australia fire tornadoes News

Australian Insurers Should Be Able to Withstand Mounting Bushfire Claims: AM Best

Australian insurers are well-capitalized and should be able to withstand losses from the 2019/2020 bushfire season, aided by strong capital positions and support from reinsurance partners, said AM Best. The ratings agency explained that comprehensive use of reinsurance has helped …

Bushfire-Ravaged Australians Face Choice in Era of Climate Change: Rebuild or Leave?

It took two years for Nigel Allison to build his mud-brick house on a sleepy southeastern tip of Australia, and just hours for it to be gutted by fire. The cherished three-bedroom home built in 1986 was one of several …

Australia Begins Clean Up From Bushfires with Insurance Claims Continuing to Rise

The New South Wales and Victorian state governments will coordinate the clean-up of insured and uninsured residential and commercial properties destroyed in the deadly wildfires. Under the plan, the states will appoint major contractors to do the work, which will …

Severe Storms Expected to Bring Relief, New Risks to Bushfire-Stricken Australia

Severe storms are expected to bring some relief in the coming days from huge bushfires scorching Australia but the heavy downpours could also carry the risk of landslides and water pollution, officials said on Wednesday. Australia is battling its worst …

Climate Scientists Warn that Australia’s Bushfires Could Become the New Normal

Bushfires ravaging Australia have provided a foretaste of the kinds of conditions that could become normal unless the world moves rapidly to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases driving global warming, scientists have warned. Although Australia’s government and parts of …

Australia’s Bushfires Could Surpass 2009’s Costly Season; Analysts, Insurers Comment

Australia’s bushfire season has months to run and could easily surpass the most costly fire season, 2009’s Black Saturday fires in Victoria, which had a price tag of an estimated A$4.4 billion (US$3 billion), according to Moody’s Analytics, in a …

Australians Evacuate Their Homes as Soaring Temperatures, Winds Fan Bushfires

Australia urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes on Friday and prepared military backup as authorities said the next few hours could be “very, very challenging” even as rain poured down in some parts. Defense …

Insurance Industry Calls for Action to Mitigate Climate Risk as Australia Bushfires Widen

As the devastation from Australia’s bushfires widens, the insurance industry is calling for concerted action to mitigate the impact of climate change. Months of out-of-control fires have burnt an area more than five times the size of Wales and industry-wide …

Update: Australia’s Firefighters Take Advantage of Cooler Weather to Help Quell Wildfires

Firefighters are taking advantage of cooler weather to quell southeastern Australia’s wildfires that have killed at least 24 people and prompted stirring messages from stars at the Golden Globes. Some 130 blazes across New South Wales are being fought by …

Australia Sees No End to Unprecedented Wildfire Crisis

Exhausted firefighters welcomed cooler weather and patchy rain in blaze-ravaged southeastern Australia Monday after a calamitous few days, even as authorities warn of a return to dangerous conditions later this week. With no end in sight to the months-long crisis, …