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

Floods, Landslides Kill 37 in China

Rescuers in China were searching Tuesday for 30 people buried in landslides as flood waters from days of heavy rain surged past the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest. Soldiers used bulldozers to plow through debris in search of survivors …

NHC Tracking Potential Tropical Storm

The National Hurricane Center in Miami is currently tracking a “vigorous tropical wave located over Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.” So far the disturbance has produced only “widespread cloudiness and thunderstorms across the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, …

Investors Face Uphill Battle with Liability Lawsuits Against BP

Shareholders angry about BP Plc’s battered stock price are heading to the courthouse in hopes of reclaiming some of their losses, but they face an uphill battle. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April, several BP shareholders have …

Gulf Coast Fishermen Angered By Clean-Up Offset Against BP Claims

Fishermen in Mississippi say they are angry that under the terms of BP’s $20 billion oil spill fund, money they earn doing clean-up will be subtracted from their claim against the company. The fishermen reacted after Kenneth Feinberg, the federal …

Aon Benfield Launches First Pan-Asian Typhoon Model

Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development center, has launched the first fully functional Asian typhoon model to span the continent. “The new model will help insurers analyze the financial implications of typhoons and develop reinsurance programs based on scientific …

Minor Earthquake Shakes Up U.S. Capital

Earthquakes are so rare in the Washington area that even a geology student wasn’t quite sure what was going on when a minor one hit early Friday. Was it a truck passing by? A low-flying plane? Gerasimos Michalitsianos, who will …

Quake Monitor Installation Nears Completion in North Dakota

Installation is nearly complete on a network of earthquake-detecting instruments being placed across North Dakota as part of a national project, officials say. Fred Anderson, a geologist with the state Geological Survey in Bismarck, said about 30 seismometers have been …

China Braces for Typhoon Conson; Vietnam Evacuates Thousands

Southern China on Friday battened down to await the arrival of Typhoon Conson, gathering strength over the South China Sea, and Vietnam deployed nearly 3,000 troops to areas in the path of the storm. Swollen rivers and landslides have killed …

Agents Applaud House Passage of Flood Insurance Program Extension

The U.S. House of Representatives has a measure extending the federal flood insurance program for five years. The bill, H.R. 5114, the “Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act of 2010,” sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), …

9 killed, 10 Missing as Typhoon Conson Lashes Philippines

The first typhoon to lash the Philippines this year killed at least nine people and left 11 others missing Wednesday after flooding streets in the capital and toppling power lines. Typhoon Conson slammed into northeast Quezon province with winds of …