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What are Cat Updates
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Current Cat Activity
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Cat Name
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No new activity
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Queensland Storms - Nov 20
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11/20/2008, Queensland -
On Thursday, 20 November a second set of violent thunderstorms hit Brisbane and the surrounding areas, bringing further intense rainfall, large hailstones, strong winds and flash flooding. The worst affected areas seem to be the areas of Ipswitch, Bundamba, Gatton and Lockyer, where up to 250mm of rain fell in just 7 hours. Very heavy rainfall was also seen in Toowoomba and reports of localised flooding in Gold Coast suburbs of Maudsland, Yatala, Ormeau, Helensvale has been reported by various media sources. Reports that river levels were continuing to rise and that futher flooding is possible have resulted in the activation of the state’s natural disaster plan. Early reports of the damage include 20 houses with roof damage and up to 100 homes with storm damage. Families were forced to evacuate from houses that were threatened by a landslip that had been first initiated from Sunday night’s storm. The storm caused power outages to over 40,000 homes and businesses according to energy supplier Energex, predominantly in the areas north and south of Brisbane. RMS will continue to monitor damage reports for this event and will update this report if any new information comes to light.
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11/14/2008, Southern California -
Wildfires in Southern California have resulted in the destruction of close to 1,000 properties and over 42,000 acres of land being burned in last 5 days. Whilst the Tea Fire, burning in Santa Barbara County has now been contained, two other fires (the Sayre Fire and Freeway Fire) remain active, also posing a threat to property and fire fighters are working to contain them. The initial rapid spread of the wildfires was driven by a strong burst of Santa Ana winds, however winds have eased in the last 24 hours and weather conditions are becoming more favourable to aid fire fighters in containing the fires.
In response to the destruction, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has requested the president to declare a major disaster for the state of California. A State of Emergency has been declared in Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Bernardino Counties. An insurance emergency was declared on Monday, 17 November by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner which allows insurance companies to use out of state adjusters to more quickly work through the spate of fire claims.
For further information please see the Cat Update report via the link on the left hand side.
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11/17/2008, Sulawesi -
The USGS has revised the magnitude of the earthquake that occurred on Sunday, 16 November in Minahasa, Sulawesi down from Mw7.5 to Mw7.3. The earthquake occurred at 17:02 UTC (01:02 am local time on Monday, 17 November). The USGS released an epicentre location around 85 miles (135 km) northwest of Gorontalo, 190 miles (305 km) west of Manado and 920 miles (1485 km) south of Manila, Philippines with a fixed focal depth of 18.6 miles (30 km).
The latest reports indicate that there was at least 4 fatalities and 60 injuries. Damage is extensive in Buol district in central Sulawesi Province where at least 700 houses are reported to have been destroyed. Power and communication lines are also reported to be down and are limiting the amount of information available at this time.
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11/17/2008, Queensland -
On Sunday, 16 November severe thunderstorms hit Brisbane and the surrounding areas bringing very heavy rain, damaging winds, large hailstones and flash flooding. Sunday’s storm impacted the Gold Coast hinterland, Brisbane, Logan and the Sunshine coast. Brisbane has been declared a natural disaster area in response to the storm which has been classed by many news reports as the worst storm to hit this region of Australia in more than 20 years.
The strong winds seem to be the primary driver of damage and the state emergency services reported it received more than 15,000 calls, mainly from people whose roofs were damaged by trees or directly from the strong winds. Emergency authorities reported that 4,000 homes were damaged, of these 300 were reported ‘significantly damaged’ with 30 homes ‘unlivable’.
RMS has posted a full Cat Update report on this event which is available via the link to the left hand side.
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11/13/2008, Southern California -
On Thursday, 13 November at 10:00am PST, the largest earthquake preparedness activity in U.S. history was initiated. The Great Southern California ShakeOut is a drill based on the scenario of a M7.8 event rupturing a nearly 200 mile-long segment of the southern San Andreas Fault. The physical effects of this scenario earthquake were developed by the US Geological Survey, the California Geological Survey, and a host of other public and private organizations, and include sophisticated, physics-based 3-D simulations of the ground motion. In order to assist clients who are directly participating in this exercise or are taking advantage of it to test internal procedures, RMS is providing a RiskLink footprint file based on the USGS ShakeMap data for this event, as well as a representative stochastic event. RMS is also offering similar footprint files for six scenarios on the Hayward fault in northern California, linked to analyses for last month’s anniversary of the 1868 Hayward earthquake.
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11/13/2008, Caribbean Sea -
Hurricane Paloma made landfall in eastern Cuba near Santa Cruz Del Sur on Sunday, 9 November at 00:00 UTC with maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (195 km/hr) – a category 3 hurricane. At the time of landfall hurricane force winds extended outward up to 30 miles (45 km) from the center and tropical storm force winds extending outward up to 115 miles (185 km). By 09:00 UTC Paloma was located over Cuba near 21.3N 77.4W which is about 30 miles (45 km) east southeast of Camaguey with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph (140 km/hr) – a category 1 hurricane. Further weakening is expected in the next day or so as Paloma continues to move very slowly towards the northeast over Cuba. Paloma is expected to exit the north coast of Cuba later on Sunday as a tropical storm and then approach the central Bahamas on Monday morning – by this point Paloma is likely to have decayed to a remnant low. On Saturday, 8 November Paloma crossed the Cayman Islands as a category 4 strength hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 140 mph (225 km/hr). Cayman Brac and Little Cayman bore the brunt of Paloma’s hurricane force winds and heavy rains and initial report suggests that on Little Cayman, power poles, lines and trees have been downed and there is damage to homes. On Cayman Brac reports indicate that there is major damage to homes from wind and storm surge, with homes experiencing flooding on the west and south side of the island. RMS will be posting a full Cat Update report with more details on the damage in the Cayman Islands and Cuba and stochastic tracks on Monday, 10 November at 14:00 UTC.
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11/6/2008, Atlantic -
RMS is increasing its estimate of insured losses from Hurricane Ike to $13 - 21 billion, excluding National Flood Insurance Program losses. This is a significant upward revision, with the low end of the new loss range exceeding the high end of the end of the $7 – 12 billion range estimated by RMS on Wednesday, September 17, four days after Ike’s landfall in Texas, which in turn was a refinement of RMS’ initial estimate of $6 – 16 billion issued on September 13, just after Ike’s landfall.
The breakdown of the $13 - 21 billion loss range is as follows:
- Onshore wind and storm surge in coastal states: $10 – 15 billion
- Inland wind and flood in non-coastal states: $2 – 3 billion
- Offshore platforms: $1 – 3 billion
This new estimate is principally the result of a new ensemble footprint methodology that RMS has been developing. The methodology generates a range of hazard footprints, rather than a single deterministic footprint of an event and better represents Ike. RMS is making the ensemble footprints available to clients to assist in modeling of individual portfolios as well as progress in understanding key areas of uncertainty and non-modeled losses. Information about this new product is available in the ‘Modelling Information’ section of the latest Cat Update.
The width of the range reflects some significant remaining uncertainties, including in particular the amount of onshore storm surge and offshore platform losses that are insured and/or will be paid out under wind policies.
RMS has produced an executive summary and detailed document that quantifies the new loss range and reviews the three main sources of uncertainty in estimating individual event losses and their contribution to overall uncertainty in modeling Ike losses to both the industry as well as to individual portfolios. Please log into the Cat Update report for more information.
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Related Information |
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Login to Client Cat Updates |
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Effective Catastrophe Response brochure
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RiskOnline® |
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Subscribers to Cat Updates and licensed clients have free access to the real-time industry loss estimates generated by
RiskOnline. Access the industry results with the same user name and password used to log into the Client Resources area of
the RMS web site.
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