Disasters

As he delivered a eulogy last year for 29 men killed in the worst coal mine disaster in four decades, President Obama bowed his head and repeated a plea he had heard from mining families: 'Don't let this happen again.'

"Corroded cooling water pipes at the Byron nuclear power plant in Illinois could have caused a nuclear catastrophe. The plant, owned by Exelon Corp., is just one example of regulators from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failing to penalize safety failures."

"Levels of radioactive substances have jumped in the Pacific seabed off Japan near the nuclear power plant crippled by a massive tsunami in March, according to the plant operator."

"The Ohio and Mississippi River levels were falling Wednesday at the site where engineers blasted holes in a Missouri levee to relieve pressure. But unleashing torrents of water across 35 miles of farmland in what has already been a terrible flooding season could carry other consequences. One risk, scientists cautioned, is fertilizer runoff from the flooded farm country along the Mississippi."

"A year after the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster since 1970, the mining industry on Wednesday launched a campaign for a program that could allow companies with good safety records to avoid regular mandatory inspections."

"For the first time in more than 30 years, the construction of new nuclear power plants is under way in the United States despite the ongoing nuclear crisis at Fukushima in Japan." That's according to Standard & Poor's, the profit-driven credit rating agency that painted a rosy picture of Wall St. financial institutions as they were melting down in 2008.

"Workers entered a damaged reactor building at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Thursday for the first time since explosions crippled the plant two months ago. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said the workers were attempting to install a ventilator to help lower radiation levels inside the reactor building."

"Anticipating a slow-motion disaster that could break flood records dating to the 1920s, thousands of people from Illinois to Louisiana have already been forced from their homes, and anxiety is rising along with the mighty river, even though it could be a week or two before some of the most severe flooding hits."

"HACKLEBURG, Ala. — Over the last week, this close-knit little town has had to grapple with a most unfamiliar feeling: not knowing where everyone is. When the tornadoes came through last Wednesday, ripping over the hills at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour, it left a town alien to itself. The bodies of strangers showed up in backyard ponds, survivors found themselves lying in open fields away from homes that were no longer there and, at night, there was no light, not as much as a streetlamp, to gather around and take stock."