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In Storms Like Hurricane Helene, Flooded Industrial Sites and Toxic Chemical Releases Are a Silent and Growing Threat
Hundreds of industrial facilities with toxic pollutants were in Hurricane Helene’s path as the powerful storm flooded communities across the Southeast in late September 2024. In disasters like these, the industrial damage can unfold over days, and residents may not hear about releases of toxic chemicals into water or the air until days or weeks later, if they find out at all.
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Emergency Management Puts Itself to the Test
Each year, Sandia holds a comprehensive exercise to evaluate the Labs’ ability to respond to a wide range of emergencies. These exercises play a pivotal role in ensuring protection of Sandia’s national security mission.
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Effectiveness of 1,500 Global Climate Policies Ranked for First Time
The world can take a major step to meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Accord by focusing on 63 cases where climate policies have had the most impact, new research has revealed
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The U.S. Is Finally Curbing Floodplain Development, New Research Shows
Over the past century, the United States has built millions of homes along coastlines and rivers, developing on land that is all but destined to flood. At the same time that the warming of the planet has raised sea levels and increased rainfall, annual flood damages have surged in recent decades in large part because more homes are in flood-prone areas now than ever before.
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Planning for Impacts of Floods and Clouds on Power
On the heels of a Northeastern rainstorm that flooded towns on Long Island and claimed at least two lives in Connecticut, teams of scientists, engineers, and representatives of local power and transportation utilities met to discuss the increasing frequency of severe weather and its impacts on crucial infrastructure.
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Where Landslides Are Most Likely to Occur in the U.S.
Landslides are a common hazard in the US. In fact, nearly 44% of the country could experience one, potentially catastrophically. Our new national landslide susceptibility map shows where they’re most likely to happen.
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Dams Built to Prevent Coastal Flooding Can Worsen It
The common practice of building dams to prevent flooding can actually contribute to more intense coastal flood events, according to a new study. Those massive infrastructure projects are surging in popularity globally, in part to help offset intensifying storms, salt intrusion and sea-level rise fueled by climate change.
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The Gulf Coast Is Sinking, Making Hurricanes Like Francine Even More Dangerous
Hurricane Francine hits low-lying Louisiana. Subsidence could make the storm surge worse: Because so much of southern Louisiana sits at or below sea level, the surge could race inland unimpeded.
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Astronomers Are Getting Better at Detecting Asteroids Before They Hit Earth – and It Could Save Us from Catastrophe
Asteroid impacts have influenced every large body in the solar system. They shape their appearance, alter their chemical abundance and – in the case of our own planet at the very least – they helped kickstart the formation of life. But these same events can also disrupt ecosystems, wiping out life, as they did 66 million years ago when a 10km space rock contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs (excluding birds).
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NASA, Partners Conduct Fifth Asteroid Impact Exercise
Although there are no known significant asteroid impact threats for the foreseeable future, hypothetical exercises provide valuable insights by exploring the risks, response options, and opportunities for collaboration posed by varying scenarios, from minor regional damage with little warning to potential global catastrophes predicted years or even decades in the future.
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Congressional Staff Learn to Fight Wildfires with Legislation
Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment recently hosted a first-of-its-kind “boot camp” in which congressional staffers got a crash course from experts in climate, forestry, fire science, utilities, insurance, and other wildfire-related topics.
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World Risk Report: Where Are Natural Disasters Most Common?
The 2024 World Risk Report is out, highlighting which countries are most at risk from natural disasters, and what can be done to prevent catastrophes and mitigate the effects.
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Emergency Responders Struggle with Burnout, Budgets as Disasters Mount
Climate change has rewritten the script for disasters, leaving communities vulnerable to weather patterns that don’t abide by schedules or the rules of past behavior. As a result, hundreds of thousands of emergency responders are facing unprecedented challenges —from burnout to post-traumatic stress disorder to tighter budgets — as they battle hurricanes, windstorms, wildfires, floods and other natural disasters that are more frequent and intense than those in the past.
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Traditional Infrastructure Design Often Makes Extreme Flooding Events Worse
Massive 2014 flooding event in southeast Michigan showed why systems thinking beats local thinking in flood protection.
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As Tornado Alley Shifts East, Bracing for Impact in Unexpected Places
Experts say the causes are still unclear, but the change is consistent with a warming world. The effects on the ground could be devastating.
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The long view
Strengthening School Violence Prevention
Violence by K-12 students is disturbingly common. Ensuring that schools have effective ways to identify and prevent such incidents is becoming increasingly important. Expanding intervention options and supporting K-12 school efforts in Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) would help.
Huge Areas May Face Possibly Fatal Heat Waves if Warming Continues
A new assessment warns that if Earth’s average temperature reaches 2 degrees C over the preindustrial average, widespread areas may become too hot during extreme heat events for many people to survive without artificial cooling.
Trump’s Cuts to Federal Wildfire Crews Could Have “Scary” Consequences
President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the federal workforce have gutted the ranks of wildland firefighters and support personnel, fire professionals warn, leaving communities to face deadly consequences when big blazes arrive this summer. States, tribes and fire chiefs are preparing for a fire season with minimal federal support.