A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck near Indio, California, shaking parts of Southern California.
Tag: natural disasters
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LA residents are still battling toxic hazards a year after historic wildfires
ALTADENA, Calif. — ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — “DANGER: Lead Work Area” reads a sign on a front door of an Altadena home. “May damage fertility or the unborn child. Causes damage to the central nervous system.”
Block after block there are reminders that contaminants still linger.
House cleaners, hazardous waste workers and homeowners alike come and go wearing masks, respirators, gloves and hazmat suits as they wipe, vacuum and power-wash homes that weren’t burnt to ash.
It’s been a year of heartbreak and worry since the most destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area’s history scorched neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of people. Two wind-whipped blazes that ignited on Jan. 7, 2025, killed at least 31 people and destroyed nearly 17,000 structures, including homes, schools, businesses and places of worship. Rebuilding will take years.
The disaster has brought another wave of trauma for people afraid of what still lurks inside their homes.
Indoor air quality after wildfires remains understudied, and scientists still don’t know the long-term health impacts of exposure to massive urban fires like last year’s in Los Angeles. But some chemicals released are known to be linked to heart disease and lung issues, and exposure to minerals like magnetite has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Ash in the area is a toxic soup of incinerated cars, electronics, paints, furniture and every other kind of personal belonging. It can contain pesticides, asbestos, plastics, lead or other heavy metals.
Many with homes still standing are now living with the hazards left by the fires.
Nina and Billy Malone considered their home of 20 years a safe haven before smoke, ash and soot seeped inside, leaving behind harmful levels of lead even after professional cleaning. Recent testing found the toxin is still on the wooden floors of their living room and bedroom.
They were forced to move back home in August anyway, after insurance cut off their rental assistance.
Since then, Nina wakes up almost daily with a sore throat and headaches. Billy had to get an inhaler for his worsening wheezing and congestion. And their bedroom, Nina said, smells “like an ashtray has been sitting around for a long time.” She worries most about exposure to unregulated contaminants that insurance companies aren’t required to test.
“I don’t feel comfortable in the space,” said Nina, whose neighbors’ homes burned down across the street.
They’re not alone.
According to a report released in November by the Eaton Fire Residents United, a volunteer group formed by residents, six out of 10 homes damaged from smoke from the Eaton Fire still have dangerous levels of cancer-causing asbestos, brain-damaging lead or both. That’s based on self-submitted data from 50 homeowners who have cleaned their homes, with 78% hiring professional cleaners.
Of the 50 homes, 63% have lead levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard, according to the report. The average lead levels were almost 60 times higher than the EPA’s rule.
Even after fires were extinguished, volatile organic compounds from smoke, some known to cause cancer, lingered inside of people’s homes, according to a recent study. To mitigate these risks, residents returning home should ventilate and filter indoor air by opening windows or running high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) purifiers with charcoal filters.
Zoe Gonzalez Izquierdo said she can’t get her insurance company to pay for an adequate cleanup of her family’s Altadena home, which tested positive for dangerous levels of lead and other toxic compounds.
“They can’t just send a company that’s not certified to just wipe things down so that then we can go back to a still contaminated home,” Gonzalez said, who has children ages 2 and 4.
Experts believe the lead, which can linger in dust on floors and windowsills, comes from burned lead paint. The University of Southern California reported that more than 70% of homes within the Eaton Fire were built before 1979, when lead paint was common.
“For individuals that are pregnant, for young children, it’s particularly important that we do everything we can to eliminate exposure to lead,” said pediatrician Dr. Lisa Patel, executive director for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and a member of the climate group Science Moms.
The same goes for asbestos, she added, because there is no safe level of exposure.
People who lived in the Pacific Palisades, which was also scorched, face similar challenges.
Residents are at the mercy of their insurance companies, who decide on what they cover and how much. It’s a grueling, constant battle for many. The state’s insurer of last resort, known as the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, has been scrutinized for years over its handling of fire damage claims.
Homeowners want state agencies to enforce a requirement that insurance companies return a property to pre-fire condition.
Julie Lawson won’t take any risks. Her family paid about $7,000 out of pocket to test the soil in their Altadena home, even though their insurance company had already agreed to pay to replace the grass in their front yard. They planned to test for contaminants again once they finished remediating the inside, the process of making a home contaminant-free after a fire. If insurance won’t cover it, they’ll pay for it themselves.
Even if their home is livable again, they still face other losses — including equity and the community they once had.
“We have to live in the scar,” she said. “We’re all still really struggling.”
They will be living in a construction zone for years. “This isn’t over for us.”
Annie Barbour with the nonprofit United Policyholders has been helping people navigate the challenges, which include insurance companies resisting to pay for contamination testing and industrial hygienists disagreeing on what to test for.
She sees the mental health toll it’s having on people — and as a survivor herself of the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Northern California, she understands it.
Many were at first joyful to see their houses still standing.
“But they’ve been in their own special kind of hell ever since,” Barbour said.
Now residents like the Malones are inspecting their belongings, one by one, fearing they may have absorbed toxins.
Boxes, bags and bins stuffed with clothes, chinaware and everything in between fill the couple’s car, basement, garage and home.
They have been painstakingly going through their things, assessing what they think can be adequately cleaned. In the process, Nina is cleaning cabinets, drawers, floors and still finding soot and ash. She wears gloves and a respirator, or sometimes just an N-95 mask.
Their insurance won’t pay to retest their home, Billy said, so they’re considering paying the $10,000 themselves. And if results show there’s still contamination, their insurance company told them they will only pay to clean up toxins that are federally regulated, like lead and asbestos.
“I don’t know how you fight that,” said Nina, who is considering therapy to cope with her anxiety. “How do you find that argument to compel an insurance company to pay for something to make yourself safe?”
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AP staff writer Alex Veiga contributed to this report.
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Rain soaks Rose Parade in California and snow squalls hit Midwest and Northeast on first day of 2026
Rain poured down on the iconic Rose Parade on Thursday for the first time in 20 years, as flood warnings and evacuation orders in Southern California joined snow squalls and frigid temperatures in the country’s midsection to mark the first day of 2026.
Marching bands, floats and throngs of spectators were soaked by one to two inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of New Year’s Day rain at the 137th Rose Parade in Pasadena. The mercury stood at a chilly 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.4 degrees Celsius) at the 8 a.m. start of the parade.
Across the country, in New York City, hats and gloves were as necessary as noisemakers at the city’s New Year’s Eve ball drop, where temperatures near freezing appeared to be the coldest in 10 years.
Hundreds of thousands of people gather along the nearly six-mile (10-kilometer) route in Pasadena, where the two-hour parade kicked off. Millions more watch on national television. Organizers at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, the group that organizes the parade ahead of the Rose Bowl college football game, said they made only small changes to accommodate the weather, such as the tops being up on convertibles carrying grand marshal Earvin “Magic” Johnson and other VIPs.
Rain forecasts for the Rose Parade, which had been dry for 20 years, grew all week. On Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for all California counties and a coastal flood advisory through Sunday afternoon along much of the Pacific Coast near San Francisco.
Meanwhile, residents in the areas hit hardest by last year’s devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires were under evacuation warnings.
In New York City, the sun came out ahead of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural celebration, but other areas of the Northeast and Midwest were hit by an Alberta clipper storm and trailing Arctic front that brought snow squalls and high winds.
Conditions varied widely — from snow showers to heavier squalls — from Wisconsin through northern Illinois and Michigan and into northern New Jersey, southeastern New York and New England.
About a quarter of flights were delayed out of both San Diego International Airport and Boston Logan, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
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Rain soaks Rose Parade in California and snow squalls hit Midwest and Northeast on first day of 2026
Rain poured down on the iconic Rose Parade on Thursday for the first time in 20 years, as flood warnings and evacuation orders in Southern California joined snow squalls and frigid temperatures in the country’s midsection to mark the first day of 2026.
Marching bands, floats and throngs of spectators were soaked by one to two inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) of New Year’s Day rain at the 137th Rose Parade in Pasadena. The mercury stood at a chilly 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14.4 degrees Celsius) at the 8 a.m. start of the parade.
Across the country, in New York City, hats and gloves were as necessary as noisemakers at the city’s New Year’s Eve ball drop, where temperatures near freezing appeared to be the coldest in 10 years.
Hundreds of thousands of people gather along the nearly six-mile (10-kilometer) route in Pasadena, where the two-hour parade kicked off. Millions more watch on national television. Organizers at the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, the group that organizes the parade ahead of the Rose Bowl college football game, said they made only small changes to accommodate the weather, such as the tops being up on convertibles carrying grand marshal Earvin “Magic” Johnson and other VIPs.
Rain forecasts for the Rose Parade, which had been dry for 20 years, grew all week. On Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for all California counties and a coastal flood advisory through Sunday afternoon along much of the Pacific Coast near San Francisco.
Meanwhile, residents in the areas hit hardest by last year’s devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires were under evacuation warnings.
In New York City, the sun came out ahead of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural celebration, but other areas of the Northeast and Midwest were hit by an Alberta clipper storm and trailing Arctic front that brought snow squalls and high winds.
Conditions varied widely — from snow showers to heavier squalls — from Wisconsin through northern Illinois and Michigan and into northern New Jersey, southeastern New York and New England.
About a quarter of flights were delayed out of both San Diego International Airport and Boston Logan, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
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Japan issues tsunami advisory after 6.7 magnitude quake in country’s northeast
TOKYO — Japan on Friday issued a tsunami advisory after a 6.7 magnitude earthquake shook the country’s northeast, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The quake occurred off the east coast of Aomori prefecture, in the north of Honshu, the main Japanese island, at a depth of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) at 11:44 a.m. local time, JMA said.
The Pacific coast of Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures could see a tsunami of up to 1 meter (3.2 feet), the agency added.
Damage and injuries weren’t immediately clear.
An advisory is a lower level of caution than a warning.
Friday’s quake followed a 7.5 magnitude earthquake earlier this week in the north that caused injuries, light damage and a tsunami in Pacific coastal communities.
At least 34 people were injured in that quake on Monday off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan’s main Honshu island. A tsunami more than 2 feet (0.6 meters) above tide levels was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture before all tsunami advisories were lifted. Power was knocked out for hundreds of homes but was mostly restored Tuesday morning.
Authorities had warned of possible aftershocks.
Officials said after Monday’s quake there was also a slight increase in risk of a magnitude 8-level quake and possible tsunami occurring along Japan’s northeastern coast from Chiba, just east of Tokyo, to Hokkaido. The agency urged residents in 182 municipalities in the area to monitor their emergency preparedness in the coming week, reminding them that the caution is not a prediction of a big one.
The quakes occurred in the coastal region, where a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011 killed nearly 20,000 people and destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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Alaska Native villages have few options and little US help as climate change devours their land
JUNEAU, Alaska — Storms that battered Alaska’s western coast this fall have brought renewed attention to low-lying Indigenous villages left increasingly vulnerable by climate change — and revived questions about their sustainability in a region being reshaped by frequent flooding, thawing permafrost and landscape-devouring erosion.
The onset of winter has slowed emergency repair and cleanup work after two October storms, including the remnants of Typhoon Halong, slammed dozens of communities. Some residents from the hardest-hit villages, Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, could be displaced for months and worry what their futures hold.
Kwigillingok already was pursuing relocation before the latest storm, but that can take decades, with no centralized coordination and little funding. Moves by the Trump administration to cut grants aimed at better protecting communities against climate threats have added another layer of uncertainty.
Still, the hope is to try to buy villages time to evaluate next steps by reinforcing rebuilt infrastructure or putting in place pilings so homes can be elevated, said Bryan Fisher, the state’s emergency management director.
“Where we can support that increased resilience to buy that time, we’re going to do that,” he said.
Alaska is warming faster than the global average. A report released last year by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium found 144 Native communities face threats from erosion, flooding, thawing permafrost or a combination.
Coastal populations are particularly vulnerable, climate scientist John Walsh said. Less Arctic sea ice means more open water, allowing storm-driven waves to do damage. Thawing permafrost invites more rapid coastal erosion. Waves hitting permafrost bounce like water off a concrete wall, he said, but when permafrost thaws, the loose soil washes away more easily.
Wind and storm surge from the remnants of Halong consumed dozens of feet of shoreline in Quinhagak, disturbing a culturally significant archaeological site. Quinhagak, like Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, is near the Bering Sea.
Just four times since 1970 has an ex-typhoon hit the Bering Sea coast north of the Pribilof Islands, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness. Three of those have been since 2022, starting with the remnants of Merbok that year.
The damage caused by ex-typhoon Halong was the worst Fisher said he has seen in his roughly 30 years in emergency management. About 700 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, estimates suggest. Some washed away with people inside and were carried for miles. Kipnuk and Kwigillingok — no strangers to flooding and home to around 1,100 people — were devastated. One person died, and two remain missing.
At-risk communities can reinforce existing infrastructure or fortify shoreline; move infrastructure to higher ground in what is known as managed retreat; or relocate entirely. The needs are enormous — $4.3 billion over 50 years to protect infrastructure in Native communities from climate threats, according to the health consortium report, though that estimate dates to 2020. A lack of resources and coordination has impeded progress, the report found.
Simply announcing plans to relocate can leave a community ineligible for funding for new infrastructure at their existing site, and government policies can limit investments at a new site if people aren’t living there yet, the report said.
It took decades and an estimated $160 million for the roughly 300 residents of Newtok in western Alaska to move 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) to their new village of Mertarvik. Newtok was one of the first Alaska Native communities to fully relocate, but others are considering or pursuing it. In Washington and Louisiana, climate change has been a driving force behind relocation efforts by some tribes.
But many villages, including Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, “don’t have that kind of time,” said Sheryl Musgrove, director of the Alaska Climate Justice Program at the Alaska Institute for Justice. The two are among 10 tribal communities her group has been working with as they navigate climate-adaptation decisions.
Kipnuk before the last storm had been planning a protect-in-place strategy but hasn’t decided what to do now, she said.
Musgrove hopes that in the aftermath, there will be changes at the federal level to help communities in peril. There is no federal agency, for example, tasked with coordinating relocation. That leaves small communities trying to navigate myriad agencies and programs, Musgrove said.
“I guess I’m just really hopeful that this might be the beginning of a change because I think that there is a lot of attention to what happened here,” she said.
With money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2022 created the Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation Program and committed $115 million for 11 tribes’ relocation efforts, including $25 million each for Newtok and Napakiak. In Napakiak, most of the infrastructure is expected to be destroyed by 2030, and the community is moving away from the banks of the Kuskokwim River.
That is not enough to move a village, and additional funding opportunities are scattered across other agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
Sustained federal support is uncertain as the Trump administration cuts programs related to climate change and disaster resilience. Trump in May proposed cutting $617 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ tribal self-governance and communities programs but did not specify which programs.
The Department of Interior said in an email that new grant funding is “under review as part of a broader effort to improve federal spending accountability,” but that the Bureau of Indian Affairs was “helping tribes lay the groundwork for future implementation when funding pathways are clarified.”
Other federal money that could help Alaska villages has already been cut. Federal Emergency Management Agency awards to Newtok and Kwigillingok for projects related to relocation didn’t arrive before the administration in April halted billions of dollars in unpaid grants.
Trump has also stopped approving state and tribal requests for hazard mitigation funding, a typical add-on that accompanies federal support after major disasters.
Even the data that villages need to assess how climate change is affecting them are at risk. The Trump administration has removed information related to climate change from government websites and has fired scientists in charge of the nation’s congressionally mandated climate assessment reports.
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Aoun Angueira reported from San Diego.
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Landslide Strikes Bus on Mountain Pass in Vietnam, Killing 6, as Heavy Rain Persists
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A landslide buried a passenger bus on a treacherous mountain pass in Vietnam, killing six people and injuring 19 others, as more heavy rain was forecast into the week.
The earth and rocks collapsed onto the bus late Sunday as it was traveling through the Khanh Le pass in the central highlands, state media reported. The winding, 33-kilometer (20-mile) stretch carved into steep mountainsides is scenic and popular with tourists but prone to landslides in the rainy season.
The landslide crushed the front of the bus, trapping many passengers. Rescuers struggled for hours to reach the scene as heavy rain had also caused landslides on both sides of the pass, cutting off access. Rescue teams were only able to reach the bus after midnight, state media said.
The bus was carrying 32 people from Vietnam’s financial capital, Ho Chi Minh City and was traveling from Da Lat in Vietnam’s central highlands to the coastal city of Nha Trang.
The injured passengers were taken to a nearby hospital. State media said two of the dead bodies were still trapped under the debris as the treacherous terrain hindered the work.
Heavy rain is pounding central Vietnam, which earlier was hit hard by Typhoon Kalmaegi. Rainfall through Wednesday is expected to reach 30–60 centimeters (12–24 inches) in parts of central Vietnam, with some areas likely to exceed 85 centimeters (33 inches).
Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in mountainous areas of Hue city on Sunday, blocking a major highway that runs from northern to southern Vietnam and cutting off several villages. The former imperial capital has already endured historic floods this year.
Vietnam is among the world’s most flood-prone countries, with nearly half its population living in high-risk areas. Scientists warn that a warming climate is intensifying storms and rainfall across Southeast Asia, making floods and landslides increasingly destructive and frequent.
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Atmospheric River Hits Southern California With Risks of Flash Floods in Fire-Ravaged Areas, Coast
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An unusually strong storm system called an atmospheric river was dousing Southern California on Saturday, prompting flood warnings in areas of coastal Los Angeles County that recently were ravaged by wildfire.
The National Weather Service in Los Angles and Oxnard reported heavy rainfall Saturday at rates as heavy as an inch (2.5 centimeters) per hour in coastal areas that are prone to flash flooding.
On Friday, more than four inches of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara County as the storm approached Los Angeles, as the National Weather Service urged people to stay indoors amid heavy winds.
The long plume of tropical moisture that formed over the Pacific Ocean began drenching the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday and unleashed widespread rain over Southern California on Friday and Saturday. More than a foot of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada.
Flood warnings extended from the Ventura County coast, through Malibu and into the City of Los Angeles.
“Due to the potential for debris flows, an Evacuation Warning remains in effect within and around all recent burn scar areas, and select vulnerable properties remain under Evacuation Orders,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a Saturday-morning social media post on X.
Evacuation orders, which are mandatory, were issued for specific high-risk properties in the Palisades and Eaton fire burn areas from Friday evening to Sunday morning. Law enforcement personnel were going to select properties in those areas to urge people to leave, Bass indicated.
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Uncommon program helps children displaced by flooding that devastated Alaska villages
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rayann Martin sat in a classroom hundreds of miles from her devastated Alaska Native village and held up 10 fingers when the teacher asked the pupils how old they were.
“Ten — how do you say 10 in Yup’ik?” the teacher asked.
“Qula!” the students answered in unison.
Martin and her family were among hundreds of people airlifted to Anchorage, the state’s largest city, after the remnants of Typhoon Halong inundated their small coastal villages along the Bering Sea last month, dislodging dozens of homes and floating them away — many with people inside. The floods left nearly 700 homes destroyed or heavily damaged. One person died, two remain missing.
As the residents grapple with uprooted lives very different from the traditional ones they left, some of the children are finding a measure of familiarity in a school-based immersion program that focuses on their Yup’ik language and culture — one of two such programs in the state.
“I’m learning more Yup’ik,” said Martin, who added that she’s using the language to communicate with her mother, teachers and classmates. “I usually speak more Yup’ik in villages, but mostly more English in cities.”
There are more than 100 languages spoken in the homes of Anchorage School District students. Yup’ik, which is spoken by about 10,000 people in the state, is the fifth most common. The district adopted its first language immersion program — Japanese — in 1989, and subsequently added Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, German, French and Russian.
After many requests from parents, the district obtained a federal grant and added a K-12 Yup’ik immersion program about nine years ago. The students in the first class are now eighth-graders. The program is based at College Gate Elementary and Wendler Middle School.
The principal at College Gate Elementary, Darrell Berntsen, is himself Alaska Native — Sugpiaq, from Kodiak Island, south of Anchorage. His mother was 12 years old in 1964 when the magnitude-9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake and an ensuing tsunami devastated her village of Old Harbor. He recalls her stories of joining other villagers at high ground and watching as the surge of water carried homes out to sea.
His mother and her family evacuated to a shelter in Anchorage, but returned to Kodiak Island when Old Harbor was rebuilt. Berntsen grew up living a subsistence life — “the greatest time of my life was being able to go out duck hunting, go out deer hunting,” he said — and he understands what the evacuees from Kipnuk, Kwigillingok and other damaged villages have left behind.
He has also long had an interest in preserving Alaska Native culture and languages. His ex-wife’s grandmother, Marie Smith Jones, was the last fluent speaker of Eyak, an indigenous language from south-central Alaska, when she died in 2008. His uncles had their hands slapped when they spoke their indigenous Alutiiq language at school.
As the evacuees arrived in Anchorage in the days after last month’s flooding, Berntsen greeted them at an arena where the Red Cross had set up a shelter. He invited families to enroll their children in the Yup’ik immersion program. Many of the parents showed him photos of the duck, goose, moose, seal or other traditional foods they had saved for the winter — stockpiles that washed away or spoiled in the flood.
“Listening is a big part of our culture — hearing their stories, letting them know that, ‘Hey, I live here in Anchorage, I’m running one of my schools, the Yup’ik immersion program, you guys are welcome at our school,’” Berntsen said. “Do everything we can to make them feel comfortable in the most uncomfortable situation that they’ve ever been through.”
Some 170 evacuated children have enrolled in the Anchorage School District — 71 of them in the Yup’ik immersion program. Once the smallest immersion program in the district, it’s now “booming,” said Brandon Locke, the district’s world language director.
At College Gate, pupils receive instruction in Yup’ik for half the day, including Yup’ik literacy and language as well as science and social studies. The other half is in English, which includes language arts and math classes.
Among the program’s new students is Ellyne Aliralria, a 10-year-old from Kipnuk. During the surge of floodwater the weekend of Oct. 11, she and her family were in a home that floated upriver. The high water also washed away her sister’s grave, she said.
Aliralria likes the immersion program and learning more phrases, even though the Yup’ik dialect being spoken is a bit different from the one she knows.
“I like to do all of them, but some of them are hard,” the fifth-grader said.
Also difficult is adjusting to living in a motel room in a city nearly 500 miles (800 km) from their village on the southwest coast.
“We’re homesick,” she said.
Lilly Loewen, 10, is one of many non-Yup’iks in the program. She said her parents wanted her to participate because “they thought it was really cool.”
“It is just really amazing to get to talk to people in another language other than just what I speak mostly at home,” Loewen said.
Berntsen is planning to help the new students acclimate by holding activities such as gym nights or Olympic-style events, featuring activities that mimic Alaska Native hunting and fishing techniques. One example: the seal hop, in which participants assume a plank position and shuffle across the floor to emulate how hunters sneak up on seals napping on the ice.
The Yup’ik immersion program is helping undo some of the damage Western culture did to Alaska Native language and traditions, he said. It’s also bridging the gap of two lost generations: In some cases, the children’s parents or grandparents never learned Yup’ik, but the students can now speak with their great-grandparents, Locke said.
“I took this as a great opportunity for us to give back some of what the trauma had taken from our Indigenous people,” Berntsen said.
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Atmospheric River Douses Southern California, Threatening Rockslides in LA’s Fire-Ravaged Areas
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An unusually strong storm system called an atmospheric river was dousing Southern California on Friday and was expected to continue dumping heavy rain over the region for days as forecasters warned of rockslides and debris flows especially in the Los Angeles areas that were ravaged by wildfires earlier this year.
More than four inches of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara County early Friday as the storm moved south toward Los Angeles, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters also warned of damaging winds and possibly even a tornado could form as they urged people to stay indoors.
While not usually associated with California, a tornado briefly touched down in a Los Angeles suburb during a storm in 2023, ripping roofs off a line of commercial buildings and injuring one person. A smaller one also hit a mobile home park in the Santa Barbara County city of Carpinteria, damaging about 25 residences.
The long plume of tropical moisture that formed over the Pacific Ocean began drenching the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday and was expected to unleash widespread rain over Southern California through Sunday with the heaviest amounts on Friday and Saturday nights. More than a foot of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada.
Evacuation warnings were in effect for parts of Ventura County and areas that burned in and around Los Angeles in January. Evacuation orders, which are mandatory, were issued for specific high-risk properties in the Palisades and Eaton fire burn areas from Friday evening to Sunday morning. Law enforcement were going door-to-door in those areas to urge people to leave, the county said.
The heaviest rain could dump as much as an inch an hour over a large portion of the region.
“The period of most concern is tonight through Saturday Night,” the National Weather Service said. “During this time, folks should be prepared for ample traffic incidents, delays, and a few road closures. This includes a few flooded roads, freeway lanes, and on-ramps and offramps.”
While major effects of the storm have not yet been seen, a large downed tree smashed a car in an LA neighborhood Friday morning, local news outlets reported. No injuries were reported.
Canyon roads, especially the most vulnerable ones like Topanga Canyon, will likely see mudslide and rockslides, and other neighborhoods ravaged by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area earlier this year should be on high alert, according to the weather service.
More wet weather is expected early next week with another storm bringing light to moderate rain, offering only a brief break from the dousing. And yet another storm is predicted to follow that days later.
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Shaggy Recounts His Relief Mission to Jamaica After Hurricane Melissa and Shares How You Can Help
As Hurricane Melissa intensified to a Category 5 storm pointing right at Jamaica, Shaggy knew he had to help, he just wasn’t sure how. So he asked ChatGPT.
“I don’t know anything about relief and how to prepare for a storm,” the Grammy-winning reggae musician said. “I went to ChatGPT and looked at what we would need in a storm and we just bought that. Luckily, that’s exactly what they needed.”
Orville Richard Burrell, known for pop-dancehall hits like “Boombastic” and “Angel,” was born and raised in Kingston until he moved to New York when he was 18.
He was in Miami when Melissa made landfall, but lives in Kingston. “That’s where the wife, kids and dogs are,” he said. “It’s where I call home,” he said.
After the devastating October storm that killed at least 75 people across the northern Caribbean, Shaggy, 57, mobilized relief immediately for Jamaica, shuttling supplies from Miami and hand delivering them to the worst-hit areas.
He’s now made it a mission to bring attention to his country’s needs. “It’s urgent to get the word out and make sure people don’t forget.”
The needs are dire, he said. “I think Jamaica’s forever changed by this.”
Shaggy spoke with The Associated Press on Wednesday from New York City. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What went through your mind as Melissa approached Jamaica?
When I heard that a Category 5 is coming, I’m saying to myself, ‘Whoa, this is going to be catastrophic.’ I just started preparing myself, hoping I can get in there and be effective.
I called my friend (lighting designer) Dan Nolan. He has two planes and I said, ‘Let’s load these planes up and we’ll just shoot down there.’ As soon as the airport opened, we hit the ground.
Tell us about the impacted areas.
It took us about six hours to get to a place that normally would be about two-and-a-half hours. There’s debris everywhere, there is sand and mud and some (roads) are still flooded, power poles are in the road.
I got there in the middle of the night, there was no electricity, it was pitch black so all I could give out was just water.
We drove six hours back to the city that night, and we put all the stuff into smaller vehicles … things like tarpaulins, female sanitary pads, Pampers for kids, flashlights, batteries. (The next day we) took another route, which took us about four hours this time. That’s the only way to do it.
Black River (St. Elizabeth parish) looked like they dropped an atomic bomb there with how damaged it was. We pulled up right before the bridge and they had just shut the whole town down because they said it was ground zero.
And we just pulled up right there and opened the truck and said, “We’re gonna give it out right here.” We thought we were going to get chaos because we didn’t have much security. But the truck pulled up and they just started to form a line by themselves. That’s how orderly it was.
What did you see and hear from people impacted?
No one could really prepare for that. No one has ever seen it. I feel for them.
The psychological effects it’s going to have on these children. A couple days ago they were probably playing, and now they’re standing in a queue just trying to find some food for their tummies.
We don’t just need to be rebuilding as far as food and shelter, but you’re also going to need some counseling.
How can people help Jamaica?
If people can’t do cash, or (in) kind (donations), one thing they can do is keep it on their socials, keep it trending. We’ve got to keep the awareness up, because we’re going to need the aid. These places aren’t going to be fixed until probably 10 years before this is back and running the right way.
I’m working closely with Global Empowerment Mission. They have an Amazon link that you can just click on the items and Amazon will ship it straight to GEM and because they have boots on the ground they will get it straight into these neighborhoods.
Food for the Poor is also well established. It’s a Jamaican charity organization. They’ve been helping Haiti and places like those.
There’s also the Support Jamaica site that has been set up by the government.
What would you want people who haven’t been to Jamaica to know about the culture and the people there?
We’re very resilient people. There’s a lot of love and a lot kindness. I’ve seen this firsthand.
Kingston now operates as an hub that can get food and supplies in and out. You’re seeing a lot of people, just regular Jamaicans, who are loading up their cars on the weekend and just going down there and that really helps.
You’re feeling that community, camaraderie, within the Jamaican society. I love that.
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Philippines Declares a State of Emergency After Typhoon Kalmaegi Left at Least 114 People Dead
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thursday after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 114 people dead and hundreds missing in central provinces in the deadliest natural disaster to hit the country this year.
The deaths were mostly from drowning in flash floods, and 127 people were still missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu. The tropical cyclone blew out of the archipelago on Wednesday into the South China Sea.
The typhoon’s onslaught affected nearly 2 million people and displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters, the Office of Civil Defense said.
Marcos’s “state of national calamity” declaration, made during a meeting with disaster-response officials to assess the typhoon’s aftermath, would allow the government to disburse emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.
While still dealing with the deadly and disastrous impact of Kalmaegi in the country’s central region, disaster-response officials warned that another tropical cyclone from the Pacific could strengthen into a super typhoon and batter the northern Philippines early next week.
Among the dead attributed by officials to Kalmaegi were six people who were killed when a Philippine air force helicopter crashed in the southern province of Agusan del Sur on Tuesday. The crew was on its way to provide humanitarian help to provinces battered by the typhoon, the military said. It did not give the cause of the crash.
Kalmaegi set off flash floods and caused a river and other waterways to swell in Cebu province. The resulting flooding engulfed residential communities, forcing residents to climb on their roofs, where they desperately pleaded to be rescued as the floodwaters rose, provincial officials said.
At least 71 people died in Cebu, mostly due to drownings, while 65 others were reported missing and 69 injured, the Office of Civil Defense said.
It added that 62 others were reported missing in the central province of Negros Occidental, which is located near Cebu.
“We did everything we can for the typhoon but, you know, there are really some unexpected things like flash floods,” Cebu Gov. Pamela Baricuatro told The Associated Press by telephone.
The problems may have been made worse by years of quarrying that caused clogging of nearby rivers, which overflowed, and substandard flood control projects in Cebu province, Baricuatro said.
A corruption scandal involving substandard or non-existent flood control projects across the Philippines has sparked public outrage and street protests in recent months.
Cebu was still recovering from a 6.9 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 30 that left at least 79 people dead and displaced thousands when houses collapsed or were severely damaged.
Thousands of northern Cebu residents who were displaced by the earthquake were moved to sturdier evacuation shelters from flimsy tents before the typhoon struck, Baricuatro said. Northern towns devastated by the earthquake were mostly not hit by floods generated by Kalmaegi, she added.
Ferries and fishing boats were prohibited from venturing out to increasingly rough seas, stranding more than 3,500 passengers and cargo truck drivers in nearly 100 seaports, the coast guard said. At least 186 domestic flights were canceled.
The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also is often hit by earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
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Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025
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Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba pick up the pieces
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind.
In Jamaica, government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach dozens of isolated communities in the island’s southeast that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.
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By ARIEL FERNÁNDEZ, ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ and JOHN MYERS JR. – Associated Press
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Hurricane Melissa Lashes Cuba as Category 2 Storm
Hurricane Melissa weakened to a Category 2 storm that is expected to cause catastrophic damage as it passes through Cuba, a day after it hit Jamaica as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record.
The hurricane passed through eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning with 105 mile-an-hour winds, and is expected to dump as much as 25 inches of rain in certain areas, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm made landfall early Wednesday in the Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba with maximum sustained winds of close to 120 mph.
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Joseph Pisani
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Hurricane Melissa, brings flooding, catastrophic winds to Jamaica
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Heavy floodwaters swept across southwestern Jamaica, winds tore roofs off buildings and boulders tumbled onto roads Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa came ashore as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.
Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported as Melissa hit with 185 mph winds near New Hope, with officials cautioning that the cleanup and damage assessment could be slow.
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Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
By JOHN MYERS JR. and DÁNICA COTO – Associated Press
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Hurricane Melissa Batters Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica Tuesday as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms to make landfall on record.
Melissa came ashore in southwestern Jamaica as a Category 5 storm with 185 miles-per-hour winds, according to the National Hurricane Center. Jamaican officials said the storm has trapped families in homes, damaged hospitals and cut power for three-quarters of the island. Forecasters urged residents to stay in their homes, calling the storm “an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.”
Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Alyssa Lukpat
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Hurricane Melissa Is Among the Most Powerful Atlantic Hurricanes on Record
The monster storm strengthened Tuesday before hitting Jamaica, bringing with it maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph). It’s the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas in 2019.
The most powerful Atlantic storm in terms of wind speed, Hurricane Allen killed more than 200 people in Haiti before swooping into Texas in 1980. It’s highest sustained winds reached 190 mph (305 kph) but slowed before it hit land.
The storm came ashore Tuesday in Jamaica as one the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history. Its 185 mph (295 kph) sustained winds tied a record for the strongest speeds by an Atlantic storm while making landfall.
The most intense hurricane to hit the Bahamas on record, more than 70 people died in the 2019 storm that packed 185 mph (295 kph) winds.
This 2005 storm rapidly intensified, with winds topping out around 185 mph (295 kph). It slammed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula before hitting South Florida, where it carved a wide path of destruction.
Hurricane Gilbert first made landfall in Jamaica and tore through the Caribbean in 1988 before slamming into Mexico, where 200 people died. At its peak, winds reached 185 mph (295 kph).
This unnamed storm in 1935 remains one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the U.S. It devastated the Florida Keys and left damage along the Atlantic Coast. Its winds were measured at 185 mph (295 kph).
The storm packing winds of 180 mph (290 kph) caused more than an estimated $700 million in damage across Puerto Rico and knocked power out to more than a million people in 2017.
Weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, this storm with winds reaching 180 mph (290 kph) ripped through southwestern Louisiana. It caused more than $11 billion in damage.
The catastrophic storm in 1998 set off mudslides and floods that left more than 11,000 dead, mostly in Honduras and Nicaragua. The hurricane hit the coast of Central America with winds at 180 mph.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025
Associated Press
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Hurricane Melissa to Batter Jamaica as the Island’s Strongest Storm on Record in Almost 2 Centuries
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Hurricane Melissa was set to pummel Jamaica on Tuesday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, the strongest to lash the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago.
The storm was expected to make landfall early Tuesday and slice diagonally across the island, entering near St. Elizabeth parish in the south and exiting around St. Ann parish in the north, forecasters said.
Hours before the storm, the government said it had done all it could to prepare as it warned of catastrophic damage.
“There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. “The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.”
Landslides, fallen trees and numerous power outages were reported ahead of the storm, with officials in Jamaica cautioning that the cleanup and damage assessment would be slow.
A life-threatening storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters) is expected across southern Jamaica, with officials concerned about the impact on some hospitals along the coastline. Health Minister Christopher Tufton said some patients were relocated from the ground floor to the second floor, “and (we) hope that will suffice for any surge that will take place.”
The storm already was blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
Jamaica braces for catastrophic damage
Melissa was centered about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southwest of Kingston and about 330 miles (530 kilometers) southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba. The system had maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 kph) and was moving north-northeast at 2 mph (4 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
“We will get through it together,” said Evan Thompson, principal director at Jamaica’s meteorological service.
Colin Bogle, a Mercy Corps advisor based near Kingston, said most families are sheltering in place despite the government ordering evacuations in flood-prone communities.
“Many have never experienced anything like this before, and the uncertainty is frightening,” he said. “There is profound fear of losing homes and livelihoods, of injury, and of displacement.”
Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s water and environment minister, said he had more than 50 generators available to deploy after the storm, but warned people to set aside clean water and use it sparingly.
“Every drop will count,” he said.
Melissa takes aim at Cuba
Melissa also was expected to make landfall in eastern Cuba late Tuesday as a powerful hurricane.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo and Holguin provinces, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Las Tunas. Up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain were forecast for parts of Cuba, along with a significant storm surge along the coast.
Cuban officials said Monday that they were evacuating more than 600,000 people from the region, including Santiago, the island’s second-largest city.
Melissa also has drenched the southern regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with a tropical storm warning still in effect for Haiti.
The hurricane was forecast to turn northeast after Cuba and strike the southeast Bahamas by Wednesday evening.
A hurricane warning was in effect for the southeastern and central Bahamas, and a tropical storm warning was issued for the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025
Associated Press
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These clips don’t show Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa grew to a Category 5 hurricane Oct. 27 as it neared Jamaica, but videos that social media users claim show the storm making landfall are deceiving — it wasn’t on shore yet when the videos were posted.
An Oct. 26 TikTok video shows footage of intense flooding, wind and property damage, and, occasionally, people screaming in English in the background.
“Hurricane Melissa Category 5 hits Jamaica with 160 mph winds right now,” says text on the video, which had 1.8 million views as of the afternoon of Oct. 27.
Other users on TikTok and Threads also shared the video.
The Associated Press reported that Melissa could be the strongest hurricane Jamaica has experienced in decades. One advisory said the hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour, as the TikTok says, but the footage in the post was taken from previous disaster events.
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Video shows 2018 storm in Maratea, Italy
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The first clip shows high waves topping a safety wall and moving inland, but this footage isn’t from Jamaica. When doing a reverse image search, PolitiFact found the video is from a 2018 storm in the small town of Maratea, Italy. We found a newscast and a report about the storm from the Italian news outlet Potenza News24 City. Getty Images also published the same footage in 2018 about Maratea.
Video showing red vehicles isn’t from Jamaica
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The second clip in the TikTok that shows strong winds and two red vehicles also isn’t from Jamaica. The footage appeared in another misleading video shared in August and supposedly from Cheyenne, Wyoming. However, the earliest version of the clip online is from a June 21 TikTok post that says it was from Hurricane Erick in Ometepec, Mexico.
Video shows storm in Veracruz, Mexico
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The clip where a palm tree falls on a gray SUV wasn’t in Jamaica either. PolitiFact found the same video shared on Facebook in May with a Spanish subtitle saying it was because of a storm in the Universidad Tecnológica del Centro de Veracruz in Veracruz, Mexico. A TikTok user also shared the footage in May, saying it was in the same Veracruz university in Mexico.
Video shows a storm in Oklahoma
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The footage that shows high winds and an SUV getting hit by leaves was originally shared June 5 on Facebook by Mike Morgan, Oklahoma’s News 4’s (KFOR-TV) chief meteorologist. Morgan said this was a “weaker tornado” that hit Garvin County.
Videos shows footage of 2018 Hurricane Michael
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The clip of strong winds and rain blowing through what looks like the entrance to a parking garage is from 2018. Dan Robinson, a storm chaser, filmed the clip during Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida.
Video shows storm in Moncalieri, Italy
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The video that shows high winds hitting a street and a white SUV parked under a roof dates back to an August 2024 Facebook post. The caption says in Italian that it is from a storm in Moncalieri, Italy, according to Google Translate.
Video shows flooded streets in Palermo, Italy
(Screengrab from TikTok post.)
The last clip of cars driving through flooded streets also isn’t from Jamaica. One of the cars has a European Union license plate, and a reverse image search found the footage is from flooded streets in the city of Palermo, Italy, after heavy rains in June. An Italian news report shows the same video.
We rate the claim that this video shows Hurricane Melissa hitting Jamaica on Oct. 26 False.