Disaster (Flood,Coastal,EQ,W-Fire,etc.) News

Series of Earthquakes Shake Arkansas

A series of earthquakes, including one with a magnitude of 3.9, has rattled parts of Central Arkansas. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a number of temblors near Guy on Saturday, with magnitudes ranging from 1.7 to 3.9. The strongest quake …

BP’s Deep Cleaning of Gulf Beaches Getting Mixed Reviews

At Orange Beach in Alabama, what’s typically a beautiful, quiet stretch of beach in the fall now resembles a construction site. Bulldozers and yellow dump trucks shake the ground; a giant sifting machine spits clean sand out one end, tar …

New Zealand Coal Mine Blast Traps 27 Miners Underground

An explosion rocked a remote colliery in New Zealand on Friday, trapping 27 miners underground, the company and local authorities said. The new mine, which only began shipping coal this year, is dug into the side of a mountain range …

BP Could Gain Claimants’ Rights to Sue Other Oil Spill Firms

Claimants to BP Plc’s $20 billion oil spill fund may soon be required to transfer to the company their right to sue other defendants, a move that could help BP’s efforts to collect billions of dollars from its business partners. …

CCRIF Details Payments to Members for Tropical Cyclone Tomas

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) announced that it has completed insurance payments to the Governments of Barbados, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines following the passage of Tropical Cyclone Tomas which passed close to these islands …

Reinsurance Broker UIB Asia to Use AIR Catastrophe Models

Boston-based AIR Worldwide announced that UIB Asia Reinsurance Brokers Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of UIB International/UIB Holdings UK Ltd, has licensed AIR’s catastrophe risk management systems. “UIB is an independent, multilingual insurance and reinsurance broker headquartered within the London Market …

Aon Benfield Warns on Perils of European ‘Uncommon’ Storm Tracks

Aon Benfield has issued a briefing on uncommon European winter storm tracks in conjunction with the University of Cologne. The research points to a lower total number of events in the future, but “indicates intense storms moving over the North …

Inside The Disaster Blaster

For those who question the intelligence of insurance companies, here’s a new industry development that should answer those questions once and for all: The insurance industry is ecstatic because it just dropped $40 million on a three-bedroom house that fell …

Louisiana Still Owes Most of Judgement in 1983 Flood

Bob McBride Jr. was 18 when he pushed a flat-bottomed boat holding his family and neighbors through chest-high water to safety in Tangipahoa Parish. Nearly 30 years later, he and hundreds of others still are waiting for the state to …

Nashville’s Music Industry Getting Back on Track After Flood

In a white clapboard house on a quiet street in Berry Hill, a six-month marathon effort to save dozens of flood-damaged musical instruments remains a daily labor of love with the goal of salvaging Nashville’s best-known industry from near disaster. …