Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
It’s a Matter of When, Not if, a Hurricane Will Hit Florida, Forecasters Say
May 13 2024 // SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — With the start of hurricane season less than a month away, U.S. officials who predict, prepare for and respond to natural disasters had a message for Floridians on Friday: It’s not a matter of...
Two Tornadoes Down Trees on Homes, Kill One Person in Tallahassee
May 13 2024 // Two confirmed tornadoes and storms packing hurricane-force winds killed at least one woman Friday in Florida as a week of deadly severe weather continued in the South, where uprooted trees crashed onto homes and knocked...
Western Canada Wildfires Prompt Evacuations, Air Quality Warnings
May 13 2024 // The season’s first major wildfires have spread to roughly 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) across Western Canada on Sunday as authorities issued an evacuation order for a community in British Columbia and warned of...
Decayed, Broken Utility Pole Caused Largest Wildfire in Texas History: Report
May 13 2024 // LUBBOCK — A decayed utility pole that broke, causing power wires to fall on dry grass in the Texas Panhandle, sparked the state’s largest wildfire in history, a Texas House committee confirmed Wednesday. And other...
Mexico Is Battling 159 Active Wildfires
May 10 2024 // Mexico is fighting 159 active wildfires across the country amid the year’s second heat wave that has also put the nation’s power grid under stress. Mexico’s national weather service issued an alert that...
Lawyers Handling Lawsuits Over Maui Wildfires to Get Investigation Documents
May 10 2024 // A judge on Friday forced the Hawaii attorney general’s office to turn over to lawyers involved in the hundreds of lawsuits over last summer’s Maui wildfires all documents, interviews and data collected by the...
Report Using Aerial Imagery Keys in on Hailstorm Risks to Colorado Homes
May 10 2024 // A report looking at 1.2 million homes in Colorado shows risks in the one of the top states for hail-related insurance claims are made worse by the state of some properties. The Arturo used artificial intelligence models...
After Deadly Oklahoma Tornado, Storms Bring Twisters to Midwest
May 9 2024 // DETROIT (AP) — Severe storms battered the Midwest on Tuesday, unleashing a curtain of heavy rain, gusty winds and tornadoes throughout the region a day after a deadly twister ripped through a small Oklahoma town and...
Tornadoes in Tennessee, North Carolina Kill Three, Damage Properties
May 9 2024 // High winds, hail, heavy rain and tornadoes battered Southern states from Alabama to North Carolina Wednesday and Thursday morning, leaving three people dead and hundreds of properties with heavy damage. USA Today, CNN and...
Typhoon Season in Northwest Pacific Seen Less Active Than Normal
May 8 2024 // Typhoon activity in the Northwest Pacific region is expected to be about 20% below normal this year, forecaster Tropical Storm Risk said in its first outlook of the season. The London-based group said it expects 15...
Maui Sues Cell Carriers Over Failure of Wildfire Warning Alerts During Outage
May 8 2024 // Had emergency responders known about widespread cellphone outages during the height of last summer’s deadly Maui wildfires, they would have used other methods to warn about the disaster, county officials said in a...
New $20M Coverage for California Commercial Property E&S Risks in Wildfire Areas
May 8 2024 // Wildfire Defense Insurance Services is offering a $20 million excess and surplus commercial property coverage for E&S risks in wildfire prone areas of California. The coverage is for total insured value up to $20...
The Top 15 U.S. Metros with High Exposure to Wildfire Risk
May 7 2024 // The number of wildfires per year is going down, but the increasing size and intensity of the fires is creating more property damage than ever before – in fact, the average fire size has tripled over the past 30 years, a...
M4.1 Earthquake Shook Parts of Los Angeles Area: USGS
May 2 2024 // A magnitude 4.1 earthquake shook parts of the Los Angeles Area, including the cities of Corona, Anaheim, and Santa Ana on at 1:49 p.m. local time on the afternoon of Wednesday, the USGS confirmed. The epicenter was in the...
1 Person Killed, Homes Destroyed After Tornado Rips NE Kansas
May 2 2024 // WESTMORELAND, Kan. (AP) — One person died Tuesday when a tornado ripped through the small city of Westmoreland in northeastern Kansas, destroying houses, RVs and outbuildings, authorities said. Pottawatomie County...
Growing Wildfire Risk Leaves States Grappling With How to Keep Insurers From Fleeing
May 1 2024 // Months after a catastrophic fire burned more than 2,200 homes in Hawaii, some property owners are getting more bad news—their property insurance won’t be renewed because their insurance company has deemed the risk...
Tornadoes Damaged 7,200 Residential Properties, Left $2B in Reconstruction Costs
May 1 2024 // The tornadoes that ripped through parts of Nebraska, Iowa and Oklahoma late last week damaged some 7,200 homes, leaving a reconstruction tab of $2.1 billion, according to CoreLogic, the data analytics firm. Some 127...
Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp Now Faces $30B Claim Demand in Oregon Wildfires
May 1 2024 // Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s PacifiCorp now faces a demand for $30 billion from victims of Oregon’s 2020 Labor Day wildfires, an escalation of a legal onslaught on the largest grid operator in the western...
Tornadoes Kill 4 in Oklahoma, Leaving Trail of Destruction
Apr 30 2024 // SULPHUR, Okla. (AP) — Tornadoes killed four people in Oklahoma, including an infant, and left thousands without power Sunday after a destructive outbreak of severe weather flattened buildings in the heart of one rural...
Q1 Global Insured Natural Disaster Losses Driven by Severe Convective Storms: Aon
Apr 30 2024 // Global natural catastrophes cost insurers $17 billion during the first quarter of 2024 with economic losses rising above $45 billion, according to Aon’s Q1 Global Catastrophe Recap – April 2024. Q1 natural disaster...
