Disasters

"Tornadoes tore through Western and Central Massachusetts yesterday, killing at least four people, injuring an untold number, and reducing schools, churches, and homes to splinters along its destructive path."

"As residents confront a gigantic cleanup following the tornado that savaged Joplin, experts say environmental dangers could lurk amid the mountains of debris in the southwestern Missouri city and even in the water and air."

"Japan will pay schools near the quake-ravaged Fukushima nuclear power plant to remove radioactive top soil and set a lower radiation exposure limit for schoolchildren after a growing outcry over health risks."

"The annual G8 Summit concluded this afternoon with agreement among leaders of the world's largest industrial democracies to strengthen nuclear security in view of Japan's ongoing nuclear power plant crisis."

"Nuclear fuel at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant began melting just five hours after Japan’s March 11 earthquake, a Japanese nuclear engineer told a panel of U.S. scientists Thursday."

"In the first substantive hearing of the consolidated litigation over last year's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, corporate defendants told U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier Thursday that claims for economic damage, claims by first responders who got sick from cleaning up the oil, and suits by environmental advocacy groups should be dismissed."

"This week, May 22 through 28, is national Hurricane Preparedness Week and NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, is forecasting an above-normal hurricane season this year for the Atlantic basin."

Most observers agree that this spring's spate of killer tornadoes is highly unusual by statistical and historical standards. After that, the disagreement starts. Is it a fluke? -- or a sign of La Nina or climate change? Why haven't better warnings helped?

"The threat of a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from a spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant is dwarfed by the risk posed by such pools in the United States, which are typically filled with far more radioactive material, according to a study released on Tuesday by a nonprofit institute."