Disasters

"The level of air pollution in California exceeded world “safe” levels by about 60 times last week after a series of deadly wildfires."

"Federal regulators have given U.S. grid companies until Jan. 1, 2028, to shield vulnerable high-voltage transformers from damaging electrical currents triggered by a massive solar eruption."

Sue Bonham was ready to die. A ruptured high-pressure natural gas pipeline was firing a flame at her house like a blowtorch. She was crouching by a fence in a flower garden behind her home about 200 yards away, struggling to breathe the scalding air. Her thoughts turned to the things she'd miss — grandchildren, birthdays, weddings — but she had made her peace."

"PARADISE, Calif. - A search for victims of a catastrophic blaze that reduced a northern California town to ashes intensified on Thursday, as authorities expanded to 630 the number of those reported missing in the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history."

"Humans helped make recent devastating U.S. hurricanes wetter but in different ways, two new studies find."

"Eight more bodies were recovered from the ashes of the catastrophic Camp Fire on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 56 — nearly twice as deadly as the next worst wildfire in California history."

"The Camp Fire has claimed 48 lives and 8,800 structures in Northern California, officials said Tuesday."

"Search teams will fan out across the charred landscape of Paradise, California looking for human remains on Tuesday as authorities prepare for a rise in the deathcount from the state’s deadliest wildfire."

"The death toll from wildfires ravaging both ends of California has risen to at least 31 after the remains of several more people were found Sunday."

"Mahiuddin, a 35 year-old farmer from Badghis, a mountainous province in western Afghanistan, has been living in a camp outside the city of Herat for months, one of tens of thousands displaced by the worst drought the country has seen in years."