All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Sep 12 2025 // It’s the statistical peak of Atlantic hurricane season, and there isn’t a storm in sight — for now.September’s second week is usually when the season gets into full swing, as warm ocean waters fuel...
Sep 12 2025 // Nearly seven years after Paradise was ravaged by wildfire, the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream...
Sep 12 2025 // Patricia Lamela was driving back to the Galician town of Larouco in northwest Spain when she got the call. It was Aug. 13, just before 7 p.m., and a neighbor told her there was a fire in the forest.Lamela, the mayor of...
Sep 11 2025 // At a church parking lot near Los Angeles, two hazmat-suit-clad workers vacuumed and wiped most of the contents of Elle Schneider’s house. Surrounded by stacked plastic bins of books and clothes, they opened up the...
Sep 10 2025 // California lawmakers have reached an initial agreement to shore up the state’s wildfire utility fund.The agreement is expected be filed into legislative text on Wednesday after lawmakers suspended a Tuesday deadline,...
Sep 9 2025 // When a hurricane tears through a community, the damage left behind can feel overwhelming. For property owners, the priority is to get repairs done quickly so that life and business can return to normal. But too often,...
Sep 8 2025 // Most California homes were built long before the state required that they be constructed to withstand wildfires. Now, sellers of older homes in high-risk areas must disclose to potential buyers not only a dwelling’s...
Sep 5 2025 // Firefighters are slowly gaining on several wildfires burning in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada area, forcing evacuations and destroying buildings in a historic mining town.The TCU September Lightning Complex fires,...
Sep 3 2025 // A quick-moving wildfire burned homes in a California Gold Rush town settled around 1850 by Chinese miners, forcing evacuations and destroying properties.The fire rapidly expanded to 6,473 acres, forcing the evacuation...
Sep 2 2025 // Hurricane Katrina claimed hundreds of lives, destroyed homes and changed how emergency response is dealt with forever.In this episode of “The Story Behind the AP Story,” retired Associated Press journalist...
Sep 2 2025 // Eight months after the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Los Angeles, commercial and residential policyholders continue to report unreasonably long delays, dubious denials, and conspicuously low settlements. Most...
Aug 29 2025 // Scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Global Systems Laboratory said it has developed an hourly assessment of wildfire potential across the U.S.The Boulder, Colorado-based lab’s...
Aug 29 2025 // When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans in August 2005, causing greater insurance losses than any other natural disaster in history, it became clear that a lot of the city’s flood protection engineering —...
Aug 29 2025 // Canada’s record-breaking 2023 wildfire season led to a spike in air pollution in the country and in the US, erasing recent progress in cleaning up the air, according to new analysis.The wildfires, which burned 42...
Aug 29 2025 // The wildfires that raged across Greece, Turkey and Cyprus this summer were 22% more intense and 10 times more likely than they would have been in a world without climate change, according to scientists.The extremely hot,...
Aug 28 2025 // A fast-growing wildfire burning in central California’s Sierra National Forest in Fresno County in a remote area is the latest blaze of concern for firefighters.The Garnet Fire has burned more than 13,900 acres and...
Aug 28 2025 // The remnants of Hurricane Erin will contribute to torrential rain across the Swiss Alps over the next two days, raising the risk of dangerous flooding and landslides.Switzerland’s state forecaster has issued the...
Aug 28 2025 // The California property insurance market is undergoing a dramatic shift. As admitted carriers restrict their appetite for business in the state—particularly in high-risk zones—surplus lines insurers are increasingly...
Aug 27 2025 // Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina swamped parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, the property insurance sector is better prepared for another catastrophic storm and the litigation that may follow, according to industry...
Aug 27 2025 // Lists published every hurricane season, adjusting the amounts of insurance losses for past events for inflation to current-dollar levels, give a misleading picture of the potential for a single event costing insurers $100...