Disasters

"GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Streets are flooded in 'Coast Guard City, USA,' and the maritime rescue force is responding to dangerous events not seen for decades on Lake Michigan."

"What should communities do as climate change escalates threats like sea-level rise? Until now, much of the focus has been on disaster response, with very little discussion of orderly, strategic retreat from areas at risk. After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, for example, the New York State governor’s office ran a public service announcement that made clear the focus would be on rebuilding."

"Extreme weather events, cuts to worker productivity and other effects of climate change could cause major global economic losses unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly curtailed in the next few decades, according to a new working paper published Monday. The paper is the latest in a string of reports from the United Nations and global financial institutions and others showing that climate change constitutes a looming financial risk."

"Insurers are quietly reducing their exposure to fire-prone regions across the Western United States, putting new pressure on homeowners and raising concerns that climate change could eventually make insurance unaffordable in some areas."

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency has wasted more than $3 billion and misused thousands of its employees by responding to hundreds of undersized floods, storms and other events that states could have handled on their own, an investigation by E&E News shows."

"Floods and landslides have killed more than 270 people in India this month, displaced one million and inundated thousands of homes across six states, authorities said on Wednesday after two weeks of heavy monsoon rains."

"Congress is looking to strengthen the nation's transportation network by making it better able to withstand the effects of climate change, even as government agencies spend billions of dollars to fix roads after natural disasters."

"A group of House and Senate Republicans are pressing the Department of Transportation to intervene against a Washington state law that they say could prevent the shipment of Bakken crude oil and natural gas to Pacific Northwest ports and refiners."

"Workers at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philadelphia began neutralizing tens of thousands of barrels of a highly toxic chemical this week. The refinery is shutting down after an explosion and fire destroyed part of the plant. The company has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy."

"The Loch Mary Reservoir holds enough water to fill about 715 Olympic-sized swimming pools. All that stands between that wall of water and Annette Rudolph’s Earlington, Kentucky neighborhood is a 95-year-old earthen dam, deteriorating and seeping water."