"Hurricane Fiona barreled toward the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm, prompting the government to impose a curfew."

"California’s oil industry uses hundreds of millions of gallons of freshwater a year in a state with none to spare. Most of that water is used in Kern County, where communities have long lacked affordable, safe drinking water."

"The World Health Organization raised the alarm Saturday about a “second disaster” in the wake of the deadly floods in Pakistan this summer, as doctors and medical workers on the ground race to battle outbreaks of waterborne and other diseases."

"The remnants of Typhoon Merbok have been battering Alaska’s western coast since late Friday, bringing flooding powerful enough to uproot buildings and forcing residents to seek shelter."

"A fragile power grid in Puerto Rico in the path of Hurricane Fiona has created an island-wide crisis, as the territory's electrical system went completely out of service due to Fiona, Governor Pedro Pierluisi announced."

"A bay-breasted warbler weighs about the same as four pennies, but twice a year makes an extraordinary journey. The tiny songbird flies nearly 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) between Canada’s spruce forests and its wintering grounds in northern South America."

"After nearly seven weeks of being forced to boil their water before drinking it or using it to brush teeth, people in Mississippi’s largest city were told Thursday that water from the tap is safe to consume — but Jackson’s water system still needs big repairs that the mayor says the cash-strapped city cannot afford on its own."

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to test wastewater to detect the polio virus in communities at highest risk for the life-threatening and potentially disabling illness."

"Pennsylvania becomes the newest sacrifice zone for America’s plastic addiction."