Disasters

FEMA Holds $300 Million in Grants Until States Account for Deportations

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency is withholding more than $300 million in emergency preparedness grants from states until they can prove that their population estimates, used to calculate award amounts, do not include people who have been deported from the United States."

Source: NYTimes, 10/06/2025

Climate Change Is Disrupting Global Wind Speeds, Impacting Planetary Health

"Worsening sand and dust storms, wildfires intensified by record-setting winds, and increasingly severe hurricanes, derechos, short-lived convective storms, and other extreme weather events are impacting people’s lives, health and property around the world."

Source: Mongabay, 10/06/2025

"World’s Major Cities Hit By 25% Leap In Extremely Hot Days Since The 1990s"

"The world’s biggest capital cities are now sweltering under 25% more extremely hot days each year than in the 1990s, an analysis has found. Without urgent action to protect millions of people from high temperatures, more and more will suffer in the dangerous conditions, analysts said."

Source: Guardian, 10/01/2025

"As Floods Worsen, Pakistan Is the Epicenter of Climate Change"

"This season’s intense monsoon rains caused flooding that killed hundreds and displaced millions of people in Pakistan — an increasingly frequent occurrence. Scientists who study extreme weather warn that Pakistan is more vulnerable to climate change than any other nation."

Source: YaleE360, 10/01/2025

Trump Can't Condition Disaster Grants On Immigration Policy, Judge Rules

"A federal judge this week blocked the Trump administration from conditioning disaster and security funds for states on their immigration policies."

Source: The Hill, 09/30/2025

Covering the Health Impacts of Extreme Heat — An Arizona Reporter Weighs In

Before giving summer its send-off, consider that heat kills more people in the U.S. annually than any other weather-related disaster. Phoenix journalist Katherine Davis-Young is well acquainted with this human toll. Drawing on her own reporting experience, she looks at how to cover extreme heat in your community. Pro tip: Don’t wait until next summer to familiarize yourself with vulnerable communities and investigate local mitigation policies.

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Is Duke Liable for Storm Damage After Funding Climate Denialist Campaigns?

"The state’s first climate deception case unfurled Thursday in North Carolina Business Court, where attorneys for the town of Carrboro and Duke Energy spent six hours sparring over legal arcana to answer a single question: Should a jury hear a case alleging that Duke Energy is responsible for lying about the link between climate change and extreme weather that has inflicted millions of dollars of property damage on the town? "

Source: Inside Climate News, 09/29/2025

Arduous and Unequal: The Fight to Get FEMA Housing Assistance After Helene

"One Year After Helene: People who lost their homes turned to FEMA for aid. Some are still slogging through red tape. Wealthier Getting More: We found that in some North Carolina counties, homeowners with the highest incomes received two to three times as much FEMA housing assistance as lower-income ones."

"Slogging through a thick slop of mud and rock, Brian Hill passed the roof that Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters had just ripped off someone’s barn and dumped into his yard. Then he peered into the unrecognizable chaos inside what had been his family’s dream home.

Source: ProPublica/Assembly, 09/29/2025

Trump Officials Shut Off Funding For USGS Climate Adaptation Centers

"A third of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Climate Adaptation Science Centers are expected to drastically wind down and possibly close after Sept. 30." "Tracking bird populations after hurricanes. Mapping the risk of megafires across the Midwest. Identifying less expensive ways to battle invasive plants. Preparing communities’ stormwater drains against intense flooding."

Source: Washington Post, 09/29/2025

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