Latest Catastrophe Headlines

All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Missouri DCI Highlights Cost, Lack of Earthquake Coverage in High-Risk Areas

Feb 15 2024 // The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) issued an Earthquake Survey in December 2023 that shows a lack of understanding about risk and insurance coverage is a problem, while the cost and lack of available...

Summer-Like Conditions Lead to First Wisconsin Tornadoes in February

Feb 14 2024 // EVANSVILLE, Wis. (AP) — The first tornadoes ever recorded in Wisconsin in the usually frigid month of February tore through mostly rural areas on a day that broke records for warmth, setting up the perfect scenario for...

Iceland Plans to Buy Out Homeowners in Volcano-Struck Town

Feb 13 2024 // Iceland’s government has agreed to buy all residential properties in the fishing town of Grindavik, which has become uninhabitable after three volcanic eruptions rocked the region in the last two months.Grindavik has...

What’s to Come in 2024: AI Expansion, More Catastrophes, Network Consolidation

Feb 13 2024 // No one can predict the future, but insurance professionals are likely the best qualified when it comes to predicting risk. For this special report, Insurance Journal magazine asked industry thought leaders their...

Father in Gender-Reveal That Sparked Fatal 2020 California Wildfire Pleads Guilty

Feb 13 2024 // A man whose family’s gender reveal photo shoot sparked a Southern California wildfire that killed a firefighter in 2020 has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors said.The El Dorado Fire erupted on...

Magnitude 5.7 Earthquake Struck Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii

Feb 12 2024 // A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the world’s largest active volcano on Friday — Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii — knocking items off shelves and cutting power in a nearby town but not immediately prompting...

The Odds of a Hurricane-Boosting La Niña This Year Are Rising

Feb 12 2024 // The odds of a La Niña weather pattern this year are rising, amplifying the risk of hurricanes in the Atlantic and drought in California and South America.There’s a 55% chance that La Niña, a cooling of the...

4.0 Earthquake Felt off Florida’s East Coast

Feb 9 2024 // Along with hurricanes and litigation, Floridians and their insurers can now add another potential concern: earthquakes. The National Weather Service reported that a 4.0 magnitude temblor, one of the largest recorded in the...

Two Years After Deadly Tornadoes, Some Kentucky Families Still Waiting for Housing

Feb 8 2024 // MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Ashley Prince and her family have been chasing “normal” for years now.Two years ago, the tornado that whipped through Mayfield peeled the roof off their rental property “like a...

Recent Earthquakes in Oklahoma Serve as a Reminder of Ongoing Risk

Feb 8 2024 // OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After a dramatic spike in earthquakes in the early 2010s, state regulators in Oklahoma began taking steps to limit the injection of wastewater from oil and gas extraction deep into the ground. As a...

Category 6? As Warming Stokes Storms, Some Want a Bigger Hurricane Category

Feb 7 2024 // A handful of super powerful tropical storms in the last decade and the prospect of more to come has a couple of experts proposing a new category of whopper hurricanes: Category 6.Studies have shown that the strongest...

Chile’s Second-Largest Refinery Shuttered Due to Power Outage Following Wildfires

Feb 5 2024 // The Aconcagua refinery, Chile’s second-largest with a capacity to process 102,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, has been shut down since Friday following a power outage caused by forest fires raging in the country,...

Hedge Funds’ Mega Returns Set Off Demand Spiral for Catastrophe Bonds

Feb 5 2024 // As hedge funds rake in record profits in one of the riskiest corners of the debt market, the products behind those returns are now drawing in more mainstream investors.Catastrophe bonds, which last year formed the basis...

Hub Launches High Net Worth Excess Wildfire Program in California

Feb 5 2024 // HUB International launched a new program to address the need for enhanced wildfire coverage of high value homes that will be offered exclusively by HUB Private Client to address the insurance and risk management needs of...

USGS: Nearly 75% of US Could Experience A Damaging Earthquake

Feb 5 2024 // Nearly 75% of the U.S. could experience damaging earthquake shaking, a recent U.S. Geological Survey report shows.A USGS-led team of more than 50 scientists and engineers in the latest USGS National Seismic Hazard Model...

What’s to Come in 2024: Hard Market, AI Expansion, More Catastrophes, Network Consolidation

Feb 5 2024 // No one can predict the future, but insurance professionals are likely the best qualified when it comes to predicting risk. For this special report, Insurance Journal asked industry thought leaders their predictions for the...

Alaska Charter Company Paying $900K for Wildfire From Campfire

Jan 31 2024 // An Alaska fishing guide company has paid $900,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. government alleging one of its guides started a wildfire in 2019, the U.S. attorney’s office for Alaska said in a...

Hawaii Officials Identify Last of 100 Known Victims of Wildfire That Destroyed Lahaina

Jan 30 2024 // The last of the 100 known victims of the wildfire that destroyed Maui’s historic town of Lahaina in August was identified as a 70-year-old woman whose husband, sister and several other relatives also died in the...

Oregon Jury Awards $85 M to 9 Victims of Deadly 2020 Wildfires

Jan 29 2024 // An Oregon jury awarded $85 million to nine victims of wildfires that ravaged the state in 2020, the latest verdict in a series of legal proceedings that are expected to put the utility PacifiCorp on the hook for billions...

Startup AiDash Raises $50M for Tech Using AI, Satellites to Spot Wildfire Risk

Jan 26 2024 // A California startup using artificial intelligence (AI) and satellites to spot fire and weather risks on power lines, AiDash, reported it had raised $50 million in new funding, reflecting Silicon Valley efforts to create...