Latest Natural Disasters Headlines
All the headlines from our Natural Disasters Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Tornado Damages Buildings in Northwest Kansas Town
May 26 2021 // A tornado caused lots of property damage, but no serious injuries, in the northwestern Kansas town of Selden as strong storms raked the area, the National Weather Service said. Sheridan County officials reported the...
California Seeing More Wildfires as Drought Intensifies
May 26 2021 // As California sinks deeper into drought it already has had more than 900 additional wildfires than at this point in 2020, which was a record-breaking year that saw more than 4% of the state’s land scorched by...
Western U.S. Wildfires Have Made Insurance for Contractors a Tough Buy
May 25 2021 // Things look bad with California’s ever-sooner wildfire season seemingly approaching and what’s shaping up to be a severe drought across the Western U.S. The plague of wildfires in the past few years in...
It Doesn’t Take a Hurricane to Cause a Flood
May 25 2021 // Flooding is the costliest — and the most common — natural disaster to significantly impact communities across the United States, The PEW Charitable Trusts notes in reporting on flood-prepared communities. Flood events...
Earthquake Hits Beneath South Flank of Hawaii Volcano
May 25 2021 // A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck Sunday beneath the south flank of Kilauea Volcano on the island of Hawaii, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory confirmed. The earthquake was centered about 9...
$41M Recovered for Louisiana Consumers After Hurricane Claims Complaints
May 24 2021 // Complaints over insurance claims arising out of the three hurricanes that struck Louisiana last year have resulted in a recovery of $41 million for consumers as of the end of April, Louisiana insurance regulators say. The...
Tropical Storm Ana Begins Expected Above-Normal 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season
May 23 2021 // Just days after weather forecasters predicted another above-normal Atlantic hurricane season in 2021, Ana launched the season by forming off of Bermuda. Ana reached Tropical Storm status early on Sunday northeast of...
Hawaii Can Expect 2 to 5 Storms During Hurricane Season
May 21 2021 // The central Pacific basin including Hawaii can expect between two and five tropical depressions, tropical storms or hurricanes this year, federal forecasters said Wednesday. The annual National Weather Service prediction...
Canada Faces Mega-Hurricanes if Climate Change Pushes Storms North: Swiss Re Warns
May 21 2021 // Climate change is making hurricanes bigger and stronger, and it may soon push them farther north. Yet Canada’s homeowners, businesses and insurers underestimate that escalating risk, according to one of the...
Climate Change Caused $8 Billion of Hurricane Sandy’s Economic Losses: Study
May 20 2021 // When Hurricane Sandy barreled over New York City and the East Coast in 2012, it caused $63 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest storms in U.S. history. Now, scientists have estimated that climate change pushed...
Crews Make Progress Against Los Angeles Wildfire
May 19 2021 // Firefighters increased containment of a Los Angeles wildfire and officials identified the man suspected of starting the blaze that prompted evacuations in canyon neighborhoods. Ramon Rodriguez Flores was detained Sunday...
1K Los Angeles Residents Ordered to Evacuate in Wildfire
May 17 2021 // About 1,000 Los Angeles residents were evacuation orders on Monday as firefighters protected canyon homes from a smoky wildfire that churned through vegetation that hasn’t burned in half a century. The cause of the...
Oregon Landowner Suit Seeks $103M from Public Utilities for Wildfire
May 17 2021 // A lawsuit filed on behalf of 70 landowners in Oregon’s McKenzie River Valley seeks $103 million from Lane Electric Cooperative and Eugene Water and Electric Board for damages linked to one of the Labor Day fires that...
Private Firefighting Firms Add to Tension While Saving Vineyards, Mansions From Wildfires
May 17 2021 // Last October, firefighter Ryan Bellanca and his crew battled to keep the raging Glass Fire in California from devastating an upmarket Napa Valley vineyard. But Bellanca wasn’t working for any fire department. He owns...
Tornado in New Orleans Rips Off Roofs, Knocks Out Power
May 13 2021 // A tornado ripped off roofs, knocked down utility poles and cut off power to thousands in New Orleans early on May 12, but no serious injuries were reported in what one city official called an unexpected “dry...
California Commissioner Calls on Insurers to Do More to Boost Wildfire Prep
May 13 2021 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara called for property insurers in the state to step up and do more to help residents and businesses deal with wildfires. Lara on Thursday gave an update on the actions and...
2020’s Hurricane Zeta Upgraded from Cat 2 to Cat 3
May 13 2021 // Hurricane Zeta, which swept through southeast Louisiana at the tail end of the 2020 hurricane season, has been upgraded to a major, Category 3 storm at Louisiana landfall, according to a federal report released on May 11...
U.S. Hailstorms that Cost Insurers Billions – and Other April Natural Disasters: Aon
May 12 2021 // Insurers face multi-billion-dollar losses from U.S. hailstorms during April, according to Aon’s Global Catastrophe Recap report, which each month analyzes the impact of natural disaster events worldwide. The report...
California Wildfire Victims See Little Payout from PG&E Settlement
May 11 2021 // A trust approved by a federal judge to help compensate victims of deadly California wildfires sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric equipment paid survivors just $7 million while racking up $51 million in overhead in its...
Tornado That Struck Chesapeake Bay’s Western Shore Damaged Houses
May 10 2021 // A tornado that struck Virginia’s Northumberland County near the Chesapeake Bay destroyed one home and severely damaged a few others. But no one was injured, according to weather service officials. National Weather...
