Though Halo Infinite might be drawing folks back with its expanding map diversity and new customization options, the in-game cosmetics shop is still rubbing fans the wrong way. A recent skin intended to be a tribute to the very first Halo game, 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, is drawing a bit of attention not for its looks, but because it’s currently twice the cost of the entirety of Halo: Combat Evolved (see on Amazon).
Take A Tour Through Halo Infinite’s Newest Arena Maps
Though The Master Chief Collection played around with free, live-service quirks like seasons and battle passes, Halo Infinite marked the series’ first full shift, with a free-to-play multiplayer augmented by microtransactions and season passes, to a live service title. That shift, among other things, hasn’t been very popular with the community, particularly where it concerns pricing of in-game cosmetics. That discomfort continues with the Mark V Halo: Combat Evolved skin, which feature Master Chief’s original armor design and colors.
“For half of the price of the new bundle” a Reddit thread on r/Halo starts, “you can buy the entirety of [Halo: Combat Evolved], the game it’s from, on Steam.” The bundle costs 2,200 in-game credits. That boils down to about $20. As you can buy Halo: CE for just $10 a la carte on Steam, that’s more than double the cost of Master Chief’s premiere game.
So in theory you could buy two copies of Halo: Combat Evolved on Steam, one for you and another for a friend to play cooperatively in one of the most influential first-person shooters of the 21st century. I assure you, that’ll be a lot more fun than a skin.
But the price isn’t the only thing that’s annoying. Were it so easy.
In Halo Infinite, player skins are divided up into “cores,” each core representing a certain style of armor from the Halo universe; the “Mark V [B],” for example, is based on the design from 2010’s Halo Reach. Each core has its own set of helmets, chest plates, shoulders, armor colors (referred to as armor “coatings” in-game), and more.
Frustratingly, you can’t customize the individual parts across different cores. That changed a little bit with season five; you can now use helmets, visor colors, and some coatings across different cores. The problem is that the Mark V suit isn’t a core, but rather an armor “kit” for the Mark VII core; you’re far more restricted in how you can customize the set. You can’t even stick the helmet on other designs. The gold visor is cross-core compatible though, as well as green coating—though about that…
While the Mark V’s specific armor coating is usable across cores, some players are pointing out that the certain shade of green is almost identical to the free green coating that comes with the game. Yes, the “Cadet Sage” armor is ever so slightly darker, but at the pace of action Halo Infinite usually goes, it’s not like this looks wildly different during gameplay.
So yeah, go play Halo: Combat Evolved if you haven’t. The gameplay is aging a bit, but it’s an essential first-person shooter campaign of the modern era if there ever was one.
New York City began drying out Saturday after being soaked by one of its wettest days in decades as traffic resumed on highways, subways and airports that were temporarily shuttered by Friday’s severe rainfall.
Record rainfall — more than 8.65 inches (21.97 centimeters) — fell at John F. Kennedy International Airport, surpassing the record for any September day set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said.
Parts of Brooklyn saw more than 7.25 inches (18.41 centimeters), with at least one spot recording 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) in a single hour, turning some streets into knee-deep canals and stranding drivers on highways.
More rain was expected Saturday but the worst was over, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday morning during a briefing at a transportation control center in Manhattan.
A section of the FDR Drive sits submerged in flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York.
Jake Offenhartz / AP
“We’ve seen a whole lot of rainfall in a very short period of time,” the governor said. “But the good news is that the storm will pass, and we should see some clearing of waterways today and tonight.”
The deluge came two years after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rain on the Northeast and killed at least 13 people in New York City, mostly in flooded basement apartments. Although no deaths or severe injuries have been reported, Friday’s storm stirred frightening memories.
Ida killed three of Joy Wong’s neighbors, including a toddler. And on Friday, water began lapping against the front door of her building in Woodside, Queens.
“I was so worried,” she said, explaining it became too dangerous to leave. “Outside was like a lake, like an ocean.”
A guardian carries a child as his partner holds the umbrellas following heavy rains on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in New York.
Andres Kudacki / AP
Within minutes, water filled the building’s basement nearly to the ceiling. After the family’s deaths in 2021, the basement was turned into a recreation room. It is now destroyed.
City officials received reports of six flooded basement apartments Friday, but all occupants got out safely.
Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams declared states of emergency and urged people to stay put if possible.
Virtually every subway line was at least partly suspended, rerouted or running with delays. Metro-North commuter rail service from Manhattan was suspended for much of the day but began resuming by evening. The Long Island Rail Road was snarled, 44 of the city’s 3,500 buses became stranded and bus service was disrupted citywide, transit officials said.
Residents watch as workers attempt to clear a drain in flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Jake Offenhartz / AP
Some service interruptions continued Saturday.
Traffic hit a standstill earlier in the day on a stretch of the FDR Drive, a major artery along Manhattan’s east side. With water above car tires, some drivers abandoned their vehicles.
On a street in Brooklyn’s South Williamsburg neighborhood, workers were up to their knees in water as they tried to unclog a storm drain while cardboard and other debris floated by. Some people arranged milk crates and wooden boards to cross flooded sidewalks.
Flights into LaGuardia were briefly halted in the morning, and then delayed, because of water in the refueling area. Flooding also forced the closure of one of the airport’s three terminals for several hours. Terminal A resumed normal operations around 8 p.m. local time.
Hoboken, New Jersey, and other cities and towns near New York City also experienced flooding.
Residents watch as workers attempt to clear a drain in flood waters, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Jake Offenhartz / AP
Why so much rain?
The remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia over the Atlantic Ocean combined with a mid-latitude system arriving from the west, at a time of year when conditions coming off the ocean are particularly juicy for storms, National Weather Service meteorologist Ross Dickman said. This combination storm parked itself over New York for 12 hours.
The weather service had warned of 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 13 centimeters) of rain and told emergency managers to expect more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) in some places, Dickman said.
As the planet warms, storms are forming in a hotter atmosphere that can hold more moisture, making extreme rainfall more frequent, according to atmospheric scientists.
In the case of Friday’s storm, nearby ocean temperatures were below normal and air temperatures weren’t too hot. Still, it became the third time in two years that rain fell at rates near 2 inches (5 centimeters) per hour in Central Park, which is unusual, Columbia University climate scientist Adam Sobel said.
The park recorded 5.8 inches (14.73 centimeters) of rain by nightfall Friday.
Washington — After being thwarted by Congress, President Biden is using his executive authority to create a New Deal-style American Climate Corps that will serve as a major green jobs training program.
In an announcement Wednesday, the White House said the program will employ more than 20,000 young adults who will build trails, plant trees, help install solar panels and do other work to boost conservation and help prevent catastrophic wildfires.
The climate corps had been proposed in early versions of the sweeping climate law approved last year but was jettisoned amid strong opposition from Republicans and concerns about cost.
Democrats and environmental advocacy groups never gave up on the plan and pushed Mr. Biden in recent weeks to issue an executive order authorizing what the White House now calls the American Climate Corps.
“After years of demonstrating and fighting for a Climate Corps, we turned a generational rallying cry into a real jobs program that will put a new generation to work stopping the climate crisis,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, an environmental group that has led the push for a climate corps.
With the new corps “and the historic climate investments won by our broader movement, the path towards a Green New Deal is beginning to become visible,” Prakash said, referring to a comprehensive jobs-and-climate plan supported by many activists and some Democrats but ridiculed by Republicans as a socialist nightmare that would raise taxes and hamper the economy.
Workers plant trees in open fields at Mount Tahoma High School, an area with only 11% tree cover, during a planting event with American Forests and the Tacoma Tree Foundation on Friday, April 14, 2023, in Tacoma, Washington.
Lindsey Wasson / AP
Prakash, a frequent Biden critic, participated in a White House call on Tuesday promoting the new job corps, which comes as the president tries to strengthen his appeal to young voters in the 2024 campaign.
The Sunrise Movement and other climate activists, including many young adults, were outraged this spring after Mr. Biden approved the huge Willow oil-drilling project in Alaska. Opponents say the project and others approved by Mr. Biden put his climate legacy at risk and are a breach of his 2020 campaign promise to stop new oil drilling on federal lands.
Environmental activists welcome the move
Those concerns were put aside, for now, as environmental activists hailed the new jobs program, which is modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, created in the 1930s by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, as part of the New Deal.
“Young people nationwide are excited to see the launch of the American Climate Corps, a program which will put more than 20,000 young people on career pathways in the growing fields of clean energy, conservation and climate resilience,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America, an organization that promotes education, registration and mobilization for voters age 18 to 35.
“Young people are fighting for climate justice every day in their community, and now they have even more opportunity to continue this fight in their careers,” Ramirez said.
More than 50 Democratic lawmakers, including Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, had also encouraged Biden to create a climate corps, saying in a letter on Monday that “the climate crisis demands a whole-of-government response at an unprecedented scale.”
The lawmakers cited deadly heat waves in the Southwest and across the nation, as well as dangerous floods in New England and devastating wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, among recent examples of climate-related disasters.
What the American Climate Corps will do
A federal climate corps will “prepare a whole generation of workers for good-paying union jobs in the clean economy” while helping to “fight climate change, build community resilience and support environmental justice,” the lawmakers wrote.
The White House declined to say how much the program will cost or how it will be paid for, but Democrats proposed $10 billion for the climate corps in the climate bill before the provision was removed.
Republicans have largely dismissed the climate corps as a do-gooder proposal that would waste money and could even take jobs away from other workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t need another FDR program, and the idea that this is going to help land management is a false idea as well,” Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in 2021.
Rep. Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat who has co-sponsored a climate corps bill, said it’s important to train the next generation of federal land managers, park rangers and other stewards of our natural resources. Neguse and other Democrats have said the program should pay “a living wage” while offering health care coverage and support for child care, housing, transportation and education.
A key distinction between the original Civilian Conservation Corps and the new climate contingent is that, unlike the 1930s, the U.S. economy is not in an economic depression. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.8% in August, low by historical measures.
The new corps is also likely to be far more diverse than the largely white and male force created 90 years ago.
White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said the administration will work with at least six federal agencies to create the climate corps and will pair with at least 10 states. California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan and Washington have already begun similar programs, while five more are launching their own climate corps, Zaidi said: Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah.
The initiative will provide job training and service opportunities to work on a wide range of projects that tackle climate change, including restoring coastal wetlands to protect communities from storm surges and flooding; deploying clean energy projects such as wind and solar power; managing forests to improve health and prevent catastrophic wildfires; and implementing energy efficient solutions to cut energy bills for consumers, the White House said.
Creation of the climate corps comes as the Environmental Protection Agency launches a $4.6 billion grant competition for states, municipalities and tribes to cut climate pollution and advance environmental justice. The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants are funded by the 2022 climate law and are intended to drive community-driven solutions to slow climate change.
The grants will help “communities so they can chart their own paths toward the clean energy future,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Wednesday.
The deadline for states and municipalities to apply is April 1, with grants expected in late 2024. The deadline for tribes and territories is May 1, with grants expected by early 2025.
The exact death toll from Libya’s devastating flooding remained unclear Thursday. However, the Libyan Red Crescent aid organization estimated that at least 11,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 remain unaccounted for.
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The number of people killed by the devastating flash flooding in northern Libya remained unclear Thursday, due to the daunting scale of the catastrophe and political chaos that’s left the African nation divided between two governments for years, but it was undoubtedly well into the thousands. With survivors still desperately hoping to find the bodies of lost loved ones in debris-choked towns and cities, the United Nations said most of the thousands of deaths could have been avoided.
With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, “they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,” Petteri Taalas, head of the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.
An area damaged by flash floods is seen in Derna, eastern Libya, Sept. 11, 2023.
AFP/Getty
An enormous surge of water, brought by torrential downpours from Storm Daniel over the weekend, burst two upstream river dams and reduced the city of Derna to an apocalyptic wasteland where entire blocks and untold numbers of people were washed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Hundreds of body bags lined its mud-caked streets Thursday, awaiting mass burials, as traumatized and grieving residents search mangled buildings for the missing and bulldozers worked to clear streets.
Access to Derna remained severely hampered five days after the floods struck, as roads and bridges were destroyed and power and phone lines cut to wide areas.
How many are dead and missing in Libya?
There have been wildly varying figures provided by authorities in Libya, but The Associated Press quoted eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, as saying Thursday that more than 3,000 bodies had been buried in Derna alone, while another 2,000 were still being processed. He said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside the city, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
A damaged vehicle is seen stuck in debris after floods caused by Storm Daniel, in Derna, Libya, Sept. 12, 2023.
Abdullah Mohammed Bonja/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Authorities in the east put the death toll in Derna alone at 5,100 as of Wednesday, but that number was widely expected to keep climbing as the grim search through the flood debris continued, and a spokesman for an ambulance center in eastern Libya told the AP that at least 9,000 people were still missing.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said earlier in the week that some 10,000 people were missing.
An official with the U.N.’s World Health Organization in Libya told the AP the number of fatalities could reach 7,000, given how many people were still missing, adding that “the numbers could surprise and shock all of us.”
Speaking to the Al Arabia television network, Derna’s Mayor Abdel-Raham al-Ghaithi said the final death toll could even be as high as 20,000.
Aid starts to arrive, with more help promised
The U.N., United States, European Union and multiple Middle Eastern, North African and European nations have pledged to send rescue teams and aid including food, water tanks, emergency shelters, medical supplies and more body bags.
Among the first aircraft to arrive in Benghazi, a 180 mile drive from Derna, were eight Emirati planes carrying rescue teams, hundreds of tons of relief goods and medical aid.
Teams from Turkey’s State Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) join search and rescue operations following devastating floods in Libya, Sept. 13, 2023.
AFAD/ Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
The Tripoli-based government has declared a national emergency and deployed aircraft, rescue crews and trucks filled with aid.
The United Nations has pledged $10 million in support.
The need is huge, with at least 30,000 people made homeless in Derna and eastern areas, where other towns and villages were also hit by floods and mudslides, according to U.N. agencies.
Impacts of climate change and conflict combined
Climate experts have linked the scale of the disaster to the impacts of a heating planet, combined with years of chaos and decaying infrastructure in Libya.
“Storm Daniel is yet another lethal reminder of the catastrophic impact that a changing climate can have on our world,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
While the floods were caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel, the damage was compounded by Libya’s desperately poor infrastructure. The country descended into chaos after longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and then killed in a NATO-backed 2011 uprising.
Libya remains divided between two rival blocs — the U.N.-backed, internationally recognized government in Tripoli, and a separate, rival administration based in the disaster-hit east.
According to one report by a regional news outlet Thursday, citing an official with a Libyan “unity” government that has been recognized by only a handful of other nations, all maintenance on both of the burst dams stopped in 2011, when Libya started descending into the civil war that continues today.
Cars are stuck on a bridge surrounded by floodwater as storm Daniel hits central Greece, in the village of Flamouli, near Trikala, September 7, 2023.
STRINGER/REUTERS
The U.N.’s Turk called on all sides in Libya “to overcome political deadlocks and divisions and to act collectively in ensuring access to relief… This is a time for unity of purpose: all those affected must receive support, without regard for any affiliations.”
In an additional threat, landmines left over from the war may have been shifted by the floods, warned Erik Tollefsen, head of the weapon contamination unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The devastating flooding in Libya wreaked havoc on the city of Derna on the Mediterranean coast and other places in the northern African nation, destroying buildings, ripping up roads and crashing cars against anything in its way.
A storm system that lashed three countries last week forced dams in Libya to collapse, sending unprecedented flash floods down a river valley.
Scores of people died in the disaster, which an official for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies compared to the powerful earthquake that struck Morocco late last week.
A man stands next to a damaged car in Derna, Libya, after a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit the country, September 12, 2023.
Reuters/Esam Omran Al-Fetori
The death toll includes three Red Crescent volunteers who were killed while helping families displaced by the flooding, the IFRC’s chief posted to social media.
One man told the Reuters news agency 30 of his relatives were killed in the disaster.
“Most people were sleeping. Nobody was ready,” Mostafa Salem told the outlet.
Men walk past debris of buildings caused by flash floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images
Eastern Libya’s minister of civil aviation, Hichem Abu Chkiouat, told Reuters, “Bodies are lying everywhere — in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings.”
People look at the damage caused by freak floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images
The region’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, told the Associated Press some victims may have been swept out to sea.
“We were stunned by the amount of destruction … the tragedy is very significant, and beyond the capacity of Derna and the government,” Abduljaleel said.
People look at the damage caused by freak floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images
Overturned cars lie among other debris caused by flash floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images
A boy pulls a suitcase past debris in a flash-flood damaged area in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images
An area damaged by flash floods is seen in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images
People are stuck on a road after a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Shahhat city, Libya, September 11, 2023, in a photo taken with a drone.
Reuters/Ali Al-Saadi
Floodwaters cover the area after a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Al-Mukhaili, Libya, on September 11, 2023, in this handout picture.
Libya Al-Hadath/Handout via Reuters
Floodwaters cover the area after a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Al-Mukhaili, Libya, on September 11, 2023, in this handout picture.
Cairo — Rescue teams in eastern Libya have retrieved the bodies of more than 1,000 victims from the rubble in a coastal city that has been inundated by devastating floods, an official said Tuesday after visiting the devastated area. Authorities have estimated that as many as 2,000 people were killed in the city of Derna alone from flooding brought by Mediterranean Storm Daniel.
Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said 10,000 people were missing after the unprecedented floods. Speaking to reporters at a U.N. briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia, he said the death toll was “huge” and expected to reach into the thousands in the coming days.
“I returned from Derna. It is very disastrous. Bodies are lying everywhere — in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” the Reuters news agency quoted Hichem Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation and a member of the emergency committee for the administration in eastern Libya, as saying in a phone interview earlier.
“The number of bodies recovered in Derna is more 1,000,” he told Reuters, adding that it was too early to gauge the full scale of the loss of human lives, but that he expected it to be “really, really big.”
A view of devastation after floods caused by Storm Daniel September 11, 2023, in Derna, Libya.
Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
“I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared,” Chkiouat told Reuters. “Many, many buildings have collapsed.”
Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for the country’s armed forces based in the east, said at a news conference on Monday that there were between 5,000 and 6,000 reported missing. Al-Mosmari attributed the catastrophe to the collapse of two nearby dams, causing a lethal flash flood.
Many towns in eastern Libya have been hit by the floods, but the worst destruction was in Derna, where heavy rainfall and floods broke the dams and washed away entire neighborhoods.
A view of devastation in disaster zones after the floods caused by Storm Daniel ravaged the region, on September 11, 2023, in Derna, Libya.
Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ossama Hamad, prime minister of the east Libya government, said several thousand people were missing in the city and many were believed to have been carried away after two upstream dams burst.
After more than a decade of chaos, Libya remains divided between two rival administrations: one in the east and one in the west, each backed by militias and foreign governments. The conflict has left the oil rich country with crumbling and inadequate infrastructure.
Derna residents posted videos online showing major devastation. Entire residential blocks were erased along Wadi Derna, a river that runs down from the mountains through the city center. Multi-story apartment buildings that once stood well back from the river were partially collapsed into mud.
Emergency responders, including troops, government workers, volunteers and residents were digging through the rubble to recover the dead. They also used inflatable boats to retrieve bodies from the water. Excavators and other equipment had yet to arrive in the city.
Residents described scenes of chaos when floods hit the center. They heard loud explosions at night and realized that dams outside the city collapsed, sending a wall of water that “erased everything in its way,” said Ahmed Abdalla, a Derna resident.
Workers said they had buried more than 200 bodies in one cemetery on Monday evening.
The storm hit other areas in eastern Libya, including the town of Bayda, where about 50 people were reported dead. The Medical Center of Bayda, the main hospital, was flooded and patients had to be evacuated, according to video shared by the center on Facebook.
An image taken from aerial video broadcast by Libya’s Al-Masar TV shows extensive flooding in the town of Marj caused by Storm Daniel, Sept. 11, 2023.
AL MASAR TV via Reuters
Other towns that suffered included Susa, Marj and Shahatt, according to the government. Hundreds of families were displaced and took shelter in schools and other government buildings in Benghazi and other towns in eastern Libya.
Authorities in east and west Libya rushed to help residents of Derna. Foreign governments also sent messages of support to Libya. Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates were among those that said they would send humanitarian assistance and teams to help with search and rescue efforts.
“The United States is coordinating with UN partners and Libyan authorities on how we can assist the ongoing relief efforts,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The U.S. embassy in Libya similarly wrote on social media that it was in touch with U.N. and Libyan authorities to determine how to most effectively direct assistance to those in need.
Derna is about 560 miles east of the capital Tripoli. It is controlled by the forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, who is allied with the east Libya government. West Libya, including Tripoli, is controlled by armed groups allied with another government.
Much of Derna was built by Italy when Libya was under Italian occupation in the first half of the 20th century. The city was once a hub for extremist groups in the yearslong chaos that followed the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods in Libya that swept away entire neighborhoods and wrecked homes in multiple coastal towns in the east of the North African nation. As many as 2,000 people were feared dead, one of the country’s leaders said Monday.
The destruction appeared greatest in Derna, a city formerly held by Islamic extremists in the chaos that has gripped Libya for more than a decade and left it with crumbling and inadequate infrastructure. Libya remains divided between two rival administrations, one in the east and one in the west, each backed by militias and foreign governments.
The confirmed death toll from the weekend flooding stood at 61 as of late Monday, according to health authorities. But the tally did not include Derna, which had become inaccessible, and many of the thousands missing there were believed carried away by waters.
Othman Abdul-Jalil, Libya’s designated health minister, said he expected the death toll to rise above 10,000 people, local media reported late Monday.
The Libyan Presidential Council said in a statement Monday that it had declared three areas in its eastern Cyrenaica province a disaster area due to floods and asked for international help, Reuters reported.
A view of devastation in disaster zones after the floods caused by Storm Daniel ravaged the region, on September 11, 2023, in Derna, Libya.
Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Video by residents of the city posted online showed major devastation. Entire residential areas were erased along a river that runs down from the mountains through the city center. Multi-story apartment buildings that once stood well back from the river were partially collapsed into the mud.
In a phone interview with al-Masar television station Monday, Prime Minister Ossama Hamad of the east Libyan government said 2,000 were feared dead in Derna and thousands were believed missing. He said Derna has been declared a disaster zone.
Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for the country’s armed forces based in the east, told a news conference that the death toll in Derna had surpassed 2,000. He said there were between 5,000 and 6,000 reported missing. Al-Mosmari attributed the catastrophe to the collapse of two nearby dams, causing a lethal flash flood.
“The United States is coordinating with UN partners and Libyan authorities on how we can assist the ongoing relief efforts,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The U.S. embassy in Libya similarly wrote on social media that it was in touch with U.N. and Libyan authorities to determine how to most effectively direct assistance to those in need.
Since a 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed long-time ruler Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has lacked a central government and the resulting lawlessness has meant dwindling investment in the country’s roads and public services and also minimal regulation of private building. The country is now split between rival governments in the east and west, each backed by an array of militias.
Derna itself, along with the city of Sirte, was controlled by extremist groups for years, at one point by those who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, until forces loyal to the east-based government expelled them in 2018.
A view of devastation in disaster zones after the floods caused by Storm Daniel ravaged the region, on September 11, 2023, in Derna, Libya.
Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
At least 46 people were reported dead in the eastern town of Bayda, Abdel-Rahim Mazek, head of the town’s main medical center said. Another seven people were reported dead in the coastal town of Susa in northeastern Libya, according to the Ambulance and Emergency Authority. Seven others were reported dead in the towns of Shahatt and Omar al-Mokhtar, said Ossama Abduljaleel, health minister. One person was reported dead Sunday in the town of Marj.
The Libyan Red Crescent said three of its workers had died while helping families in Derna. Earlier, the group said it lost contact with one of its workers as he attempted to help a stuck family in Bayda. Dozens of others were reported missing, and authorities fear they could have died in the floods that destroyed homes and other properties in several towns in eastern Libya, according to local media.
In Derna, local media said the situation was catastrophic with no electricity or communications.
Essam Abu Zeriba, the interior minister of the east Libya government, said more than 5,000 people were expected to be missing in Derna. He said many of the victims were swept away towards the Mediterranean.
“The situation is tragic,” he declared in a telephone interview on the Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya. He urged local and international agencies to rush to help the city.
Georgette Gagnon, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said early reports showed that dozens of villages and towns were “severely affected … with widespread flooding, damage to infrastructure, and loss of life.”
“I am deeply saddened by the severe impact of (storm) Daniel on the country … I call on all local, national, and international partners to join hands to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the people in eastern Libya,” she wrote on X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
Over the weekend, Libyans shared footage on social media showing flooded houses and roads in many areas across eastern Libya. They pleaded for help as floods besieged people inside their homes and in their vehicles.
Ossama Hamad, the prime minister of the east Libya government, declared Derna a disaster zone after heavy rainfall and floods destroyed much of the city which is located in the delta of the small Wadi Derna on Libya’s east coast. The prime minister also announced three days of mourning and ordered flags across the country to be lowered to half-staff.
With months to go before 2023 wraps up, the U.S. has set a new record for the number of weather disasters in a year that cost $1 billion or more.
There have been 23 climate catastrophes and weather events costing at least $1 billion as of the end of August, breaking the record of 22 set in 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Monday. This year’s disasters have so far cost more than $57.6 billion and killed 253 people.
And the number could climb higher. NOAA is still totaling the cost of Tropical Storm Hilary, which wreaked havoc across California last month, and a drought in the South and Midwest. There’s also an “above normal” forecast for this year’s hurricane season, which will continue through the end of November.
Some of the latest costly disasters include the firestorm in Hawaii, Hurricane Idalia and hail storms in Minnesota.
Last year, there were 18 climate extremes that caused at least $1 billion in damage each, totaling more than $165 billion.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell warned in August that the organization’s disaster fund could dry up within weeks and delay the federal response to natural disasters. President Biden asked Congress last month for $12 billion to replenish the disaster fund, but Criswell said on “Face the Nation” that $12 billion in extra funds may not be enough.
This year’s costliest weather event, adjusted for inflation, was in early March across parts of southern and eastern U.S. states, when severe storms, high winds and tornados caused an estimated $6.1 billion in damage as homes, vehicles, businesses and infrastructure were destroyed, according to NOAA. The recent wildfires on Maui, which decimated the town of Lahaina, caused around $5.5 billion in damage. California flooding, which lasted for months, caused an estimated $4.6 billion in damage.
The U.S. this year saw 23 weather disasters that cost $1 billion or more as of August 2023.
NOAA
The number and cost of disasters have increased over time, NOAA said. The increase has happened because of a combination of factors, including climate change, where and how we build, and the value of structures at risk of possible loss.
“Vulnerability is especially high where building codes are insufficient for reducing damage from extreme events,” NOAA says. “Climate change is also playing a role in the increasing frequency of some types of extreme weather that lead to billion-dollar disasters— most notably the rise in vulnerability to drought, lengthening wildfire seasons in the Western states, and the potential for extremely heavy rainfall becoming more common in the eastern states.”
Between 1980 to 2023, 61 tropical cyclones, 185 severe storms, 22 wildfires, 42 flooding events, 22 winter storms, 30 droughts and 9 freezes costing $1 billion or more impacted the U.S, according to NOAA. The total cost of those 371 events exceeds $2.615 trillion. There were an average of 18 events a year costing a billion dollars or more between 2018 and 2022.
The costliest year for weather disasters was 2017, with around $383.7 billion in damages, according to NOAA. The U.S. was rocked that year by hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma, totaling about $328.6 billion in damage. Western wildfires also cost around $22.5 billion.
NOAA began tracking billion-dollar disasters in 1980. In the years since, every state in the country has been impacted by at least one such weather event. Texas has been hit particularly hard— more than 100 billion-dollar weather events have affected at least part of the state. The Central, South and Southeast regions usually experience billion-dollar disasters at a higher frequency than other parts of the U.S.
Greece is being hit with another round of extreme weather after weeks of experiencing drought, wildfires and intense heat. Within the span of just hours, some areas of the country received more than two feet of rain and at least one person was killed as the storm continued to move toward the Mediterranean Sea where it could transform into what’s known as a “medicane.”
In Zagora, there was a “jaw-dropping” rainfall of 21 inches from the storm, named Daniel, within just 10 hours on Tuesday, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility researcher Nahel Belgherze posted on social media.
“An additional 300-500 mm, locally up to 600 mm, of rain could fall by Thursday,” he said. “A historic flooding event is underway!”
That amount of rain is equal to just under two feet.
My goodness! Zagora, Greece recorded a jaw-dropping 528 mm (21 inches) of rain in just 10 hours – an additional 300-500 mm, locally up to 600 mm, of rain could fall by Thursday. A historic flooding event is underway! pic.twitter.com/7swtHuCFVI
Data from French weather and climate monitor Keraunos shows that since Monday, Zagora has received 889 millimeters – nearly 3 feet – of rain. Several other cities have also received at least a foot of rain within that time.
The rain seen in Zagora is more than 55 times higher than the average rainfall for September across Greece, which has an average rainfall for the month of 16 millimeters, according to the U.K. Meteorological Office.
A fallen tree is seen in a flooded river during a storm in the city of Volos, Greece, September 5, 2023.
Sevina Dariotou/Eurokinissi via REUTERS
Videos posted by Greece’s meteorological office show fast flooding across several cities on Tuesday. In Skiathos, the office said that the situation was “getting worse” throughout the afternoon. Other images show cars halfway submerged under floodwaters. And in Volos, the office said that some areas lost electricity and the Athens News Agency reported that one man was killed when flooding caused a wall to fall on top of him as he was trying to get to his sheep. Another man in the city is missing after being swept away by the waters, the agency said.
Reuters confirmed the two men’s situations, but local officials provided no further details.
“Daniel is developing into one of the most powerful storms that our country has experienced, with the daily rainfall in Central Greece far exceeding previous records, at least since 2006,” the country’s meteorological office wrote on Tuesday, saying that along with the man’s death, the storm has also caused “significant infrastructure problems.”
The last daily rainfall record of 2.1 feet during Mediterranean Cyclone Janus in September 2020.
The office said Monday that more than 7,000 lightning strikes were observed from the weather system, which they classified as a “category 5 precipitation event,” meaning it’s an “extreme” weather situation.
And it may only be getting worse for the region in the coming days. Weather forecasting site Severe Weather Europe says that Daniel could lead to the development of a medicane, a “tropical-like cyclone” in the Mediterranean. Weather models show such a system could form over the Ionian Sea this week, the forecasters said, as an ongoing marine heat wave fuels extreme weather.
Medicanes usually need ocean temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius, just under 79 degrees Fahrenehit, to form, the forecasters said, and there has recently been “more than enough warmth in place to support the sub-tropical development.” Weather models show that if it does form, it could bring wind gusts of roughly 62 miles per hour. It’s unclear if it would be closer to Sicily and Malta or the Libyan coast.
Warmer ocean temperatures are known to create conditions that can lead to more extreme weather. As temperatures increase, so does evaporation, putting more precipitation in the air that allows for storms to form.
The flooding comes as Greece has been battling the European Union’s “largest wildfire ever recorded.” Just last week, Greece’s fire service said the fire was “still out of control” in a nature reserve as the country continues to recover from the dozens of fires that broke out over the summer.
Days after Tropical Storm Hilary battered the West Coast with record rainfall, flash floods and fierce winds, Californians now face another challenge: Figuring out the costs of repairing their battered homes and replacing valuables.
Climate change has put more Americans in the locus of storms and other extreme weather events that could have devastating consequences on their household finances. In the past year alone, more than 15 natural disasters have hit the U.S., with catastrophes like the Maui wildfires destroying billions of dollars worth of property, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information.
As natural disasters become more frequent and severe, having enough insurance coverage is essential. However, not all insurance policies cover every type of extreme weather event.
Here’s how to make sure you have the right type of insurance for your home, and how to get additional coverage if you need it.
Know your plan
Standard homeowner policies differ from company to company. Some plans may not cover losses from earthquakes, certain types of water damage, and wind damage caused by tornadoes or hurricanes, according to insurance company Allstate.
To know what your plan covers and how much, check your policy. You can request a digital or hard copy of your homeowners insurance policy directly from your insurance company. In addition, many insurers offer mobile apps that let you view and manage your policy information.
Insurance policy add-ons, also known as endorsements or riders, allow you to personalize your insurance policy to meet your specific coverage needs, according to personal-finance website Bankrate.
You can purchase different types of endorsements to alter or extend existing coverage to protect high-value items in your home that are not insured by a basic policy. This helps ensure that any valuable items destroyed in a natural disaster will be replaced by your insurance at their current market value.
A scheduled personal property endorsement, which extends coverage beyond your basic policy, is one way to insure valuable items such as jewelry. To get this type of endorsement, your insurance company will likely require an appraisal or proof of value for the items you want covered.
Alternatively, you can also insure high-end possessions by purchasing additional blanket coverage which is used to increase coverage limits for an entire class of items. For example, if your standard policy covers up to $2,000 worth of artwork, blanket coverage could increase that coverage limit to $10,000. This option doesn’t require an appraisal.
Get flood insurance
Floods are the most common weather-related natural disasters, and they occur in all 50 U.S. states, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Just one inch of flooding can cause nearly $27,000 worth of damage to a one-story, 2,500 square-foot home, data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows.
Flood insurance protects your home and other property against flood-related damages. As most home insurance companies don’t offer this type of coverage as an add-on, you’ll most likely have to purchase a standalone flood insurance policy.
The National Flood Insurance Program offers policies that you can purchase through an insurance carrier or private insurance company.
Keep an up-to-date inventory list
Having a list of everything you own can take some of the pain out of filing an insurance claim and help you get the most out of your policy.
Make an inventory list that includes all of the major items in your home with their dates of purchase and how much you paid for them. Then, snap photos of all the items on your list. If you have receipts for your items, store them alongside your inventory list. These documents can help you get more money from your insurance company to replace your damaged possessions after a weather-related disaster.
In the small town of Johnson, Vermont, a few dozen miles south of the Canadian border, a family still lives in a tent outside their damaged mobile home.
The only food market within miles is gutted. The flooded U.S. Post Office shifted its service to a small van with an awning in a parking lot.
A town official told CBS News the town wastewater treatment plant and its pump station will need to be moved to prevent another failure and to continue serving the community’s 3,000 residents. It’s estimated to cost $25 million.
Nearly 20 miles away, the wastewater treatment plant was also submerged in the community of Hardwick. The city manager told CBS News that most of Hardwick’s roads — 80 miles — must be repaired, or they will be rendered impassable in the winter. City leaders are also worried about how many home owners lost their furnaces, just a couple of months before the unforgiving Vermont chill returns.
The U.S. Post Office in Johnson, Vermont, is now operating out of a van.
CBS News
In the capital, Montpelier, a children’s clothing store was inundated and needs assistance to reopen.
Six weeks ago, a torrent of rain and a catastrophic flood ravaged Vermont, with an estimated two months worth of rain falling in two days. More than 100 people were rescued.
The emergency and rescues have ended. But the damage, rebuilding and recovery efforts persist. In some cases, it’s been sluggish in a state with smaller towns, smaller roads, fewer contractors and supply chain disruptions.
What has been the federal response?
Perhaps no surprise, it’s the Congressional delegation from Vermont raising warning flags that the federal government is running short on emergency disaster funds and risks a temporary, but potentially lengthy, interruption in the federal response to the flood.
In a letter to the White House this month, the two U.S. senators from Vermont urged President Biden to request emergency funding from Congress to help the expensive and painstaking rebuilding. The letter said, “To help New England farmers, small businesses, and communities recover from the July 2023 floods, we ask that you include assistance for New England in your supplemental appropriations request.”
The White House has since requested $12 billion in emergency disaster relief funding from Congress to help fund the federal recovery programs and assist the growing number of states and communities that have suffered natural disasters this year. But the outlook for the funding is precarious, in a Congress that is polarized, gridlocked and unpredictable in its ability to formally approve new spending.
“The fear all of us have is that we will get caught in the buzzsaw of shutdown politics,” said Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. “That’s very, very dangerous for all of us who have constituents hammered by a weather event.”
Congress is already approaching a Sept. 30 deadline to approve new spending to fund the entirety of the federal government and avert a government shutdown. And Congress might face an even tighter deadline to approve the emergency disaster relief funds requested by the president. With Republicans’ narrow majority in the House and Democrats’ narrow majority in the Senate — and in the wake of an ugly debate to avert a debt ceiling crisis earlier this year — the prospect of an impasse is growing.
Can FEMA cover the cost?
Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanna Criswell told CBS News the agency’s disaster relief fund is projected to run short on funding in September, as the fiscal year ends. A failure by Congress to approve new spending to replenish the funds raises the risk that FEMA will have to halt some of its longer-term rebuilding and recovery programs nationwide, including in Vermont.
Former FEMA official Elizabeth Zimmerman said that if money runs low, FEMA will spend its remaining funds on the most urgent and time-sensitive needs. Zimmerman told CBS News that “recovery projects from recently-declared disasters, such as Vermont’s severe storms, could be put on hold until supplemental funds are made available.”
What are Congress’ next steps?
Congress remains on its summer recess until after Labor Day. A spokesperson for Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said the timetable for consideration of an emergency disaster funding bill would become clearer after Senators return to Washington in September. The House majority leader’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CBS News about the timing of a debate on the proposal.
The members of Congress from Vermont have begun lobbying their colleagues to support the emergency funding.
“Our job is to appeal to our colleagues,” Democratic Rep. Becca Balint told CBS News. “This time it’s my district. Next time it’s going to be your district. Climate change is coming for you. And your constituents are not going to escape from it.”
Welch said he is having conversations with Senators from both parties about the need to approve funding.
Members of the powerful New York Congressional delegation are helping champion the legislation too. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told reporters last week, “I am fully supportive of that and will do everything I can to get it passed in the Senate. Whether it’s a hurricane in the south or east, the flood in the Midwest, the wildfire in the West, Americans can’t fail to answer the call when our fellow Americans are suffering from disaster. That’s always been the case in this country year after year, decade after decade. And I believe it should continue and hope it will continue.”
“Some people have just lost everything”
As Congress resumes the debate over spending, the slog of repair work continues in upstate Vermont. Local officials acknowledge it will be a grind.
“We have people who are living in homes that are gutted,” Town of Johnson board member Beth Foy told CBS News. “But they’re still living in those homes. We have people without electricity. We have people who are living with friends, not necessarily in town. We have people who are using money provided by the Red Cross and FEMA and other entities to live in hotels.”
A few Good Samaritans managed to rescue the books from the Johnson town library as the flood waters rose during the catastrophe and the building was gutted.
Local Vermont officials acknowledge the rebuilding will be lengthy and will likely require ongoing federal support.
“Some people have just lost everything,” said Hardwick city manager David Upson.
This Vantem home had very little damage after going through category five Hurricane Dorian.
Vantem
As you read this you may be experiencing one of the hottest days in history in your area or breathing smoke from a wildfire. These situations are more and more common, causing physical impacts, but also bringing process and design questions into discussion.
Adaptation means taking on responsibility for those who live in dangerous areas. Through smart innovations in new home design and construction and advanced retrofits, people can be protected, live well and even save energy costs.
In 2018, Hurricane Michael wrecked 60,000 homes causing $25 billion in total damages according to InsideClimate News. When that storm hit, Annette Rubin was at home with a newborn, healing from a C-section. Listening to the impact of the storm outside her home and fearing for her baby and her own life, Rubin started thinking about building code and how or if her home was going to protect her.
In a frantic state, she pulled out the house plans to see what the five-year-old home could withstand. It was built to the standard category three level winds that are building code in that area and the forecast was showing that Hurricane Michael was a more severe category five storm.
“I thought if it hits our house, we probably won’t make it,” she said. “We couldn’t leave. We couldn’t go down because of storm surge, and it wasn’t safe to go up. Luckily for us, it went over us and hit east of us, but it was traumatizing enough that I wanted to figure out a different way to do this because hurricanes aren’t new. They happen every year.”
After lots of due diligence, Rubin found a strong, sustainable panel system manufactured by Emmedue. Then, she took the next step. She started the company Vero Building Systems to be an owner and operator installing the Emmedue panel system.
With 77 plants around the world, the technology has been used and distributed for years, but Rubin is the first to bring it to Florida where it exceeds category 5 hurricane resistance and will be able to withstand up to 250-mile-per-hour winds.
Home built with VERO Building System panels in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.
VERO Building Systems
Looking for a proof, she found the panels installed locally in a 7,000-square-foot home that has survived 3 hurricanes in 14 years.
“He lives a mile from me, has two times the size of our house and pays one-third the price for energy,” she said. “His energy bill is $300. Mine is double. There are no thermal bridges, so it is astronomically better than a traditional stick build.”
The core of the panels is polystyrene with steel wire mesh on both sides that are welded together for strength. Once the panel is put in place, a layer of shotcrete (a high velocity application of concrete) goes on top of the wire mesh to create a super insulated, strong structure. Plus, extra mesh goes around angles and to reinforce windows and doors.
VERO panels are not only sustainable when installed, but so is the manufacturing process. Rubin sources a petroleum-based polystyrene feed that is steamed using natural gas to compress it down. Plus, everything in the plant is recycled, from the beads to the wires, and the manufacturing has no off gassing.
“We are able to cut emissions by about 40% during an onsite installation,” Rubin said. “There is no heavy machinery. Plus, we cut about 60% of emissions over the lifetime of the building.”
Most of the work is in manufacturing the panels, that are very light and easy to install on site. Rubin estimates that VERO’s installation process could be up to 40% less time from traditional building methods.
“We did a whole house in two and a half days with installers speaking three different languages,” she said. “One installer had experience and two did not.”
With the energy savings and the added protection, the system has about a 5% premium compared to stick-built construction.
VERO ships nationwide and also is working on a package for tornado safe rooms, again with the capability to withstand more than 250-mph winds.
Protecting Homes… And Dollars
Some of the solutions that jurisdictions are exploring to help their communities are focused on reactive measures like evacuation plans and risk communications, along with proactive measures like new zoning, building codes, and improvements to the physical landscape.
These are hefty, include many different stakeholders to move forward, and therefore need long timelines to come to fruition. In today’s market, the longer the timeline, the more housing costs go up. So, more people are forced into migrating to the areas with the highest climate risks so they can find affordable housing options, which means that people not only need resilient housing, it has to be affordable as well.
This single-family modular house was delivered and installed in Marindia, Uruguay.
Juan Nin for Vantem
Chris Anderson is the CEO at Greensborough, North Carolina-based, modular home building company Vantem that delivers a solution at only $100 per square foot. This product, backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy fund, is made with refractory materials to be fire resistant, survives category 5 hurricane damage, and withstands up to 8.2 magnitude earthquakes.
To address the migration into coastal areas in Florida, Vantem acquired a plant in southern Georgia to build fast and efficiently.
“The homes are built like on an automotive construction line and all MEP [mechanical, electrical and plumbing] is already installed when it is delivered to the job site,” said Anderson. “The factory will be converted by early 2024, and we are looking at two other facilities to get to 20 plants over the next 10 years.”
Vantem is looking for joint ventures with local developers that have strong pipelines aimed at affordable housing in high risk climate markets.
Similar to VERO, Vantem is already accepted and well used around the world, with more than three million square feet currently built out across the globe. In the United States, Vantem has code approvals to build up to three stories.
Anderson says that even with the cost and process efficiencies, solutions can be customized on a large scale.
“We translate architecture into the Vantem system as fully engineered product for that market,” he said. “Each factory has a particular focus. If you are going to do a lot of multifamily, the factory is designed for that. There are factories specifically designed for single family, like the first in Georgia.”
At the core of Vantem’s efficiency and sustainability is the innovation of the panel.
“People who are doing high production modular worldwide are trying to standardize traditional process, but the better way to do it is to simplify the system,” Anderson said. “In modular, you have a water shed between 1 to 5 modules a day to 6 to 10, where high output usually requires a bigger capital expense, but they tried to automate a complex system. Automation applied to inefficiency, just magnifies inefficiency. Our capital expenses are one-fifth the cost of other modular factories.”
The Need For More Innovation
This forecast shows that more than 24 million American properties are at risk of flood today, which … [+] will increase 5% in the next 30 years.
First Street Foundation, 2023
Many reports show that the frequency and intensity of climate events will continue to increase. VERO and Vantem have fabulous solutions that will help many in the Florida region now, but as Zillow reports, unchecked greenhouse gas emissions could put 802,555 homes nationwide at risk from a 10-year flood by 2050. Not to mention the other climate disasters impacting the country.
Efforts like Ed Barsley’s Climate Creatives Challenge offer opportunities to reward innovation in support of new and novel approaches for communicating the impacts of climate change and the benefits of mitigation, adaptation and resilience. As the founder of The Environmental Design Studio, Barsley wants to unleash creative energy to communicate climate related themes to the public, along with adaptive actions.
The contest is a series of eight challenges and open for entries now, including prize money. Initiatives like this will spotlight the need, bringing much needed innovation forward.
A home is damaged from flooding (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty … [+] Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Climate change is not a distant threat, but a present danger that is already wreaking havoc on our lives and homes. From devastating floods to scorching heat waves to raging wildfires, homeowners need to prepare for the consequences of our warming planet. Preparing for these challenges requires investments at both the household and government levels.The costs of natural disasters will multiply if homeowners and governments delay preparing for the increased frequency of devastating weather events.
How Homeowners Can Protect Their Property
Homeowners can take proactive measures to safeguard their properties against the effects of climate change. Installing rain gutters to redirect water away from the home can mitigate flood risks, an air conditioner can shield households from extreme heat, and a metal roof can protect against wildfires.
Homeowners can also protect themselves by securing insurance against natural disasters. Homebuyers and homeowners should anticipate that the cost of insurance will increase as disasters become more common. Wildfire risk in California and flood and storm risk in Florida has already caused insurers to stop issuing new policies. As this trend continues, some homes will see skyrocketing insurance costs, and some homes will become outright uninsurable.
In addition to rising insurance costs, homeowners should prepare for changes in their utility bills. In places with high drought risk, water bills will rise. In places with high heat risk, homeowners may need to spend more on electricity to power their air conditioning. Homeowners association fees may also increase as the cost of maintaining and protecting common areas rises.
The Government Can Do More Than Any Homeowner Can
Individual actions can only go so far in mitigating the risks of climate change. So homebuyers should consider not only the property’s resilience but also the community’s. Organizations like First Street Foundation analyze climate resiliency and provide detailed projections about the preparedness of communities for disasters like floods, fires and heat waves.
It is critical for residents to understand and advocate for their communities’ preparedness, because homes won’t be protected from disasters if the community as a whole is unprepared. Rain gutters won’t stop a home’s lower-level from flooding when the sewers are backed up because of outdated infrastructure. A home’s air conditioning can’t protect a household against heat risk when the electrical grid fails. In regions prone to wildfires, having a well-funded fire department equipped with state-of-the-art firefighting technology would do more to protect homes than anything an individual homeowner could do.
Homes in places that invest in climate adaptation initiatives will be more protected. This protection will attract homebuyers, which will, in turn, protect values for existing homeowners. Researchers at Redfin RDFN , USC, and MIT found that homebuyers prefer homes with lower climate risk. Homebuyers refrained from making offers on homes with high flood risk after being shown flood risk scores on Redfin’s app and website and made offers on lower risk homes instead.
Funding Climate Resiliency
State and local governments play a crucial role in enacting comprehensive climate resilience strategies. Fully funded fire departments, improved sewer systems, resilient electrical grids and effective flood management are just some initiatives governments should prioritize to safeguard communities. However, these investments come at a cost.
The financial burden of preparing for climate change is twofold: it directly affects homeowners’ wallets, and it requires governments to raise funds through taxes. Homeowners may need to allocate a portion of their income or savings to climate resiliency, such as securing disaster insurance, installing energy-efficient systems, elevating structures to mitigate flood risks, or reinforcing buildings to withstand stronger storms. Furthermore, governments may need to raise taxes or reduce spending in other categories to fund climate resiliency. The more the government does, the lower the burden will be on individual homeowners.
The Benefits Of Early Action
While the upfront costs of climate adaptation may seem daunting, delaying action can lead to even more severe consequences in the future. The costs associated with rebuilding after a climate-related disaster far exceed the expenses of investing in preventative measures. And given the ongoing housing shortage, protecting the existing housing stock should be a priority where it is feasible.
Furthermore, proactive climate adaptation can reduce greenhouse emissions, which would lessen the long-run severity of climate change while supporting the economy. Green investments, like electric rail, flood walls, and preservation of flood-absorbing wetlands, can enhance property values, create jobs, and improve quality of life for residents.
Homeowners, homebuyers, communities and governments all need to prepare for climate change. We can proactively mitigate the financial risks associated with climate change while fostering a more sustainable and resilient future. The costs of preparation may be significant, but they pale in comparison to the costs of inaction.
An important Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina was severely damaged on Wednesday after a powerful tornado ripped through the area, threatening production lines that normally provide huge amounts of medicine to U.S. hospitals. Meanwhile, torrential rain flooded parts of Kentucky and communities from California to South Florida endured scorching heat that at times reached record-high temperatures.
Pfizer confirmed the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount, but said in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries. A later company statement said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for.
Parts of roofs were ripped open at the Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount, which is a complex composed of several massive buildings. The plant stores large quantities of medicine that were tossed about, said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone.
“I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind,” Stone said.
The plant produces anesthesia and other drugs as well as nearly 25% of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website. Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said the damage “will likely lead to long-term shortages while Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuilds.”
“We are assessing the situation to determine the impact on production. Our thoughts are with our colleagues, our patients, and the community as we rebuild from this weather incident,” Pfizer tweeted on Wednesday.
Debris is scattered around the Pfizer facility on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, after damage from severe weather.
Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP
The National Weather Service said in a tweet that the damage in North Carolina was consistent with an EF3 tornado with wind speeds up to 150 mph.
The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office, where part of Rocky Mount is located, said on Facebook that they had reports of three people injured in the tornado, and that two of them had life-threatening injuries.
A preliminary report from neighboring Nash County said 13 people were injured and 89 structures were damaged, WRAL-TV reported.
Three homes owned by Brian Varnell and his family members in the nearby Dortches area were damaged. He told the news outlet he is thankful they are all alive. His sister and her children hid in their home’s laundry room.
“They got where they needed to be within the house and it all worked out for the best,” Varnell said near a home that was missing exterior walls and a large chunk of the roof.
Homes are damaged after severe weather passed the area on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Forecasters said little relief appears in sight from the heat and storms. For example, Miami has endured a heat index of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) or more for weeks, with temperatures expected to rise this weekend.
In Kentucky, meteorologists warned of a “life-threatening situation” in the communities of Mayfield and Wingo, which were inundated by flash flooding this week from thunderstorms. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency there Wednesday as more storms threatened.
Forecasters expect up to 10 inches of rain could yet fall on parts of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri near where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge.
The storm system is forecast to move Thursday and Friday over New England, where the ground remains saturated after recent floods. In Connecticut, a mother and her 5-year-old daughter died after being swept down a swollen river Tuesday. In southeastern Pennsylvania, a search continued for two children caught in flash flooding Saturday night.
A parking lot is flooded after heavy rain passed the area on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 in Paducah, Kentucky.
Courtesy of Marilyn Gabel via AP
Meanwhile, Phoenix broke an all-time record Wednesday morning for a warm low temperature of 97 degrees Fahrenheit, raising the threat of heat-related illness for residents unable to cool off adequately overnight. The previous record was 96 degrees Fahrenheit in 2003, the weather service reported.
Lindsay LaMont, who works at the Sweet Republic ice cream shop in Phoenix, said business had been slow during the day with people sheltering inside to escape the heat. “But I’m definitely seeing a lot more people come in the evening to get their ice cream when things start cooling off,” LaMont said.
Heat-related deaths continue to rise in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located. Public health officials Wednesday reported that six more heat-associated fatalities were confirmed last week, bringing the year’s total so far to 18. All six deaths didn’t necessarily occur last week as some may have happened weeks earlier but were confirmed as heat-related only after a thorough investigation.
By this time last year, there had been 29 confirmed heat-associated deaths in the county and another 193 were under investigation.
Phoenix, a desert city of more than 1.6 million people, set a separate record Tuesday among U.S. cities by marking 19 straight days of temperatures of 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more. It topped 110 degrees again Wednesday.
National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Hirsh said Phoenix’s 119-degree high Wednesday tied the fourth-highest temperature recorded in the city ever. The highest temperature of all time was 122 degrees Fahrenheit, set in 1990. Thursday marked the tenth consecutive day where Phoenix saw daily low temperatures that were still above 90 degrees, officials said.
“Phoenix has now had 10 (consecutive) days with 90+ °F lows so far this year, which is above the annual average of 7 days. Low temperatures in the 90s remain in the forecast for Phoenix through at least the remainder of this week,” NWS Phoenix tweeted on Thursday morning.
Phoenix has now had 10 (consecutive) days with 90+ °F lows so far this year, which is above the annual average of 7 days. Low temperatures in the 90s remain in the forecast for Phoenix through at least the remainder of this week. #azwxpic.twitter.com/IEwRD9ZuhL
Across the country, Miami marked its 16th straight day of heat indexes in excess of 105 degrees. The previous record was five days in June 2019.
“And it’s only looking to increase as we head into the later part of the week and the weekend,” said Cameron Pine, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
The region has also seen 38 consecutive days with a heat index threshold of 100 degrees, and sea surface temperatures are reported to be several degrees warmer than normal.
“There really is no immediate relief in sight,” Pine said.
A 71-year-old Los Angeles-area man died at a trailhead in Death Valley National Park in eastern California on Tuesday afternoon as temperatures reached 121 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and rangers suspect heat was a factor, the National Park Service said in a statement Wednesday.
A sign stands warning hikers of extreme heat at the start of the Golden Canyon trail on July 11, 2023, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. A 71-year-old Los Angeles-area man died at the trailhead on Tuesday, July 18, as temperatures reached 121 degrees Fahrenheit or higher and rangers suspect heat was a factor, the National Park Service said in a statement Wednesday.
Ty ONeil / AP
It is possibly the second heat-related fatality in Death Valley this summer. A 65-year-old man was found dead in a car on July 3.
Human-caused climate change and a newly formed El Nino are combining to shatter heat records worldwide, scientists say.
The entire globe has simmered to record heat both in June and July. Nearly every day this month, the global average temperature has been warmer than the unofficial hottest day recorded before 2023, according to University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.
Atmospheric scientists say the global warming responsible for unrelenting heat in the Southwest also is making extreme rainfall a more frequent reality.
Boiling heat and raging floods have taken the world by storm this week, plummeting millions of people across the world into dangerous and deadly conditions. But it’s not a temporary trip of bad luck – it is becoming the new norm.
The heat waves causing record temperatures, storms dumping record rain on cities and wildfires raging across thousands of acres of land are all the impact of an undeniable source: climate change.
Just last week, preliminary data showed that the world had its hottest week on record, following the hottest June on record. El Niño is believed to have spawned the latest events as it comes at the onset of warmer sea surface temperatures, but experts have warned that the current situation won’t suddenly vanish when El Niño departs.
“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024,” said Christopher Hewitt, head of international climate services for the World Meteorological Organization. “This is worrying news for the planet.”
In a news release Thursday, the WMO highlighted issues that included heat waves causing sweltering conditions in areas around the U.S. to North Africa.
“The extreme weather – an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate – is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy and water supplies,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the news release. “This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible.”
Here’s what the world has faced in recent days.
Dangerous heat waves across the world
Heataves are one of the deadliest hazards to emerge in extreme weather, and they’re occurring on a global scale.
The Southwest U.S. has been battling extreme heat for days, and as of Friday, the National Weather Service predicts that the “dangerous heat wave” will continue. At least 93 million people in the U.S. are under excessive heat warnings and advisories Friday morning as the intense heat continues its stretch from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast, the agency said.
The Southwest will see high temperatures surpassing 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts, while Texas and Louisiana could see temperatures up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the agency said.
And Death Valley, which holds the world record for the highest air temperature ever measured, is expected to see temperatures near that temperature. The record occurred on July 10, 1913, hitting 134 degrees Fahrenheit. This weekend, it could hit just shy of that at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, The Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams said on Friday, seeing a low of just around 100 degrees.
“This type of heat is going to continue through at least next week,” the meteorologist said. “Preliminary daily data shows that we passed the hottest average global temperature on July 3 and have been above that value every day since, setting a new record on July 6.”
Flagstaff, Arizona, is also nearing a record-high, with the NWS expecting it to hit 95 degrees on Sunday – just 2 degrees less than its all-time record hit in 1973.
But the extreme heat isn’t constrained to the U.S. – Europe has been facing its own battle.
Records were broken in France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, the European Union’s earth observation service, Copernicus, said earlier this week. On Tuesday, satellite imagery determined that some areas of Spain saw land surface temperatures, which measure the temperature of soil, exceeding 60 degrees Celsius – 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Extreme land surface temperatures were seen in Spain earlier this week, in some places surpassing 60 degrees Celsius.
European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery
Spain’s State Meteorological Agency shared on Friday that parts of the country could reach 42 degrees Celsius (more than 107 degrees Fahrenheit). On Thursday, it was even warmer, reaching 44.9 degrees Celsius in The Village of San Nicolás.
And it’s not over. Over the next two weeks, the WMO said above-normal temperatures are expected across the Mediterranean, with weekly temperatures up to 5 degrees Celsius higher than the long-term average.
Canada’s wildfires continue their record season
Only seven months into 2023, Canada has already been faced with more than 4,000 wildfires that have burned up 9.6 million hectares of land, more than 37,000 square miles. As of Thursday, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported 906 active fires across the nation, more than half of which are considered “out of control.”
On July 6, the Canadian government said this season “has already been Canada’s most severe on record.”
An aerial view of wildfire of Tatkin Lake in British Columbia, Canada on July 10, 2023.
BC Wildfire Service/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“Current projections indicate that this may continue to be a significantly challenging summer for wildfires in parts of the country,” officials said, as projections continue to show “higher-than-normal fire activity” is possible for most of the country. Warm temperatures and ongoing drought are to blame, they said.
Deadly, record-breaking monsoon
India has been inundated with a Southwest monsoon that covered the entire country on July 2, India’s Meteorological Department said. Last week, the capital of the country, New Delhi, was hit with the highest-single day of rain in 40 years, getting half a foot of rain in a single day. The flash floods and landslides caused by the rain have killed dozens across the country.
Water from the capital city’s Yamuna River spilled over its river banks this week as its water level hit a 45-year high on Thursday at 684 feet. The previous record of 681 feet was hit in 1978. The record rain and water prompted officials to urge the 30 million people who live there to stay inside.
On Friday, flash flood threats of varying degrees continued throughout many areas in the country.
A man floats on thermacol through a flooded street after Yamuna River overflowed due to monsoon rains in New Delhi on July 14, 2023.
ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images
Record heat in the world’s oceans
Copernicus said Friday that it’s not just land and air experiencing extreme heat, but the oceans as well. The service found that the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea have both seen record temperatures in recent months.
Citing research institute Mercator Ocean and its own observations, the service said the western Mediterranean is seeing a “moderate” sea heatwave that “appears to be intensifying.”
“The Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly along the coasts of Southern Spain and North Africa was approximately +5°C above the reference value for the period, indicative of the escalating heatwave conditions,” Copernicus said Friday.
Data shows that the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans are experiencing record-breaking temperatures.
European Union, Copernicus Marine Service Data
The data comes just a few months after researchers found that the oceans have been warming so rapidly, that it’s an amount equal to the energy of five atomic bombs detonating underwater “every second for 24 hours a day for the entire year.” It also comes just days after climate experts issued another warning that ocean temperatures have hit unprecedented levels that are “much higher than anything the models predicted.”
By September, NOAA believes that half of the world’s oceans could be experiencing heat wave conditions. Normally, only about 10% of oceans experience such conditions, experts said.
The future of extremes is now the present
The future of extreme weather that has the potential to devastate billions of people is no longer a far-off possibility. It’s happening here and now.
A wide range of experts – from global agencies to national organizations and individual climate experts – have been warning for decades of the impact that warming global temperatures could have on the state of the planet. As temperatures continue to rise across the world – mostly from the burning of fossil fuels – extreme weather will only intensify.
The impact of such extremes is hard to miss.
Major cities like Chicago are seeing ground temperatures so warm due to the rising air temperatures that it’s causing buildings to sink as underground materials shift. The heat also poses deadly consequences, with officials worldwide warning people to avoid extended periods of exposure. Extreme storms that swept through the Northeast last weekend have left cities totally isolated from floodwaters and businesses and homes completely destroyed. The smoke from Canada’s wildfires has had harsh ramifications for air quality across the U.S., even going as far as Europe.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” Hannah Cloke, a climate scientist and professor at Reading University, told Reuters, saying that the way to prevent extreme weather from getting even worse is by drastically – and quickly – reducing greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, primarily emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, work to trap heat within the atmosphere, amplifying global temperatures.
But it’s important to realize, she added, that doing so will only prevent the absolute worst outcomes.
“We must realize we are locked into some of these changes now and we will continue to see records broken,” she said.
Heavy rain spawned extreme flooding in New York’s Hudson Valley that killed at least one person, swamped roadways and forced road closures on Sunday night, as much of the rest of the Northeast U.S. prepared for a major storm.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings across parts of southeastern New York, describing it as “life-threatening,” as well as warnings in northeastern New Jersey.
Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus told CBS New York a woman in her mid-30s and her dog were swept away by floodwaters while she was evacuating her house in Highland Falls. The woman was later found dead. Neuhaus said the dog was found safe and taken in by a neighbor.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted that 13,000 homes had lost power by 9:30 p.m.
The rains have hit some parts of the state harder than others, but officials said communities to the east of the state should brace for torrential rains and possible flash flooding.
Officials urged residents in the line of the storm to stay off the roads.
“The amount of water is extraordinary and it’s still a very dangerous situation,” Hochul said.
“We’ll get through this,” the governor said, but added that “it’s going to be a rough night.”
The governor declared a state of emergency just after 9 p.m. Sunday for Orange County, about 60 miles north of New York City, where about 8 inches of rain poured down. The state of emergency was expanded to Ontario County shortly before 11 p.m.
“We are in close communication with local officials and state agencies are participating in search and rescue efforts,” she said.
The state deployed five swift-water rescue teams and a high-axle vehicle to help with rescues in flooded areas.
Some video posted on social media showed the extent of flooding, with streams of brown-colored torrents rushing right next to homes.
Showers and thunderstorms were also expected in New York City Sunday night and may lead to flash flooding, the National Weather Service New York tweeted.
The city’s emergency notification system tweeted that the heavy rain could cause “life-threatening flooding to basements” and instructed residents to “prepare now to move to higher ground if needed.”
State Route 9W was flooded, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway became so drenched that parts of it were closed, the New York State Police said in a statement. The police asked the public to avoid the parkway.
Parts of the Metro-North train service were expected to be suspended in both directions through Monday because of flooding and downed trees, CBS New York reported. Amtrak train service between Albany and New York City was also suspended because of the weather, according to CBS New York.
More than 1,000 flights scheduled to fly into or out of Laguardia, John F. Kennedy or Newark airports had been canceled as of Sunday night, according to FlightAware.
Cedar Pond Brook in Stony Point was flowing over the road and into private properties, according to WABC.
NWS said in a tweet that by Monday, “a considerable flood threat with a high risk of excessive rainfall is expected across much of New England.” Intense rain may be especially strong in Vermont and northeastern New York.
“This is a very rare event not only for the North Country but for the U.S. as a whole,” NWS Burlington tweeted. “Considerable to catastrophic flash flooding is likely to occur over portions of our forecast area through Monday.”
In Pennsylvania, at least 39 people in the city of Reading were displaced, CBS Philadelphia reported.
Flooding also shut down the eastbound lanes on a stretch of Interstate-76 from about 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.
The Norfolk, Connecticut, Emergency Management said multiple roadways were closed after the town received five inches of rain in 90 minutes.
Lahore — At least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains that have lashed Pakistan since last month, officials said Friday. The summer monsoon brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall between June and September every year. It’s vital for the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security in a region of around two billion people, but it also brings devastation.
“Fifty deaths have been reported in different rain-related incidents all over Pakistan since the start of the monsoon on June 25,” a national disaster management official told AFP, adding that 87 people were injured during the same period.
Laborers carry vegetable sacks as they wade through floodwater after heavy monsoon rains in Lahore, Pakistan, July 5, 2023.
Sajjad/Xinhua/Getty
The majority of the deaths were in eastern Punjab province and were mainly due to electrocution and building collapses, official data showed.
In northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the bodies of eight children were recovered from a landslide in the Shangla district on Thursday, according to the emergency service Rescue 1122’s spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi.
He said rescuers were still searching for more children trapped in the debris.
Officials in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, said it had received record-breaking rainfall on Wednesday, turning roads into rivers and leaving almost 35% of the population there without electricity and water this week.
The Meteorological Department has predicted more heavy rainfall across the country in the days ahead, and warned of potential flooding in the catchment areas of Punjab’s major rivers. The province’s disaster management authority said Friday that it was working to relocate people living along the waterways.
A man pulls a boy on a cart down a flooded road, amid heavy monsoon rainfall in Lahore, Pakistan, July 5, 2023.
Storms killed at least 27 people, including eight children, in the country’s northwest early last month alone.
Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth largest population, is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to officials. However, it is one of the most vulnerable nations to the extreme weather caused by global warming.
Scientists in the region and around the world have issued increasingly urgent calls for action to slow global warming, including a chief scientist for the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which released a study this year about the risks associated with the speed of glacier melt in the Himalayas.
“We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as we can,” ICIMOD lead editor Dr. Philippus Wester told CBS News’ Arashd Zargar last month. “This is a clarion call. The world is not doing enough because we are still seeing an increase in the emissions year-on-year. We are not even at the point of a turnaround.”
The chaos continued in southern Ukraine Friday as security forces, emergency workers and regular citizens risked life and limb to evacuate people from a vast area flooded by the destruction of a crucial dam in Russian held territory. At least several square miles along a southern stretch of the Dnipro river, lined by industry and farmland, have been inundated by floodwater that’s swirling with debris, fuel and other contaminants.
Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the Nova Kakhovka hydro-power plant and dam “from inside” early Tuesday morning, unleashing a torrent of water from the massive reservoir it held back onto the surrounding Kherson region.
The city of Kherson is less than 50 miles downstream from the broken dam. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Friday in a social media post that four people were confirmed dead and at least 13 more were missing amid the flooding. He said some 2,412 people had been evacuated. A Russian official in the region put the death toll at eight.
Volunteers help to evacuate residents from a flooded area after the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, in Kherson, southern Ukraine, June 8, 2023.
ALINA SMUTKO/REUTERS
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app that “hundreds of thousands of people” in towns and villages along the flooded Dnipro were struggling to find fresh drinking water.
“In more than 40 settlements, life is broken,” said the president, who’s top diplomat earlier this week accused Russia of blowing up the dam in a “heinous war crime.”
Russia, whose forces had occupied the key piece of infrastructure for months, claimed it was Ukrainian forces that damaged the dam, but Moscow has offered no evidence to back up the claim. Military analysts have said Vladimir Putin’s troops, who are facing a mounting counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces, stood the most to gain with the dam’s destruction.
An infographic shows the stretch of the Dnipro river, in southern Ukraine, south of the destroyed Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and dam, left at risk of flooding.
Yasin Demirci/Anadolu Agency/Getty
The dam was also a key road across the Dnipro river, which in much of southern Ukraine serves as a geographic barrier between Ukrainian-held ground to the west, and Russian-held ground to the east. By flooding a wide stretch along the southern portion of the river, the border between the two sides has been enlarged by several times, which will complicate any concerted bid by Ukrainian troops to push Russia back in the parts of the Kherson region it still occupies.
In the city of Kherson, which Ukraine reclaimed from Russian forces last year, and the flooded areas around it, rescue efforts in the disaster zone have been severely hampered by the fact that it is also an active war zone.
A flooded area is seen after the Nova Kakhovka dam was breached amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine, June 8, 2023.
STRINGER/REUTERS
Evacuating residents is a deadly business. Boats move swiftly through the flood-stricken areas, ferrying people not only to dry land, but also away from the ongoing Russian bombardment.
News cameras rolled as one elderly man was rescued by volunteers from his submerged home, only to be hit moments later in the head by flying shrapnel as a shell landed nearby.
Asked what it was like operating under such conditions, one rescue worker just blurted out, “adrenaline!” before indicating that he needed to get moving because of incoming fire.
Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi, Moshe Reuven Azman, was among those helping emergency crews bring residents to safety on Thursday when more shells landed nearby. He was recording a video for social media about the efforts when he and his fellow rescuers were forced to duck for cover as explosions rang out nearby.
We are now in Kherson, we’re trying to evacuate people … miraculously survived. Details later pic.twitter.com/oHcKcTcw0h
— Chief Rabbi Of Ukraine Moshe Azman (@RabbiUkraine) June 8, 2023
“We are now in Kherson, we’re trying to evacuate people… miraculously survived,” he said later in a tweet with the video.
North of Kherson, meanwhile, on the long front line that stretches up and down the full length of eastern Ukraine, the country’s forces have stepped up offensive operations around the beleaguered city of Bakhmut, which was only recently taken by Russian troops.
Ukrainian officials have said they’re making steady gains along the front line in recent days and weeks but, despite intense speculation, they have not declared a formal start to the long-awaited full-scale counteroffensive.
U.S. officials told CBS News this week that the counteroffensive appeared to be in its opening phases, and they’ve noted an increase in fighting in a key region along the southern front line.
