Latest Hurricane Headlines

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

Florida Weighs 15-Day Hurricane Supply Tax Holiday

Jan 29 2014 // Floridians would get a 15-day sales tax holiday on hurricane preparedness supplies ranging from portable generators to radios this coming June under a proposal outlined Monday by Gov. Rick Scott. Scott, making the...

Winter Storm Costs in Ohio Could Rival Hurricane Ike Totals

Jan 21 2014 // Experts say the early January’s extreme cold and wind are expected to be one of the costliest weather events in Ohio since the remnants of Hurricane Ike hit in 2008. No solid estimate is available yet, but the Dayton...

$1.5B in Louisiana Hurricane Recovery Aid Remains Unspent

Jan 3 2014 // Louisiana has yet to spend $1.5 billion of federal disaster recovery aid provided by Congress after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike ravaged the state in 2005 and 2008. The flexible block grant rebuilding and...

Sandy Drives Older New Jersey Residents to Senior Housing

Jan 2 2014 // Chased by Hurricane Sandy from their waterfront homes, a large number of older residents in Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J., are finding new homes among the township’s five 55-and-older developments. The migration...

Report Casts Light on High Cost of Homeowners Insurance in Florida

Dec 19 2013 // Floridians are paying the highest homeowner insurance rates in the nation even though the state has not been hit by a hurricane in nearly a decade. A national report shows the average premium for most Florida homeowners is...

2013 Had Lowest Hurricane Count since 1982: Willis Re

Dec 12 2013 // The 2013 Atlantic storm season has proved one of the quietest in decades with the lowest number of hurricanes since 1982 and none of them considered ‘major’, according to insurance broker Willis Re. An...

Bond Managers Gain as Pension Funds Flock to Catastrophe Risk

Dec 12 2013 // Funds specializing in insurance-linked risks such as catastrophe bonds are benefiting as the $30 trillion pension industry increases bets in a market that hasn’t posted an annual loss. At Leadenhall Capital Partners...

Hurricane Strength Storm Xaver Slams UK, Northern Europe: AIR Analysis

Dec 6 2013 // A report from catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide notes that Winter Storm Xaver hit the north of Scotland last night, Thursday the 5th of December, with wind gusts of more than 140 mph (225 km/h), recorded in the...

Reinsurers to Lower Prices Following Weak Hurricane Season: Fitch

Dec 4 2013 // The quietest U.S. Atlantic hurricane season in decades will lead to a low double-digit fall in related catastrophe reinsurance pricing in the key 2014 renewals, according to experts at Fitch Ratings. The ratings agency...

Insurance Lab in South Carolina Aims to Alter ‘Cycle of Destruction’

Dec 2 2013 // The insurance industry hopes a 21,000-square-foot lab in rural South Carolina can help revolutionize the way homes are built and stem the cost of Mother Nature’s disasters. Officials at the Insurance Institute for...

Weak 2013 Hurricane Season Coming to a Close

Nov 27 2013 // The 2013 Atlantic season has delivered the fewest hurricanes since 1982, U.S. forecasters said, despite their predictions in May that it would be a busier than normal year. Forecasters had predicted 13 to 20 named Atlantic...

Colorado State Running Out of Money for Hurricane Forecasting

Nov 21 2013 // Colorado State University, which pioneered seasonal hurricane forecasting 30 years ago, may have issued its last prediction. The school’s Tropical Meteorological Project needs $150,000 or it will end in February,...

Will Hurricane Katrina Legal Issues Be Resurrected in Sandy Claims?

Nov 18 2013 // It has been more than eight years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and only slightly more than one year since Hurricane Sandy made landfall on or about Oct. 29, 2012. Following Hurricane Katrina,...

Indiana Students Develop Plans to Fight Nature’s Fury

Nov 13 2013 // Jerzie Eagle and Liesl Elkin pointed to their topography map that showed the eight acres of flood-prone land around Carter and Murden streets in Kokomo, Ind. This is where their arboretum will go once the city tears down...

Louisiana Citizens Insurance Settles Remaining 2005 Hurricane Claims

Nov 1 2013 // A state-run insurance company of last resort in Louisiana has settled the remaining claims in a class-action lawsuit tied to how it handled claims after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The New Orleans Advocate reports...

1-Year Anniversary of Sandy Offers Lessons Learned for Coastal Residents

Oct 29 2013 // One year ago, Superstorm Sandy struck a dozen states in the Northeast and became the third costliest storm in U.S. history, after hurricanes Katrina and Andrew, according to the Insurance Information Institute...

12 Strange Weather Features of Superstorm Sandy

Oct 28 2013 // Superstorm Sandy set several records and was unusual in even more ways. Here are 12 strange weather features of Sandy: 1. Size: With tropical-storm-force winds that extended for 1,000 miles, Sandy was the largest Atlantic...

Rising Cost of Flood Insurance Will Create Challenges for NYC: RAND

Oct 28 2013 // Some New York City residents may soon face sharp increases in their flood insurance premiums as a result of major changes occurring in the National Flood Insurance Program and the redrawing of flood maps that expand the...

How a Run-of-the-Mill Hurricane Mutated Into a Superstorm Named Sandy

Oct 28 2013 // It was the moment a run-of-the-mill hurricane mutated into a monster named Sandy. Paradoxically, it was the same time Sandy lost much of its wind power, dropping from a hurricane to a tropical storm. It was a Friday night...

Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting Models Sandy Storm Surge

Oct 28 2013 // Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, announced that it is “helping insurers and reinsurers prepare for current and future U.S. hurricane seasons with its...