catastrophe News

Assault on U.S. Capitol a Spark, but No Catastrophic Property Losses Yet

Commercial property insurers who are already edgy after suffering historic losses from civil unrest got another jolt Wednesday when pro-Trump protestors smashed windows to gain entry into the U.S. Capitol. But there’s “a lot of mileage” between the Washington D.C. …

Lloyd’s of London Sees Global Pandemic Insurance Losses Above Previous Estimate

Global insurance losses from the COVID-19 pandemic will be higher this year than the $107 billion Lloyd’s of London had previously estimated, its Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown said on Wednesday. Carnegie-Brown told the Reuters Events Future of Insurance USA conference that …

Moody’s Says Wildfire Losses May Hit $8B in a Year Marked by Catastrophes

Moody’s Investor Service said Wednesday that wildfires in the U.S. West have caused $5 billion to $8 billion in insured losses so far — an amount that would make it the third-worst year for fire damage in U.S. history. The …

Owners Find Insurance Inadequate to Cover Demolition of Buildings Destroyed by Riots

Some commercial property owners whose businesses were torched by rioters are learning that they don’t have enough insurance to clear away the debris. The StarTribune newspaper reported Monday that many property owners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area purchased policies that …

Laura Is Poised to Become a ‘Catastrophic’ Category 4 Hurricane

Hurricane Laura is set to slam into the U.S. Gulf Coast early Thursday as an extremely powerful Category 4 storm, unleashing deadly storm surges, flash floods and destructive winds that could inflict as much as $25 billion in damages. Laura …

AIG’s Pandemic Losses Hit $730M for First Half of 2020 -CEO

Insurer American International Group Inc racked up $730 million in COVID-19-related losses during the first half of the year, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday. The pandemic is a “formidable and ongoing catastrophe,” AIG CEO Brian Duperreault said during …

UN Official: Catastrophe Looming From Oil Tanker Off Yemen

CAIRO — The U.N. environment chief said Wednesday that “time is running out” to avert an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe from a deteriorating oil tanker loaded with 1.1 million barrels of crude oil that is moored off the coast …

AIG’s No. 2 Is Fighting to Turn Around the House That Hank Built

American International Group Inc.’s Peter Zaffino drew a clear line ahead of his jump to the insurer almost three years ago. “I didn’t want any advice,” Zaffino, AIG’s president, said in a rare sit-down interview. “I needed to see things …

Insured Losses from Riots Reach ‘Catastrophe’ Levels, May Rival Record

Rioting that erupted in cities across the United States after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis may rival the 1992 Los Angeles riots to become the most costly civil disorder in United States history. The civil disturbance …

Viewpoint: AIR Worldwide’s Perspective on Flattening the COVID-19 Curve

By now, you’ve heard the phrase “flatten the curve” numerous times to describe slowing the growth of the COVID-19 outbreak. Flattening the curve is critical to avoid overwhelming our healthcare infrastructure (you’ve almost certainly seen stories about shortages of masks, …