Latest Catastrophe Headlines

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

Tornadoes Wipe Out Parts of Mississippi Towns, Leave 25 Dead

Mar 27 2023 // A powerful tornado tore through the Mississippi Delta on Friday night, killing at least 25 people, injuring dozens and causing widespread property damage. The weather system produced hail the size of golf balls and left...

Long-Term Drought in Spain Expected to Bring More Heatwaves, Wildfires

Mar 23 2023 // MADRID (AP) – Spain has officially entered a period of long-term drought, owing to high temperatures and low rainfall over the past three years, and likely faces another year of heatwaves and forest fires.The...

Natural Catastrophes Cost Insurers $125 Billion in 2022: Swiss Re

Mar 22 2023 // Natural disasters in 2022 brought global economic losses of US$275 billion, of which insurance covered 45%, or US$125 billion, according to Swiss Re’s latest sigma report.Claims from Hurricane Ian in Florida, record...

Insurer Spots Cybersecurity Weakness With Model Simulating Catastrophic Attacks

Mar 22 2023 // Coalition Inc., a cyber-insurance provider that tries to curb digital risk, has designed technology that simulates large-scale attacks to help insurers identify potential weaknesses in their portfolios and prevent...

Chile Completes $630M Earthquake Insurance Deal With World Bank

Mar 20 2023 // Chile has agreed to an earthquake insurance program with the World Bank protecting it from $630 million worth of damage from strong earthquakes, in an effort to shore up risks to public debt from possible natural...

DeSantis Turns Heads with Comment that Citizens Insurance ‘Not Solvent;’ Board Approves Cat Bond

Mar 20 2023 // Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis raised some questions Friday when he suggested that Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created insurer, has “not been solvent” and may be unable to pay all claims from a...

Assisting Insurers with Compliance Under California’s New Wildfire Insurance Regulations

Mar 15 2023 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic.Over the past five years, wildfires have been particularly devastating across California, leading insurers, homeowners, and regulators to reconsider how they manage and...

Aon Updates Europe Windstorm, Severe Convective Storm Models

Mar 13 2023 // Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm, updated its Impact Forecasting Europe Windstorm and Severe Convective Storm (SCS) catastrophe models to incorporate emissions scenarios that inform current and future...

Swarm of Quakes at Alaska Volcano Could Mean Eruption Coming

Mar 10 2023 // A swarm of earthquakes occurring over the past few weeks has intensified at a remote Alaska volcano dormant for over a century, a possible indication of an impending eruption.The Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the alert...

Turkey’s Southeast Exodus After Deadly Earthquake Puts Manufacturing at Risk

Mar 10 2023 // Mehmet Alkan, a shoe-sole manufacturer in Turkey’s earthquake-hit south, doesn’t know what will become of his company after some of his 220 employees died and half fled, reflecting the difficult transformation...

Louisiana Supreme Court Suspends Hurricane Damage Attorney

Mar 8 2023 // The Louisiana Supreme Court suspended indefinitely the law license of the attorney who manages McClenny Moseley & Associates’ office in New Orleans — the latest setback for a law firm that paid nearly $14...

People Moves: Childs to Retire as Chair of Hiscox; Optio Taps Munich Re’s Kennett as UK Head of Political Risk & Terrorism; Conduit Re Names BMS Re’s Binetti to Lead Casualty

Mar 8 2023 // This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Hiscox, Optio Group and Conduit Re.A summary of these new hires follows here. Childs to Retire as Chair of Hiscox BoardHiscox Ltd., the international...

Cyclone Freddy Sets New Record as World’s Longest-Lasting Tropical Storm

Mar 8 2023 // A tropical cyclone churning off the coast of Madagascar and expected to make landfall for a second time in Mozambique on Saturday — packing winds of as much as 190 kilometers (118 miles) per hour — appears to have...

As Catastrophic Storm Costs Rise, Could Mandatory Flood Insurance Help?

Mar 6 2023 // This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync. Key Takeaways: The rising cost to U.S. taxpayers of more frequent and severe flood damages The problems with the current state of flood insurance in the U.S. Actual and...

SoCal Storms, Back-to-Back Hurricanes in South Central Part of New Normal?

Mar 2 2023 // A new AM Best commentary on the latest winter storm to hit Southern California drives home the growing risk and the financial volatility that weather-related losses pose for the insurance industry.According to the...

Study Says Back-to-Back Hurricanes Likely to Come More Often

Feb 28 2023 // What used to be a rare one-two punch of consecutive hurricanes hitting about the same place in the United States weeks apart seems to be happening more often, and a new study says climate change will make back-to-back...

La. Judge Mulling Further Sanctions Against Hurricane Damage Law Firm

Feb 27 2023 // A federal judge in New Orleans has called owners of McClenny Moseley & Associates back into his courtroom again, this time to decide if the law firm should be sanctioned — and if so, how much — for making...

Hurricanes Moving Farther North to Pummel Millions More Homes in US

Feb 27 2023 // Is it possible to predict exactly where the wind will blow? How about where it will blow 30 years from now?The First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that works to define and communicate risks posed by climate change, says...

Florida Nursing Home Operator Acquitted of Causing Patient Deaths in Hurricane Irma

Feb 27 2023 // A judge on Friday acquitted a Florida nursing home administrator accused of causing the overheating deaths of nine patients after Hurricane Irma in 2017, saying that his employees had provided care and prosecutors had not...

Florida’s Universal Insurance Bounces Back in Q4 After Hurricane Ian Losses

Feb 27 2023 // Universal Insurance Holdings Inc. (UVE), parent company of Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co., last week reported net income of $25.1 million in its fourth quarter, a sharp increase from the previous...