Updated: Maui officials defend decision not to sound sirens during wildfire
Updated: 12:30pmLahaina, Hawaii, USReuters Maui’s emergency management chief on Wednesday defended his agency’s decision against sounding sirens during last week’s deadly wildfire amid questions about whether doing so might have saved lives. Herman Andaya, administrator of the Maui County Emergency Management Agency, said sirens in Hawaii are used to alert people to tsunamis. Using it […]
Maui search is 25 per cent complete as death toll from wildfires grows to 99
Kahului, Hawaii Reuters Search teams with cadaver dogs have combed through 25 per cent of the Lahaina disaster zone from the Maui wildfires, discovering the remains of a 99th victim on Monday, but perhaps hundreds more people were unaccounted for nearly a week after the disaster. Fueled by winds gusting up to 128 kph, an […]
Maui wildfires deadliest in a century as death toll hits 89
Kahului, Hawaii Reuters The death toll from the Maui wildfires reached 89 on Saturday, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century – and the total is likely to rise in coming days as search teams with cadaver dogs continue sifting through the ruins of Lahaina. The scale of the damage came […]
Rising waters – and costs: As climate risks rise, flood insurance costs stun US homeowners
DAVID SHERFINSKI and DIANA BAPTISTA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, report…
More than two dozen dead after tornado tears across Mississippi
Updated: 8am (AEDT)United StatesReuters Rescuers combed through rubble on Saturday after a powerful storm tore across Mississippi overnight, killing at least 25 people there and another in Alabama, leveling dozens of buildings and spawning at least one devastating tornado. The tornado stayed on the ground for about an hour and cut a path of destruction […]
Biden, Florida’s DeSantis stress unity in Hurricane Ian recovery
Fort Myers, Florida, USReuters US President Joe Biden met with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday to tour the devastation from Hurricane Ian, and stressed the need for a united federal and state effort for the lengthy recovery ahead. Biden, a Democrat, and DeSantis, his potential Republican presidential rival, have clashed over issues, including COVID-19 vaccines, […]
Puerto Rico: Still recovering from Maria, Catholics assess Fiona’s blow to church buildings
KATHRYN POST, of Religion News Service, reports that just as Catholic organisations were making progress on repairing a few dozen of the 1,000 Catholic buildings damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017, Hurricane Fiona swept in…
Hurricane Fiona slams Turks and Caicos as Category 3 storm
San Juan, Puerto Rico/Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Reuters Hurricane Fiona bore down on Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a powerful Category 3 storm, slamming the Caribbean archipelago with heavy rains and life-threatening flooding after cutting a path of destruction through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. US officials said on Tuesday the storm […]
Coronavirus pandemic threatens to suffocate US hurricane response
New York City, USThomson Reuters Foundation As the 1st June start of hurricane season inches nearer, US emergency managers are gearing up for the possibility of a more active than normal storm season as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic at the same time. The combined threat could make managing both crises more difficult as […]
“FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS”: VULNERABLE US HOMEOWNERS OVERLOOKED AFTER DISASTERS
CAREY L BIRON, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…