The sun is setting at a construction site on "the ridge," as locals call it. Towering pine trees with their bark still black from wildfire are lit up in orange. And Chip Gorley and some buddies are about to crack open cans of IPA to celebrate some rare good news.

The Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) has just released its whitepaper on wildfire mitigation — as at least 13 fires continue to burn across California.
“While our research has been in the works for the last year because of California’s catastrophic wildfires in 2017 and 2018, the wildfires we’ve seen in recent weeks makes these findings all too real and timely,” commented I.I.I. CEO Sean Kevelighan.

California’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) cut off power to parts of 22 counties in northern California Wednesday. Roughly 500,000 customers have been affected by the outage, and numerous schools have cancelled classes.

When Hurricane Sandy’s floodwaters ravaged the first floor of Frank Cattie’s Ocean City, N.J., home, he assessed the damage, filed a flood insurance claim, and braced for the financial impact. But he was certain of one thing: He would not give up his slice of Shore heaven.

PG&E Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has confirmed an $11 billion agreement to resolve all insurance subrogation claims arising from the 2017 Northern California wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire.

Fairly or not, many consumers regard insurance as a commodity, so, for insurance providers, a hefty investment in customer experience is imperative to customer retention. And the biggest driver of a positive experience? Quick, fair resolution of claims — shortening the time between claim and resolution.

FloodMapp, a real-time flood-prediction technology, has announced that it is launching in the US. The software will be showcased at the InsurTech Connect conference in Las Vegas Sept. 23-25.

The consensus among experts speaking at the Reinsurance Rendevzous event in Monte Carlo this week seems to be that Hurricane Dorian will result in an overall insured loss of less than $10 billion.

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, a business of Verisk Insurance, has released its 2019 Global Modeled Catastrophe Losses report.

Hurricane Dorian has proven a tremendously destructive extreme weather event by nearly any measure, claiming a reported seven lives as of Wednesday and destroying wide swaths of the Bahamas’ Abaco and Grand Bahama Island districts. The historic storm is also producing a substantial number of travel insurance claims, report officials at Allianz Global Assistance.

Hurricane Dorian, which pummeled the Bahamas, could cost the country $7 billion in insured and uninsured losses, according to an estimate from risk modeler Karen Clark & Co.

As Hurricane Dorian made its way closer to Florida on Tuesday, Tropical Storm Fernand formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Gabrielle formed Wednesday morning in the far east Atlantic.

Hurricane Dorian smashed parts of the tourism-dependent Bahamas to ruins, leaving relief officials scrambling on Tuesday to battle an unfolding humanitarian crisis as the scale of the catastrophe begins to emerge.

Hurricane Dorian, the storm currently devastating the Bahamas, will cause at least $25 billion of losses for insurers, according to analysts at UBS Group AG, a figure that would make it the most expensive natural disaster for the industry since 2017.

Hurricane Dorian’s winds ratcheted up to 130 mph Friday night, making it a Category 4, the National Hurricane Center said in an extra update half an hour after its usual 8 p.m. advisory.