Monthly Archives: <span>September 2021</span>

Rainy Season Unleashes With Fury, Beauty in US Southwest

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — After two bone-dry years that sank the U.S. Southwest deeper into drought, this summer’s rainy season unleashed with fury. Monsoon storms have brought spectacular lightning shows, bounties of wildflowers and mushrooms, and record rainfall to the …

Vintners Despair After French Wildfire Ravaged Grapevines

LE CANNET-DES-MAURES, France (AP) — After a wildfire blazed through a once-picturesque nature reserve near the French Riviera, winemakers who grow the region’s celebrated crop are taking stock of the damage. Rows of charred grapevines stand next to a vast …

Lake Tahoe Wildfire Seemed Controllable, Then it Wasn’t

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) _ Just last week, managers overseeing the fight against the massive wildfire scorching California’s Lake Tahoe region thought they could have it contained by the start of this week. Instead, the Caldor Fire crested the Sierra Nevada …

Ida Leaves Toxic Chemicals, Sewage Swirling in Its Wake

Exxon Mobil Corp. released sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide at its Baton Rouge refinery as Hurricane Ida churned ashore. A broken pipeline poured crude oil near a bayou that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. And a miles-long black slick …

Insurers Could Face $1B Hit From Hurricane Ida Damage to Offshore Rigs

Insurers are bracing for a hit of about $1 billion from physical damage to offshore rigs and structures from Hurricane Ida, according to preliminary estimates from U.S. property data and analytics company CoreLogic. The estimate did not include losses from …

Hurricane Ida Aftermath Delivers Deadly Lesson on Climate Change

As Ida’s deadly waters receded and emergency crews raced to return power and transportation services, stunned residents of New York, New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast faced up to their vulnerability to new-weather storms. By early Friday, the …

Ida v. Katrina in New Orleans: Fewer People, Better Levees, Smaller Storm Surge

Hurricane Ida and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 made landfall within 50 miles of one other and each carried 150 mph winds at one point, but the amount of death and destruction caused by the two storms was vastly different because …

US Asks Tesla How Autopilot Responds to Emergency Vehicles

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s highway safety agency wants detailed information on how Tesla’s Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles parked on highways. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made the detailed request in an 11-page letter …

Strong Winds Push California Wildfire Closer to Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Flames raced across treetops and through drought-stricken vegetation as firefighters scrambled Wednesday to keep a growing California wildfire from reaching a resort city at the southern tip of Lake Tahoe after evacuation orders were …

UN: Weather Disasters Soar in Numbers, Cost, but Deaths Fall

GENEVA (AP) — Weather disasters are striking the world four to five times more often and causing seven times more damage than in the 1970s, the United Nations weather agency reports. But these disasters are killing far fewer people. In …