Forecasters warned of ‘potentially historic rainfall’ and ‘dangerous to locally catastrophic flooding.’ A hurricane scientist explains what El Niño, a heat dome and mountains have to do with the risk.
Destroyed homes and buildings in Lahaina on Aug. 10, 2023, in the aftermath of wildfires on western Maui, Hawaii.
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
Wildfires on Maui are a crippling blow to the island’s tourism industry, which generates half of its jobs. But New Orleans and Kauai show that comebacks are possible.
A wildfire burns in Kihei, Hawaii, on Aug. 9, 2023.
AP Photo/Ty O'Neil
An expert on Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria explains why it’s hard for the US to deliver disaster aid in places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Damaged buildings sit in the water along the shore following Hurricane Fiona in Rose Blanche-Harbour Le Cou, N.L. in September, 2022. Fiona left a trail of destruction across much of Atlantic Canada.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Parts of New York’s Hudson Valley were hit with 10 inches of rain, and the mountains of Vermont – where runoff can quickly turn deadly – saw some its worst flooding since Hurricane Irene.
Nearly 22 million people lived within 3 miles of a US wildfire in the past two decades. A new study tracking their locations flips the script on who is at risk.
Volunteers pick up water to deliver to homeless people during a 2021 heat wave.
AP Photo/Nathan Howard
FEMA runs the largest managed retreat program in the country, Two disaster response experts looked at the demographics of who gets those buyouts and where they go.
The Sudbury 17 wildfire burns east of Mississagi Provincial Park near Elliot Lake, Ont., in this June 4, 2023 handout photo.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Creating a federal agency — let’s call it the Emergency Management Agency of Canada or EMAC — would support comprehensive emergency management as Canada faces more and more natural disasters.
A ‘greenhushing’ campaign is targeting insurers, who have the power to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy in how they write policies and invest.
Wildfires can destroy hundreds of homes within hours.
PH2(AW/SW) Michael J. Pusnik, Jr / Navy Visual News Service / AFP via Getty Images
It’s not a question of if insurance will become unavailable or unaffordable in areas at high risk of wildfires, hurricanes and other damage – it’s a question of when. A disaster risk expert explains.
Twenty years of storm tracks in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific basins.
NASA
El Niño years put Hawaii and the Mexican Riviera on alert for destructive tropical storms and hurricanes.
The Bald Mountain Wildfire in the Grande Prairie area in Alberta in May 2023. Much of B.C. and Alberta is already experiencing higher-than-usual wildfire risk.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Government of Alberta Fire Service
High-risk, high-uncertainty events like earthquakes tend to fall out of view when we are occupied with more predictable seasonal events like wildfires, which have very visible effects on our lives.
The hardest-hit homes in Florida’s mid-April flooding were in modest neighborhoods in low-lying areas.
Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Nationally, 57% of the population says they’re not prepared for a flood disaster. Surveys and disasters show that those most at risk are least prepared.
The housing crisis coupled with climate change could see more people living in the kinds of shanty towns and tent cities seen around the time of the Great Depression.