Disasters

"As global temperatures rise and the oceans warm, what used to be 500-year floods are now happening more frequently."

"A wildfire in Georgia's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has forced dozens of nearby residents to leave their homes, authorities said on Sunday, adding the blaze might not be fully contained for months."

"Unrelenting rain will drench the already saturated U.S. Midwest on Thursday and Friday, forecasters said, after floods in the region killed at least five people and forced residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate their flooded communities."

"An abandoned pipeline that was cut off underground and left uncapped and connected to a natural gas well fueled an explosion that destroyed a Colorado home and killed two people last month, investigators said yesterday."

"The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has concluded that a 2015 explosion at a Torrance, California, refinery then owned by Exxon Mobil Corp could have been prevented, the agency concluded in a report issued on Wednesday."

"A new tsunami warning system could have saved many of the 22,000 people killed by the massive tsunami following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, had it been in place there at the time."

"An explosion at a home in Colorado, which killed two people and prompted the state's biggest oil producer to shut down some of its wells, has highlighted the tension between Colorado's flourishing oil business and its rapid housing development."

"Dozens of Texas politicians and business leaders are urging President Donald Trump to commit $15 billion toward protecting the Houston area from a devastating hurricane."

"Official reports released Monday say the catastrophic damage to Oroville Dam’s main spillway probably stemmed from swift water flows under the concrete chute, which was cracked and of uneven thickness."