Tag Archives: natural disasters

The Associated Press reports: California’s biggest utility admitted its electrical equipment may have ignited a ruinous wildfire spreading across the state’s wine country Friday, despite blackouts imposed across the region to prevent blazes. The disclosure came as firefighters simultaneously battled flames in both Northern and Southern California: the fire amid Sonoma County’s vineyards, and a wind-whipped blaze that destroyed homes …

NBC News reports: Hundreds of thousands of residents of Northern California whose power will be shut off in the next two days got even worse news Wednesday: Another, even larger, blackout is likely over the weekend. The state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Corp., or PG&E, began shutting off electricity to nearly a half-million people Wednesday afternoon, the second …

NPR reports: Scientists cannot yet predict when the next deadly earthquake will strike, but emergency response authorities in California plan to unveil the first statewide quake warning system Thursday, which marks the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The warnings will be issued in two ways: a cellphone app called MyShake and the more traditional wireless notification system …

NBC News reports: A wind-whipped wildfire in the San Fernando Valley grew to over 4,000 acres overnight, hours after a blaze in neighboring Riverside County tore through a mobile home park. Mandatory evacuations were ordered in the San Fernando Valley, parts of major highways were shut down and at least 10 schools were closed Friday. In the earlier blaze Thursday, …

The Weather Channel reports: Hurricane Dorian delivered yet another night of slashing winds and driving rain to the already devastated northwestern Bahamas, and there appeared little hope of relief Tuesday as the deadly storm began slowly moving away from the islands. Aerial video from Great Abaco Island, where Dorian made a second landfall, begins to provide an idea of how …

The Seattle Times reports: A magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook Seattle and the Puget Sound region just before 3 a.m. Friday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey. The shaking emanated from Three Lakes, Wash., about 9 miles east of downtown Everett. The earthquake was relatively shallow, and originated about 14 miles beneath the surface, according to a USGS map. …

The Los Angeles Times reports: An 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California Thursday, the largest temblor to hit the region in decades. The quake was centered in the Searles Valley, a remote area of San Bernardino about 100 miles from Los Angeles. It was unclear of the temblor caused major damage or injuries. The quake was the largest in Southern …

The Associated Press reports: Two California communities north of San Francisco were accessible only by boat Wednesday after a rain-swollen river overflowed its banks and inundated low-lying areas around them overnight, authorities said. One of them, the small city of Guerneville, “is officially an island,” the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. A short time later, an official …

USA Today reports: Residents in Tennessee and Georgia got a big surprise Wednesday morning: the rumblings of an earthquake. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey at around 4:14 a.m. ET, with its epicenter near Decatur, Tenn., which is roughly more than 150 miles from Nashville. An aftershock was felt about 13 minutes later with a …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump expressed his support for Alaskans affected by an earthquake on Friday, telling them to listen to emergency response personnel and calling the earthquake a “big one.” Trump has a history of comments after natural disasters that many have characterized as tone deaf or just plain weird. After Hurricane Maria, Trump and San Juan Mayor Carmen …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Sarah Palin and her family are safe following two intense earthquakes in Alaska, however, as she tweeted Friday, her residence is not. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 7.0 magnitude quake near Anchorage, Alaska, at 9:30 a.m. Friday. Five minutes later, another, measuring at 5.8, struck again nearby. According to seismologists, both earthquakes had “epicenters …

The Associated Press reports: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake has rocked buildings in Anchorage, the U.S. Geological Survey says. A tsunami warning has been issued 30 miles south-west of Palmer, Alaska. There are numerous reports of damage coming in. A magnitude of between 7 and 7.9 is considered a major earthquake that will cause serious damage. Terrified residents took to social …

USA Today reports: Storm-weary residents of North Carolina struggled Monday to loosen the grip of Florence, the lingering killer that has closed more than 100 roads, cut off power to almost 500,000 homes and businesses and essentially cut off the city of Wilmington from the world. At least 17 people have died in the wreckage of the hurricane-turned-tropical depression that …

Fortune reports: Get ready to receive a text message from President Donald Trump on Sept. 20. But it won’t be a political message or attack on one of his perceived enemies—or at least, it’s not supposed to be. He plans to message every cell phone in America to test a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) system that will allow …

The Hill reports: The Puerto Rican government acknowledged in a new report in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria that more than 1,400 people likely died on the island because of the storm, roughly 20 times the previous number that had been provided. The government on Thursday published a report titled “Transformation and Innovation in the Wake of Devastation,” which outlines …

The Los Angeles Times reports: The Mendocino Complex fire is now the largest wildfire in modern California history, scorching more than 283,000 acres and frustrating firefighters as it continues to leap across natural and man-made barriers in Lake County. The Ranch and River fires, which make up the complex fire, had grown to 283,800 acres as of Monday evening, according …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: As more than a dozen major fires roar across the state of California, some of them have burned so fiercely that they’re creating their own weather systems. Massive pyrocumulus clouds have formed over the Carr, Ferguson, Cranston and Mendocino Complex fires burning in four different parts of the state (Shasta County, near Yosemite, Riverside County, …

The New York Daily reports: The number of people killed in Puerto Rico amid Hurricane Maria is at least 70 times higher than the official government death toll, according to a study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in the United States and Puerto Rico estimated more than 4,645 people were killed as a result of …

CBS News reports: Emergency workers in Hawaii are racing to protect a geothermal power plant near the Kilauea Volcano. Slow-moving molten rock entered the site and is just a few hundred yards from the wells. There is concern lava could trigger the release of deadly hydrogen sulfate gas, reports CBS News’ Mark Strassmann. Lava continued its steady advance toward the …

Hawaii News Now reports: Two lava flows are now pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the Kilauea eruption. The flows are dripping into the water on the southeast side of the island, in the vicinity of the Mackenzie State Park. It’s a beautiful sight that could come with the hazardous effects of a new concern: Laze. Civil Defense officials say …