Natural disasters

Groundwater Is Drying Out, Heating Up, and Causing Sea Level Rise
Overuse has created zones of “mega-drying” around the world —and caused more sea level rise than Greenland’s ice sheet.
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Asteroid Hunting Using Heliostats?
Most planetary defense efforts use observatory-grade telescopes to produce images of the stars. Within those images, computational methods identify streaks, which are asteroids. This process is precise but time-consuming, and building new observatories is expensive. A Researcher says that heliostats, which typically turn solar energy into electricity, could help find asteroids at night. Most planetary defense efforts use observatory-grade telescopes to produce images of the stars. Within those images, computational methods identify streaks, which are asteroids. This process is precise but time-consuming, and building new observatories is expensive. A Researcher says that heliostats, which typically turn solar energy into electricity, could help find asteroids at night.
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Your Politics, Age, and Gender Predict Your Disaster Readiness
Many Americans remain dangerously unprepared for floods, fires, and other natural catastrophes, but disaster-readiness might depend more on who you are than where you live.
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Cuts to Early Warning Systems Are Leaving the U.S. Unprepared for Summer Floods
The extreme costs and death toll of recent floodings across Texas, New Mexico, and the Northeast have put into question the future of the United States’ emergency preparedness amid major budget and staffing cuts to critical risk-reduction agencies and programs.
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The Surprising Reasons Floods and Other Disasters Are Deadlier at Night
It’s not just that it’s dark and people are asleep. Urban sprawl, confirmation bias, and other factors can play a role.
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Why Drones and AI Can’t Quickly Find Missing Flood Victims, Yet
For search and rescue, AI is not more accurate than humans, but it is far faster.
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Why Flash Flood Warnings Will Continue to Go Unheeded
Experts say local education and community support are key to conveying risk.
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“Disasters Are a Human Choice”: Texas Counties Have Little Power to Stop Building in Flood-Prone Areas
Experts suggested that more data and education are needed as Texas and the rest of the country build in known flood plains.
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Extremist Groups Uphold Long Tradition of Exploiting National Tragedies for Publicity
While Texas authorities respond to the devastation from the July 4 Hill Country flooding, which has killed at least 119 people and left over 170 still missing, Patriot Front, a Texas-based white supremacist group, is using the disaster to generate positive publicity under the guise of disaster relief.
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Weather Warnings Gave Officials a 3 Hour, 21 Minute Window to Save Lives in Kerr County. What Happened Then Remains Unclear.
Federal forecasters issued their first flood warning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4. Local officials haven’t shed light on when they saw the warnings or whether they saw them in time to take action.
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The Texas Flash Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come
Climate change is making disasters more common, more deadly and far more costly, even as the federal government is running away from the policies that might begin to protect the nation.
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Climate Change Helped Fuel Heavy Rains That Caused Hill Country Floods, Experts Say
Warming ocean temperatures and warmer air mean there’s more water vapor in the atmosphere to fuel extreme downpours like those that struck Texas during the July 4 weekend.
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Hills, Rivers and Rocky Terrain: Why the Hill Country Keeps Flooding
When storms roll in, water rushes downhill fast, gaining speed and force as it moves — often with deadly results.
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In Texas Region Prone to Catastrophic Floods, Questions Grow About Lack of Warning
Water rose fast along the Guadalupe River, causing dozens of deaths. Local officials said they couldn’t have seen it coming.
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Games Can Promote Preparedness and Build Community Resilience to Wildfire
If a wildfire causes an evacuation, people are forced to leave quickly and make decisions under pressure. These challenging decisions can have serious impacts on the outcome of a fire, and are what players confront in ‘Firewise Residents,’ one of three simulation games created by University of California, Santa Cruz computational media researchers.
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