"In the country that gave the world the word tsunami, the Japanese nuclear establishment largely disregarded the potentially destructive force of the walls of water. The word did not even appear in government guidelines until 2006, decades after plants — including the Fukushima Daiichi facility that firefighters are still struggling to get under control — began dotting the Japanese coastline."
"Flooding across northern Michigan last month pushed rivers to record levels, testing the limits of the state’s aging dams so severely that officials in one city nearly ordered evacuations as water threatened to spill over the top of a key barrier — a close call that highlights the growing risk that intensifying storms pose to similar infrastructure around the country."
"FEMA slowed grants intended to help states such as California and Colorado prepare for and prevent wildfires, a Washington Post analysis shows."
"Sweeping changes may be in store at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the nation’s frontline emergency response coordinator, that experts warned could further erode US capacity to handle disasters as the risks of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis continue to rise."
"The emails continually fill my inbox: Startups exclaiming they have engineered a solution to protect homes from wildfires."
"Texas lawmakers have for years rejected legislation that could have protected residents in the state’s flood-prone areas. Three bills would have banned youth camps or nearly all development in areas most at risk of dangerous flooding. Experts said the bills could have saved lives."
"The National Weather Service is struggling to recover from last year’s deep staff cuts, raising doubts among some meteorologists about whether the agency is ready for severe storms or hurricane season, which starts next month."
"In a little-noticed memo early last year, Illinois scientists made a dire prediction." "Blamed in part on climate change, the threat of water ponding in your yard or your basement is growing, a Sun-Times/WBEZ investigation has found, putting health, homes at risk."
"With wildfires already burning and drought persisting across much of the U.S., fire experts are bracing for what could be an extreme fire season. The U.S. Forest Service is going into it having done far less work than in recent years to manage the dry, flammable vegetation that can fuel catastrophic fires."
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has in recent weeks proposed a process for approving microreactors and finalized one for reactors with nontraditional designs."
