Disasters

"Syrian government forces have been accused of dropping barrel bombs containing chlorine from helicopters on a suburb of Aleppo, injuring 80 people."

"Hermine is expected to begin weakening as it churns hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, but forecasters warn it could continue to impact areas from New York to southern New England with pounding waves, coastal flooding and beach erosion before it moves out to sea."

"Authorities in the southern portion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning."

"In the Northwest Pacific, already a hotspot for tropical cyclones, the storms that strike East and Southeast Asia have been intensifying more than those that stay out at sea over the last four decades, a new study finds."

"Calling them potential 'weapons of mass destruction,' the Uptown Triangle Neighborhood Association has demanded that the city of New Orleans and the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad stop allowing rail cars and railroad tanker cars loaded with hazardous materials to be parked along the 2-mile stretch of tracks along Leake Avenue.

The association has been exchanging letters with city and Public Belt officials for more than two years over the practice, but both have refused to change the present policy of using that stretch of track as a temporary parking area.

"An earthquake struck northern Oklahoma early Saturday morning, rattling houses and waking residents in the region around Pawnee, about 74 miles north of Oklahoma City. Preliminary measurements show the quake had a magnitude of 5.6 — believed to be one of the strongest in state history."

"Hermine continued Monday to twist hundreds of miles off shore in the Atlantic Ocean and was expected to keep swimmers and surfers out of beach waters because of its dangerous waves and rip currents on the last day of the long holiday weekend."

"Fierce winds and rain from Hurricane Hermine slammed Florida's northern Gulf Coast on Friday and power outages left tens of thousands of households in the dark."

"Intense rainfall overwhelmed sewage systems, downed trees and choked roads with floodwater in Tampa Bay on Wednesday as Tropical Storm Hermine inched toward the Florida coast."

"The U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, which holds policies for more than 5 million homes, is $23 billion in debt after a string of natural disasters this century. As climate change further strains the program, analysts say it is time to shift its focus from rebuilding to mitigating risk."