Natural Disasters

When natural disasters occur, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, public transportation systems that depend on railways are subject to extensive damage. It is important to recover the railways; transportation authorities around the world have improved their response techniques by learning from…

There have been several tropical storms that have started before the official start date of hurricane season, June 1st, bringing to question the reasoning behind this start date and the potential for pushing it to be earlier. One possibility is that the dates of the season have changed. However, it…

Hurricane season starts June 1st and researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are working to improve their hurricane models to forecast the development of storms. Their models are made using several different data sources; some of their data sources include…

Tech Crunch - 'The Prepared' is a new website aimed at providing the general public with information related to emergency preparedness and general survival skills, aimed at educating others on what to do in the event of something catastrophic. Advice ranges from natural disaster preparation to…

Modern Healthcare - While the United State has demonstrated a strong ability to handle disaster outbreaks, it hasn't seen much progress and improvements have been minimal in recent years. With emergency situations such as school shootings and disease outbreaks becoming more common nowadays, the…

Heavy rain in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa's southeast caused flooding and mudslides in several towns. There were incidents of collapsed buildings, walls, and flooded homes in the area. The ravaging flood has killed 51 people, and forced more than 300 people to flee their…

Since Camp Fire took a destructive hit in Paradise, California five months ago, the population of the town has dropped from 26,000 to the hundreds. Despite the town’s concern of significant water contamination, former residents have begun moving back to Paradise. For more information, click here. …

According to a recent report from the Urban Institute, it can take years for the finances of those impacted by natural disasters to recover. Beyond just harming residents, natural disasters appear to widen existing societal inequalities. For example, two years after Superstorm Sandy, credit scores…

The Atlantic: Flooding remains one of the costliest and most frequent natural disasters in the United States. Some officials feel that the real disaster is our habits and building codes. There is a great need for better planning and preventative strategies to help mitigate the costs of future…

ABC 7 News: Extreme storms in the South have caused tornadoes and flooding that’s killed at least eight individuals and injured dozens. Thousands in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Georgia have been left without electricity. Read more about this here.

Five people, including three children, were killed when tornadoes touched down in Mississippi and Texas this weekend. Meteorologists are now warning of the spread of the storm system eastward, towards major cities including Atlanta and Washington DC. Along with tornadoes, these storms are also…

Large scale wildfires are common in California, and accompanying them is the release of chemicals into the air through the burning of lead paint, asbestos, plastic pipes, and other building material. In an ongoing study, post-fire soil is being tested in Santa Rosa county. It is being analyzed and…

There is a growing consensus that California must take on a more aggressive approach in its forest management to prevent wildfires through prescribed burns and vegetation removal. According to Cal Fire and the Board of Forestry, about 23 million acres of land would benefit from these measures.…

— NHK World-Japan Thousands have been forced to evacuate due to deadly wildfires in South Korea that started in Gangwon Province on Thursday. The government has declared a state of natural disaster as more than 10,000 emergency workers have been deployed to fight the fires. Thus far, 125 homes…