Best Read Catastrophe Headlines
Headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page with the most time spent reading.
#1 Viewpoint: Smoke Damage from LA Wildfires Leaves Questions to Be Answered
Apr 2 2025 // The question has come up wondering if smoke damage is covered for those homes that were impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires but were not damaged by the actual fires. A cloud of smoke from a fire is larger than the actual...
#2 Californians Pay Billions for Power Companies’ Wildfire Prevention Efforts. Are They Cost-Effective?
Dec 5 2024 // Diane Moss lost her home in the Santa Monica Mountains after power lines ignited the apocalyptic Woolsey Fire in 2018. Since then, she’s pressed for a safer electric grid in California. “It’s so easy to...
#3 LA Neighbors See Different Post-Wildfire Rebuilding Options Due to Insurance Crisis
Feb 7 2025 // Before a wildfire ravaged their street in northwest Altadena, Louise Hamlin and Chris Wilson lived next door to each other in nearly identical houses. “I chose an old home in an old neighborhood because it has...
#4 Texas Panhandle Town Grapples with Recovery One Year After Devastating Wildfire
Feb 27 2025 // Past the terracotta canyons and sloping hills in the Texas Panhandle is a colorful, small town center. A vibrant mural of the town’s name greets visitors, the yellow and blue paint from a historic motel can be seen...
#5 Volunteers Bring Solar Power to Hurricane Helene Disaster Zone
Oct 15 2024 // Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene downed power lines and washed out roads all over North Carolina’s mountains, the constant din of a gas-powered generator is getting to be too much for Bobby Renfro. It’s...
#6 Toilet Paper and Flat Tires: The Strange Ways Californians Ignite Wildfires
Aug 2 2024 // Of all the insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome? Humans. People do...
#7 Whitewater Rafting Businesses Face Uncertain Future After Hurricane Helene
Feb 12 2025 // ERWIN, Tenn. (AP) — After 24 years of guiding whitewater trips on the Nolichucky River Gorge for other companies, Patrick Mannion finally received a permit last year to operate his own outfitter business. But following...
#8 An Insurance Journalist’s Perspective on Southern California’a Wildfires
Apr 7 2025 // PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES It was pitch black in the house and the power was off. The Santa Ana winds were howling. As planned, my wife, Jenny, gathered our two dogs and cat and scurried them into her car as I shuttled...
#9 US Property/Catastrophe Reinsurance Rates Likely to Stabilize During Midyear Renewals
Apr 7 2025 // Reinsurance renewal rates continued dropping during January renewals, but U.S. property/catastrophe reinsurance pricing is likely to stabilize during the coming midyear renewals, according to a report from Moody’s...
#10 More Americans Breathe Unhealthy Air Due to Wildfires, Extreme Heat
Apr 25 2025 // Around 156 million Americans, nearly half of the US population, now live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution, part of a trend toward declining air quality as climate change-related extreme weather events like...
#11 Los Angeles Pushes to Rebuild Homes Fast, Despite Wildfire Danger
Jan 17 2025 // California politicians are rushing to make it easier for residents to rebuild their homes incinerated in the Los Angeles firestorms. That means waiving green construction mandates designed to combat climate change —...
#12 Explaining Deductibles After Multiple Florida Hurricanes
Oct 16 2024 // Deductibles serve several purposes. They provide some premium relief for the insured. They make insureds less likely to file smaller claims because either damage falls within the deductible, or is so close to it that the...
#13 Oil and Gas Power Lines Suspected of Causing Texas Panhandle Wildfires
Aug 1 2024 // When a spate of wildfires tore across the Texas Panhandle in February and scorched 20,000 acres of Craig Cowden’s ranch near Skellytown, he decided he had had enough. Cowden took on a second unofficial job: looking...
#14 Rebuild or What? Florida Towns Hit Three Times by Hurricanes Face Tough Choice
Oct 4 2024 // HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It was just a month ago that Brooke Hiers left the state-issued emergency trailer where her family had lived since Hurricane Idalia slammed into her Gulf Coast fishing village of Horseshoe...
#15 Texas Panhandle Prepares for State’s Next Big Wildfire
May 28 2024 // LUBBOCK — Spring rains have revived much of the green grass covering stretches of plains in the Texas Panhandle — the same land that, just three months ago, was black from fire and ash after wildfires burned more than...
#16 Property-Catastrophe Reinsurance Rates Will Stop Dropping Post Wildfires: Execs
Feb 3 2025 // RenaissanceRe expects to incur about $750 million in losses from the January 2025 California wildfires—and anticipates that industrywide impacts should halt the drop in property-catastrophe reinsurance prices observed at...
#17 Hurricane Debby Brings Six Deaths, Widespread Flood Losses in Florida, Georgia, SC
Aug 6 2024 // Hurricane Debby left at least six people dead Monday along with widespread flooding in the same parts of Florida and Georgia that were swamped by Hurricane Idalia less than a year ago. Debby made landfall near...
#18 The Huge Profits Investors Have Made on Catastrophe Bonds Are Raising Eyebrows
Aug 19 2024 // A strategy that’s delivered specialist investors huge returns is now facing scrutiny, amid concerns that its risk-reward dynamics might be skewed against some issuers. Catastrophe bonds, which are issued by insurers,...
#19 Will California’s FAIR Plan Have Enough Cash for Its Wildfire Claims?
Jan 16 2025 // There has been some question about whether California’s insurer of last resort – the FAIR Plan – has enough cash on hand to pay for its share of wildfire claims. As surplus is inadequate and reinsurance has a...
#20 Mercury Expects to Lose $1.6B to $2B From LA Wildfires
Feb 13 2025 // Although Mercury Insurance Group expects gross losses from the 2025 California wildfires in the $1.6 billion-$2.0 billion range, potential subrogation and reinsurance recoveries will drop the ultimate bill down to $325...
