

Researchers: FEMA’s Houston Flood Maps Outdated Long Before Harvey

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood plain maps for parts of southeastern Houston were woefully out-of-date long before Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Texas coast, a new study suggests. Researchers at Rice University and Texas A&M University at Galveston studied one …

Natural Disasters Begin to Hit Profits of Global Reinsurers

A profit warning from one of the world’s largest reinsurers is the latest sign that the death and destruction from a spate of hurricanes and earthquakes in North America are now taking a toll on the titans of global finance. …

Air Monitoring Company Added to Texas Chemical Plant Negligence Lawsuit

Air monitoring company Bureau Veritas SA has been added to a negligence suit alleging first responders inhaled dangerous fumes during a fire at a chemical plant, lawyers for Texas police and emergency workers said. The suit, filed in Harris County …

Talanx Warns 2017 Profits Could Be Hit by Hannover Re’s Catastrophe Claims

German insurer Talanx warned it may miss its profit target for 2017 as its reinsurer, Hannover Re, is being hit by major claims from a series of hurricanes and an earthquake in Mexico. Reinsurers face big losses from Hurricanes Harvey …

States Need Better Protections for Insurance Consumers in Natural Disasters: Rutgers Report

As homeowners continue to file insurance claims in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, a research report released by the Rutgers Center for Risk and Responsibility at the Rutgers Law School in Camden, N.J., suggests many could find that …

FEMA Not Relying on Trailers to House Hurricane Victims

The hurricanes that battered Texas and Florida have likely spawned the worst disaster-created housing crisis since Hurricane Katrina left hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents without homes more than a decade ago. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it’s …

What If an Irma-Like Hurricane Hit the New York City Metro Area?

It sounds like a Hollywood disaster movie. A Category 5 hurricane churning in the mid-Atlantic suddenly veers northwest – and heads straight for New York City. The good news is that, for now, experts agree a Cat 5-sized deluge appears …

‘Future-Proofing’ Texas a Political, Bureaucratic Challenge for Harvey Recovery Czar

The man tasked with overseeing Texas’ Hurricane Harvey rebuilding efforts sees his job as “future-proofing” before the next disaster, but he isn’t empowered on his own to reshape flood-prone Houston or the state’s vulnerable coastline, which has been walloped by …

Hurricane Harvey-Caused Oil, Chemical Spills Dwarfed by Katrina’s

More than 22,000 barrels of oil, refined fuels and chemicals spilled at sites across Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, along with millions of cubic feet of natural gas and hundreds of tons of other toxic substances, a Reuters …

Weakening Hurricane Jose Could Graze Massachusetts Wednesday

A weakened Hurricane Jose could graze the Northeast as Hurricane Maria tears through the Caribbean, gaining strength and possibly heading toward the U.S. in a week. Jose will probably be downgraded to a tropical storm as it comes close to …