Hurricane Maria News

U.S. Hurricane Victims Want Improved Disaster Relief, With Faster Money, Less Red Tape

Survivors of storms that pounded several U.S. states say the nation’s disaster aid system is broken and that they want reforms to get money into victims’ hands faster, with less red tape. On the 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy’s landfall …

Small Businesses Learn Hard Lessons When They Don’t Prepare for Disaster

When Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, Carlos Melendez couldn’t contact the staffers or customers of his San Juan-based technology firm, Wovenware. Melendez learned a lesson that would help his business during the next storm, that disaster preparedness …

FEMA Chief Long to Leave Agency

Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long is leaving the agency he led through a record period of natural disasters — including a widely panned response to a storm that devastated Puerto Rico. “While this has been the opportunity of …

Judge Says FEMA Can End Motel Payments for Hurricane Maria Evacuees

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request to block the U.S. government from cutting off aid to hundreds of Puerto Rican families who fled the hurricane-ravaged island in 2017 and are living in hotels and motels across the United …

Hurricane Maria Likely Killed 1,139, Far More Than Government Tally: Penn State Study

Some 1,139 people are likely to have perished after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September, far more than the official death count of 64, according to a Pennsylvania State University study published Thursday in the Journal of the American …

N.Y. Updates Insurance Company Disaster Response, Recovery Plan Requirements

The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has issued updated disaster response and recovery plan requirements for all insurance companies licensed to conduct business in New York state. It issued these updated requirements in light of disasters that may …

Natural Disasters Cost Insurers a Record $144 Billion in 2017: Swiss Re’s sigma

Global insured losses from natural catastrophes were US$144 billion in 2017, the highest-ever recorded in a single year, according to the latest sigma study from the Swiss Re Institute. The biggest losses came from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria (HIM), …

2017’s Natural Hazards and the Destruction They Brought: CoreLogic

CoreLogic’s annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis shows that 2017 was a year of relatively average activity for most U.S. natural hazards with the exception of wildfires in California and flooding from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The annual report …

2017 ‘One of Worst’ for U.S. Weather with 15 Events Costing $1 Billion or More

In the year that President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris accord and downplayed global warming as a security threat, the U.S. received a harsh reminder of the perils of the rise in the planet’s temperature: a destructive rash …

2017 Hurricane Season Ranks as Costliest Ever for U.S.

This year’s U.S. Atlantic hurricane season is officially the most expensive ever, racking up $202.6 billion in damages since the formal start on June 1. The costs tallied by disaster modelers Chuck Watson and Mark Johnson surpass anything they’ve seen …