Disasters

"A wildfire that tore through brush east of Los Angeles forced 700 people from their homes for several hours Tuesday and destroyed a small building, officials said."

"FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER STATION — The part above ground doesn’t look like much, a few silver pipes running in a straight line, dwarfed by the far more massive, scarred reactor buildings nearby."

"Libya has shipped the last of its chemical weapons stocks out of the country on a Danish vessel, under a UN-backed plan to eliminate the arsenal, officials said Tuesday."

"There are not one but two powerful hurricanes in the Pacific that could come "dangerously" close to Hawaii over the next few days, according to forecasters."

"At least seven people were treated and several communities evacuated Saturday following an early morning leak of extremely toxic chlorine gas from a Northern Panhandle chemical plant with a recent history of significant safety problems."

"Early on a Saturday morning, deep inside a chemical plant in La Porte, Javier Ortiz took his last sip of coffee."

"Florida was getting set for a soaking as a tropical depression brewing off its southern coast looked likely to strengthen into tropical storm later Monday or early Tuesday."

"The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy reached at least 241 people on Thursday and could rise further after rescue teams worked through the night to try to find survivors under the rubble of flattened towns."

"Federal regulators believe “there is a significant possibility” that recent earthquakes in North Texas are linked to oil and gas activity, even if state regulators won’t say so."

"Growing wildfires stoked by windy, dry conditions have destroyed buildings and forced evacuations in California, Washington, Montana and elsewhere."