WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed a new rule to address excessive heat in the workplace, warning — as tens of millions of people in the U.S. are under heat advisories — that high temperatures are the country’s leading weather-related killer.
If finalized, the measure would protect an estimated 36 million U.S. workers from injuries related to heat exposure on the job — establishing the first major federal safety standard of its kind. Those affected by excessive heat in the workplace include farmworkers, delivery and construction workers, landscapers and indoor workers in warehouses, factories and kitchens.
Biden highlighted the proposed rule as one of five steps his Democratic administration is taking to address extreme weather as Hurricane Beryl is already ripping through the Caribbean in an ominous sign for the summer.
Biden used his remarks at the D.C. Emergency Operations Center to blast those Republican lawmakers who deny the existence of climate change, saying, “It’s not only outrageous, it’s really stupid.” Biden noted that there are human and financial costs from climate change, saying that weather-inflicted damage last year cost the economy $90 billion.
“More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined,” Biden said. “These climate fueled extreme weather events don’t just affect people’s lives. They also cost money. They hurt the economy, and they have a significant negative psychological effect on people.”
The Democratic president, who’s seeking reelection in part on his environmental record, said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was also finalizing a rule to factor in possible flooding risks for federal construction projects.
In addition, FEMA was announcing $1 billion in grants to help communities deal with natural disasters, while the Environmental Protection Agency was releasing a new report on climate change’s impacts. Lastly, Biden said his administration would hold a conference titled “White House Summit on Extreme Heat” in the coming months.
Despite increased awareness of the risks posed to human health by high temperatures, extreme heat protections — for those routinely exposed to heat index readings above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) — have lagged.
“The purpose of this rule is simple,” a senior White House administration official told reporters. “It is to significantly reduce the number of worker-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses suffered by workers who are exposed to excessive heat … while simply doing their jobs.”
Under the proposed rule, employers would be required to identify heat hazards, develop emergency response plans related to heat illness, and provide training to employees and supervisors on the signs and symptoms of such illnesses. They would also have to establish rest breaks, provide shade and water, and heat acclimatization — or the building of tolerance to higher temperatures — for new workers.
Penalties for heat-related violations in workplaces would increase significantly, in line with what workplaces are issued for violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, a senior White House administration official said.
An estimated 2,300 people in the U.S. died from heat-related illness in 2023. From 1992 to 2022, a total of 986 workers across all industry sectors in the U.S. died from exposure to heat, with construction accounting for about 34% of all occupational heat-related deaths, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. During that time, 334 construction workers died due to heat exposure on the job.
The Labor Department has been developing a standard for how workplaces deal with heat since 2021. Last year, OSHA held meetings to hear about how the proposed measures could affect small businesses.
The AFL-CIO union federation praised the measure. “If finalized, this new rule would address some of the most basic needs for workers’ health and safety,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
Heat protection laws in the U.S. have faced steady industry opposition, including from chambers of commerce and other business associations. Many say a blanket mandate would be difficult to implement across such a wide range of industries.
California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota and Washington are the only states with workplace standards for heat exposure. Over the past year, Florida and Texas, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, passed legislation preventing local governments from requiring heat protections for outdoor workers.
If finalized, the Biden administration’s rule would override state standards, and states with existing procedures to deal with heat would have to institute measures at least as stringent as the finalized federal rule.
The OSHA plan was announced as the EPA released a new report on climate change indicators in the U.S. The report, last updated in 2012, highlights data showing the continuing and far-reaching impacts of climate change in the U.S. This year’s report adds heat-related workplace deaths and marine heat waves as climate change indicators.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Josh Boak contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Forecast for coastal waters east of Ipswich Bay and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Friday: Northwest winds around 5 knots, becoming southeast in the afternoon. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Wave detail: Southeast 3 feet at 8 seconds. Patchy fog in the morning with visibility 1 to 3 nautical miles.
Friday night: South winds 5 to 10 knots, becoming west after midnight. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Wave detail: southeast 3 feet at 9 seconds and south 1 foot at 2 seconds.
Saturday: West winds around 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Wave detail: Southeast 3 feet at 9 seconds and west 2 feet at 3 seconds.
Saturday night: West winds 10 to 15 knots. Gusts up to 20 knots after midnight. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Wave detail: West 2 feet at 3 seconds and southeast 2 feet at 8 seconds.
Sunday and Sunday night: West winds 10 to 15 knots with gusts up to 20 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Wave detail: Southwest 2 feet at 3 seconds and southeast 2 feet at 8 seconds. A chance of showers.
Monday through Tuesday night: Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet.
TAPACHULA, Mexico — A strong earthquake shook the border of Mexico and Guatemala early Sunday, driving frightened residents into the streets.
The temblor struck just before 6 a.m. near the Mexican border town of Suchiate, where a river by the same name divides the two countries. The epicenter was just off the Pacific coast, 10 miles (16 kilometers) west-southwest of Brisas Barra de Suchiate where the river empties into the sea.
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and a depth of 47 miles (75 kilometers).
In Mexico, there were no immediate reports of damage, but more mountainous, remote parts of the border are prone to landslides.
Across the border Guatemala’s national disaster prevention agency shared photos of small landslides onto highways in the Quetzaltenango region and large cracks in walls in a hospital in San Marcos on its social media accounts, but there were no reports of deaths.
In Tapachula, near the border, civil defense brigades were moving through the city looking for signs of damage.
Didier Solares, an official with Suchiate’s Civil Defense agency, said so far they had not found damage.
“Luckily, everything is good,” Solares said. “We are talking with companies, to the (rural areas) via radio and there’s nothing, there’s no damage thank God,” he said.
The early morning quake still gave people a fright.
In the mountainous and picturesque colonial city of San Cristobal, the shaking was strong.
“Here we got up because we have the seismic alert service,” said resident Joaquin Morales. “The alert woke me up because it comes 30 seconds before (the quake).”
In Tuxtla Chico, a town near Tapachula, María Guzmán, a teacher said: “It was horrible, it felt strong. It was a real scare.”
Coloradans looking to buy homes or simply hold onto their property face a barrage of challenges: a white-hot real estate market, high interest rates and soaring property taxes. You can add surging home insurance rates to the pile of problems eroding the landscape of affordable housing options.
Colorado homeowners are reporting premium increases ranging from roughly 30% to more than 130% in just the past few years. People are getting the bad news that their policies won’t be renewed. Some insurance companies are deciding not to write new policies to cut their risks.
And condo owners are getting hit with special assessments and higher dues because premiums are skyrocketing for homeowners associations. The groups must often resort to non-standard carriers, which typically charge sky-high rates for lesser coverage.
“We truly have the hardest market that we’ve seen in a generation for property insurance,” said Carole Walker, executive director of the trade organization Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.
Colorado’s not alone. Inflation, higher home costs and the rising number and severity of natural disasters and wildfires are pushing up insurance costs. The average premium rate increase nationwide in 2023 was 11.3%, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
But Colorado’s recent increases stand out. The state was one of three with the biggest cumulative change in rates 2018-2023. Colorado logged a 57.9% jump, just behind Texas at 59.9%. Arizona saw a 52.9% increase.
A convergence of factors is driving the run-up in costs, Walker said. Higher inflation is one of those. “You have everything that insurance pays for going up in cost.”
Building materials are more expensive. Labor costs are up and labor shortages create delays and add to the expense. Walker said insurance-related lawsuits also help push up premiums.
An even larger force is the fallout from increasingly costly wildfires, hail storms and other disasters. Insurance companies doing business in Colorado reported the fourth-highest losses in the country for five years, according to data compiled for a 2023 report by the Colorado Division of Insurance.
“I hate to say it, but we all likely need to adjust to higher premiums over the long term,” Walker said.
The effects of the mounting risks are being felt by a lesser known, but crucial link in the chain that connects to homeowners: the reinsurance market. Reinsurers are typically large, global companies that provide insurance to insurance companies to help spread the risk.
“The international impact of climate change, of increasing climate disasters, the severity of those disasters is causing reinsurers to consider their risk, reduce their exposure or increase their premiums,” said Vince Plymell, spokesman for the insurance division.
As a result, the effects of hurricanes and earthquakes in other parts of the country or world can eventually show up in a Colorado homeowner’s insurance bill, said Jason Lapham, the state’s deputy commissioner for property and casualty insurance.
Closer to home are the growing risks of wildfire and hail storms. Colorado is second in the nation for hail-damage claims and second only to California for the number of homes at risk from wildfires. Colorado hasn’t seen the kind of wide scale refusal of companies to write new policies that California has, but Lapham said there is a trend of some companies not re-upping policies in areas prone to wildfires or other disasters or taking “a pause” on new clients.
“It doesn’t mean they’re leaving the state entirely, but for those people who are affected, the effect is the same,” Lapham said.
State officials don’t have a lot of insight into the modeling used by companies to decide which areas are too risky to insure, Lapham said. “We’re focused on getting a better understanding and creating transparency, not just for us but also for policy holders.”
Levi Ware, project manager from Red Hawk Roofing company from Denver, takes pictures of a roof damaged by large hail and a tornado along Chesapeake Street in Highlands Ranch on June 23, 2023. A rare tornado hit the Highlands Ranch area Thursday afternoon causing damage to roofs and uprooting large trees. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
What’s worse than rising premiums?
There were plenty of insurance options for Bryan Watts and his wife when they bought a house in Guffey in Park County, west of Cripple Creek. The premium was about $2,000 in 2019 and rose gradually to $2,522 for the 2023-2024 policy year.
“Things changed dramatically in August 2023 when we received a notice of non-renewal at the policy maturity of June 2024,” Watts said. “I called them and was told it was simply due to wildfire risk.”
Watts tried to reason with the company, saying he had done a lot of work to reduce threats from wildfire. He offered to send pictures of his home or show an inspector around his property. But the insurer told him that it wasn’t going to cover homes in his zip code.
“I thought, ‘Well, no big deal. I’ll just move to another carrier,’” Watts said. “I had no idea how bad it had gotten just in the last year or two.”
A broker Watts worked with found only nonstandard insurers willing to cover his home. The insurers might take on customers that more traditional companies consider too risky, but the coverage comes at a high price. In Watts’ case, the quote was for nearly $35,000.
After making calls on his own, Watts found one of the big-name companies willing to write a policy for $4,800. A hang-up for companies that turned him down was that the nearest fire station is about 16 miles from his home. “They’re looking for substations that are 10 miles or closer,” Watts said.
Like a lot of people, Watts has a mortgage on his house, which means he needs to carry insurance. “There are going to be very few people who are able to live out here without a mortgage,” he said.
Escalating home insurance premiums and companies scaling back coverage are creating angst in the real estate industry. Brian Tanner, vice president of public policy for the Colorado Association of Realtors, said agents are seeing properties lose coverage or unable to find insurance.
“All of this together is incredibly problematic for a market that we already know is strained. We need more available units,” Tanner said. “If we have existing residences that cannot secure insurance, that is absolutely a market disruptor.”
Real estate agents are scrambling to help clients to find coverage, Tanner said. He is concerned about rising rates on people on fixed incomes.
The state is creating an insurer of last resort, officially called the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, which will be paid for by assessments on the insurance industry. But it won’t be up and running until 2025 and applicants must have been turned down by at least three carriers.
Walker said the goal is to relieve pressure on the standard carriers by shifting some of the high risks, which the industry hopes will stabilize the market.
“Everybody I talk to is talking about the property insurance issue,” said Sarah Thorsteinson, CEO of the Altitude Realtors association, which includes Summit and Routt counties.
Real estate agents working in mountain communities started looking at the effect of wildfire risks on home insurance rates around 2012. That’s when the association started education and fire-mitigation programs for members and the public to head off possible mandates it worried could increase costs for buyers and sellers.
Thorsteinson represents property owners as a non-voting member of the Colorado Fire Commission. She said the association’s biggest concern with rising insurance premiums is housing affordability.
The ongoing struggle by homeowners associations, HOAs, to secure insurance has grown tougher, Thorsteinson said. She has heard of HOA dues doubling and tripling for condo owners in her area after insurance premiums shot up.
“We’ve seen increases of 100% or more for HOA policies,” said Lapham with the state insurance division.
Even before the recent rate increases, it was common for HOAs to have to seek providers in the non-standard market, also called the surplus lines market. “My guess is that it’s more common now than it has been simply because of the tightening of the market generally,” Lapham said.
Many of the more well-known insurers have gotten out of the condo business, Walker said, leaving the nonstandard carriers, whose policies are more expensive and have higher deductibles.
The more traditional insurers exited in part because of fears around construction-related lawsuits by HOAs. A 2017 law that requires a majority of homeowners to approve pursuing a lawsuit rather than just the HOA board has done little to coax insurers to write policies for condo buildings.
In some cases, HOA boards, trying to avoid raising dues, have put off infrastructure improvements and maintenance, making insurers nervous about the liabilities, Walker said.
The Hiland Hills Townhomes HOA was able to line up a new insurer in 2023, but had to budget for a 30% increase in premiums. Dues went up from $336 a month to $460 per unit.
“The coverage decreased overall. This year we’re budgeting for another 15% increase,” said Dmitry Gall, the HOA board president at the Denver complex.
The HOA was able to shuffle some items in the policy to hold down the increase. Gall said the association is cutting back in other areas to help pay the premium.
The HOA where Jon Christianson has a rental unit saw its insurance premium leap from the $167,000 budgeted last year to nearly $607,000. His fees doubled, “with a special assessment coming,” he said.
A letter from the HOA board that Christianson shared with The Denver Post said the previous insurance carrier got out of the Colorado market. Several companies declined to offer bids on a new policy because of the height and age of the three buildings in the complex and the fire suppression system.
Then the insurance for Christianson’s primary residence rose by 40%.
“I’ve never filed a claim. I’ve been with same insurance company for five years,” Christianson said. “This is becoming unsustainable.”
Carole Walker, the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association, stands for a photo outside the residential building where she lives in Denver on May 7, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
A marathon, not a sprint
The Marshall fire, which killed two people and destroyed 1,084 homes and businesses, receives a lot of the blame for Colorado’s escalating home insurance rates. The Dec. 30, 2021, wildfire raged through Louisville, Superior and parts of unincorporated Boulder County, leaving more than $2 billion in property damage in its wake.
Walker said although the Marshall fire was a devastating event, the reasons for rising rates are more complex. For instance, more people are moving into areas along the Front Range that frequently get battered by hail. Walker said Colorado’s most expensive hail storm hit in May 2017, wreaking $2.7 billion in damage in today’s dollars.
But for Alan McDaniel, who has an insurance agency in Castle Rock, the threat of wildfire is the primary obstacle when looking for ways to get a handle on rising insurance costs.
“I’m lucky enough that the carrier I mostly use, Farmers Insurance, isn’t not renewing policies, but others are,” McDaniel said.
He has worked with homeowners around Larkspur and other areas deemed too risky for wildfires by some insurers. “You have to fill out a fire-mitigation plan, take pictures and prove to my underwriter that it’s worth taking on because they’ve done all the steps they need to do,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel and other insurance agents have met with fire agencies to learn more about reducing wildfire risks and programs like Firewise, a national program overseen by the state forest service in Colorado. A goal is to lower homeowners’ premiums by making changes.
“In light of the Marshall fire, we did get inquiries from some homeowners and associations that were facing increased premiums as well as potentially losing coverage,” said Bart Chambers, the fire marshal for the Castle Rock Fire and Rescue Department.
Chambers has met with insurance agents to help them understand the steps needed to better protect homes and businesses. The fire department collaborates with town planners on decreasing wildfire threats and hopes to increase the number of certified Firewise neighborhoods in Castle Rock.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Chambers said. “It needs to be maintained and followed through continuously.”
Chambers spent 30 years with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“We saw that on the front end there and we’re seeing it nationally now 20 years later, not only with wildfires but also with natural disasters,” Chambers said. “In Colorado, we can look at other people’s losses and make it better locally.”
A powerful solar storm put on an amazing skyward light show across the globe overnight but has caused what appeared to be only minor disruptions to the electric power grid, communications and satellite positioning systems.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said extreme geomagnetic storm conditions continued Saturday, and there were preliminary reports of power grid irregularities, degradation of high-frequency communications and global positioning systems.
But the Federal Emergency Management Agency said that as of early Saturday morning, no FEMA region had reported any significant impact from the storms.
NOAA predicted that strong flares will continue through at least Sunday, and a spokeswoman said in an email that the agency’s Space Weather Prediction Center had prepared well for the storm.
On Saturday morning, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service said on its website that service had been degraded and its team was investigating. CEO Elon Musk wrote on X overnight that its satellites were “under a lot of pressure, but holding up so far.”
Brilliant purple, green, yellow and pink hues of the Northern Lights were reported worldwide, with sightings in Germany, Switzerland, London, Prague, Barcelona and elsewhere.
In the U.S., Friday’s night’s solar storm pushed the lights much further south than normal. People in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and other Midwestern states were able to capture photos of colors along the horizon.
NOAA said the solar storm will persist throughout the weekend, offering another chance for many to catch the Northern Lights on Saturday night.
The agency issued a rare severe geomagnetic storm warning when a solar outburst reached Earth on Friday afternoon, hours sooner than anticipated.
NOAA alerted operators of power plants and spacecraft in orbit, as well as FEMA, to take precautions.
“For most people here on planet Earth, they won’t have to do anything,” said Rob Steenburgh, a scientist with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
“That’s really the gift from space weather: the aurora,” Steenburgh said. He and his colleagues said the best aurora views may come from phone cameras, which are better at capturing light than the naked eye.
Snap a picture of the sky and “there might be actually a nice little treat there for you,” said Mike Bettwy, operations chief for the prediction center.
The most intense solar storm in recorded history, in 1859, prompted auroras in central America and possibly even Hawaii.
This storm poses a risk for high-voltage transmission lines for power grids, not the electrical lines ordinarily found in people’s homes, NOAA space weather forecaster Shawn Dahl told reporters. Satellites also could be affected, which in turn could disrupt navigation and communication services here on Earth.
An extreme geomagnetic storm in 2003, for example, took out power in Sweden and damaged power transformers in South Africa.
Even when the storm is over, signals between GPS satellites and ground receivers could be scrambled or lost, according to NOAA. But there are so many navigation satellites that any outages should not last long, Steenburgh noted.
The sun has produced strong solar flares since Wednesday, resulting in at least seven outbursts of plasma. Each eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection, can contain billions of tons of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
The flares seem to be associated with a sunspot that’s 16 times the diameter of Earth, NOAA said. It is all part of the solar activity ramping up as the sun approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle.
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Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida, while Krisher reported from Detroit and Funk from Omaha, Nebraska.
A preliminary 79 tornadoes were reported Friday across six states, most occurring in Nebraska and Iowa, where homes were leveled and buildings collapsed.
Omaha, Nebraska, Mayor Jean Stothert said in a Facebook post early Saturday that no deaths had been reported and there were a few minor injuries after a destructive tornado moved through rural farmland before hitting the suburbs.
Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci said hundreds of homes were damaged, mostly in the Elkhorn area in the western part of the city.
“You definitely see the path of the tornado,” Bonacci said.
Police and firefighters went door-to-door to help residents and to search areas where people could be trapped, Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman said.
“We’ll be looking throughout properties in debris piles, we’ll be looking in basements, trying to find any victims and make sure everybody is rescued who needs assistance,” Bossman said.
Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn, told The Associated Press, that he and his wife took shelter but could hear the tornado “coming through.”
“When we came up, our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood’s gone,” he said.
His wife, Kim Woods, said the neighborhood to the north of them was “pretty flattened.”
Two women help carry a friend’s belongings out of their damaged home after a tornado passed through the area in Bennington, Neb., on Friday.Josh Funk / AP
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declared a disaster emergency for Pottawattamie County after video posted on social media showed parts of Minden, about 30 miles northeast of Omaha, Nebraska, completely flattened.
Jeff Theulen, the chief deputy of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, said at a Friday evening news conference that 40 or 50 homes were “completely destroyed.” There have been two reports of injuries, one “fairly severe but not life-threatening,” he told reporters.
“It’s a very dangerous right now. We’ve shut off entrance to the city except for the people that live here,” he said, noting that “50% of the town is damaged badly and then there’s light damage everywhere else.”
In nearby Shelby County about 40 homes were damaged, said county emergency coordinator Alex Londo. Officials were assessing the destruction, he said, noting there have been no reports of fatalities.
There were also more than 30 damaging wind reports and 60 hail reports Friday afternoon and overnight. National Weather Service offices are surveying the damage ahead of more severe weather expected Saturday.
More than 30 million people in Oklahoma City; Dallas; Wichita, Kansas; Omaha; Milwaukee; and Madison, Wisconsin, are in the path of severe weather.
Northwestern Texas and western Oklahoma are under tornado watches for Saturday, according to The National Weather Service.
“Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms are expected over parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and North Texas today into tonight,” the agency’s Storm Prediction Center said in a Facebook post. “Strong, potentially long-track tornadoes, very large hail, and damaging winds are likely.”
Circumstantial evidence points to climate change as worsening the deadly deluge that just flooded Dubai and other parts of the Persian Gulf, but scientists didn’t discover the definitive fingerprints of greenhouse gas-triggered warming they have seen in other extreme weather events, a new report found.
Between 10% and 40% more rain fell in just one day last week — killing at least two dozen people in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and parts of Saudi Arabia — than it would have in a world without the 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warming that has come from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas since the mid-19th century, scientists at World Weather Attribution said Thursday in a flash study that is too new to be peer-reviewed.
In at least one spot, a record 11 inches (28.6 centimeters) of rain fell in just 24 hours, more than twice the yearly average, paralyzing the usually bustling city of skyscrapers in a desert.
One of the key tools in WWA’s more than 60 past reports has been creating computer simulations that compare an actual weather event to a fictional world without climate change, but in the Dubai case there wasn’t enough data for those simulations to make such a calculation. But analysis of decades of past observations, the other main tool they use, showed the 10% to 40% bump in rainfall amounts.
Even without computer simulations, the clues kept pointing at climate change, scientists said.
“It’s not such a clear fingerprint, but we have lots of other circumstantial evidence, other lines of evidence that tell us that we see this increase,” said Imperial College of London climate scientist Friederike Otto, who coordinates the attribution study team. “It’s what we expect from physics. It’s what we expect from other studies that have been done in the area, from other studies around the world, and there’s nothing else that’s going on that could explain this increase.”
There is a long-known effect in physics that finds the air holds 7% more moisture with every degree Celsius (4% for every degree Fahrenheit).
Otto said she has confidence in the conclusion, but said this was one of the harder attribution studies the team has undertaken.
El Nino, which is a natural occasional warming of the central Pacific that changes weather systems worldwide, was a big factor, the report said. These heavy Gulf downpours have happened in the past but only during an El Nino. And the researchers said those past deluges seem to be trending heavier — something scientists have long said would happen in many parts of the world as the world warms.
This flooding, which came from two separate and near simultaneous storm systems, would not have happened without El Nino, said study co-author Mansour Almazroui of the Center of Excellence for Climate Change Research (CECCR), King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. Nor would it have been like this without human-caused climate change, Otto added.
Because rainfall amounts varied over the region and the lack of data, the report couldn’t put a figure on if climate change had increased the likelihood of downpours like this in Dubai, but Otto estimated that it’s probably about three times more likely to happen now than in pre-industrial times.
The report and its authors threw cold water on speculation that UAE cloud seeding had anything to do with the amount of rain or its likelihood. Many scientists dispute cloud seeding’s effectiveness in general. Even so, the clouds in the storm system were not seeded, the report said. And the results of cloud seeding, if any, in general are more immediate, Otto said. And this storm was forecast days in advance.
“This type of rainfall never comes from cloud seeding,” Almazroui said in a Thursday news conference.
While the authors use well-established techniques and this is what scientists expect with climate change, when there’s a disagreement between computer simulations and observations, conclusions shouldn’t be drawn, said University of Victoria, Canada, climate scientist Andrew Weaver, who wasn’t part of the research.
It’s a strong enough case that greenhouse gas emissions are a factor, several other outside scientists said.
University of Melbourne, Australia, climate scientist Malte Meinshausen called Thursday’s study “a well-balanced, impressively detailed and adequately cautious assessment.”
“This work, when combined with theory and attribution studies associated with the increasingly frequent other extreme rain and flooding events around the world, makes the convincing case that climate warming supercharged the recent extreme rainfall and flooding event UAE and Oman,” said climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan’s environment school. “This is what global warming increasingly looks like — more severe climate extremes and human suffering.”
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Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
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Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, experienced record-breaking rainfall and flooding last week. But some videos online falsely claimed to show the deluge.
Text on an Instagram video shared April 17 read, “Dubai city today, tornado storm everywhere.” The video included four different clips showing extreme weather events.
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The first clip showed a large tornado near a beach. We found the same video posted on TikTok in January, with claims the footage was from Florida. The TikTok footage looks as if it could be generated by artificial intelligence, and it differs from footage of the tornado from a local news outlet. More importantly, the TikTok footage was posted online Jan. 5, and the Florida tornadoes occurred Jan. 8 and 9.
The next clip shows heavy clouds covering tall buildings. The same clip was also posted on YouTube on Nov. 3, 2023, saying it showed weather in Bahrain. Other TikTokandYouTube posts claim the footage came from Dubai in November. The United Arab Emirates did have heavy rain that led to flights being canceled in November 2023, but we could not confirm whether this footage shows that.
(Screenshot from Instagram)
The third clip shows a group of people taking cover from wind and rain. That video was first posted July 25, 2023, by China Central Television, China’s national television broadcaster. Its caption says it shows a storm hitting the Taihang Mountain Grand Canyon in Changzhi, Shanxi, on July 24, 2023.
(Screenshot from Instagram)
The final clip, showing heavy rains over a busy road with large buildings, first appeared in a TikTok from Nov. 21, 2023.
We rate the claim that a video compilation shows a tornado and storms in Dubai on April 17 False.
Follow the storm tracker for the path and forecasts of the latest storm.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The areas covered include the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
The National Weather Service defines a hurricane as a “tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph (64 knots) or higher.”
Hurricanes are rated according to intensity of sustained winds on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The 1-5 scale estimates potential property damage.
A Category 3 or higher is considered a major hurricane.
The National Hurricane Center advises preparedness:
• A hurricane watch indicates the possibility that a region could experience hurricane conditions within 48 hours.
• A hurricane warning indicates that sustained winds of at least 74 mph are expected within 36 hours.
April 4, 2024 – The Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project team predicts an “extremely active” Atlantic hurricane season. The team forecasts 23 named storms, including 11 hurricanes, five of which will be major hurricanes.
Nine individuals lost their lives and over 800 were injured in a devastating earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday, which also caused significant damage to numerous buildings. This event led to tsunami alerts being issued across Japan and the Philippines, though these were later retracted.
Authorities have described this earthquake as the most severe to impact the island in many years, with expectations of further seismic activity to follow.
Thanks to rigorous construction standards and a general awareness of disaster preparedness, a greater disaster was likely averted on the island, which is prone to seismic events due to its location near the convergence of two tectonic plates.
This quake, with a magnitude of 7.4, is noted as the most significant since a 7.6 magnitude quake in September 1999, which resulted in approximately 2,400 fatalities, marking it as the most tragic natural disaster in the island’s recent history.
The quake struck just before 8:00 am local time (0000 GMT), with the US Geological Survey (USGS) identifying the epicenter 18 kilometers south of Hualien City, at a depth of 34.8 kilometers.
Among the casualties were three hikers, part of a group of seven, who were fatally struck by falling rocks during an early morning trek in the surrounding hills of the city. Additionally, falling rocks caused the deaths of the drivers of a truck and a car, and one individual perished at a mining site.
While specific details on the other three fatalities were not immediately provided, the National Fire Agency confirmed that all deaths occurred in Hualien county and reported 882 injuries, without detailing their severity.
Footage and images circulating on social media depicted the country’s buildings swaying during the quake.
“There was intense shaking; things were falling off the walls, my TV, and my liquor cabinet,”
Local television displayed images of buildings in Hualien and other locations leaning post-quake, and footage of a warehouse in New Taipei City collapsing.
More than 50 individuals were rescued from the debris of the collapsed structure, as reported by the mayor of the city.
Efforts were underway to clear debris and rocks blocking the primary route to Hualien, a coastal city encircled by mountains, which had been isolated due to landslides.
With the main access roads running through a series of robust tunnels, officials estimated up to 120 individuals could be trapped in vehicles within these tunnels.
“We need to ascertain the number of individuals trapped and ensure their swift rescue.”
Stated Lai Ching-te, the president-elect and current Vice-President, in Hualien.
Efforts were also being made to restore the primary railway line along the east coast, which had been disrupted in several locations.
President Tsai Ing-wen urged for collaboration between local and central government agencies and announced military support.
Regional Impact
Following the earthquake, tsunami warnings were issued in Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines but were withdrawn by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center by 10 am (0200 GMT), stating the threat had largely subsided.
In Taipei, the metro service was temporarily suspended but resumed after an hour, and residents received advisories to check for gas leaks.
Situated near the junction of two tectonic plates, Taiwan frequently experiences earthquakes, as does Japan, which records about 1,500 seismic events annually.
In China’s Fujian province and elsewhere, social media users reported feeling the quake’s tremors.
Hong Kong residents also felt the earthquake, with China expressing readiness to offer disaster relief to Taiwan, which it views as a part of its territory.
Operations at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the leading chip manufacturer globally, were momentarily disrupted, and construction activities at new sites were paused for the day.
While the region often experiences mild quakes, their impact varies based on the depth and location of the epicenter beneath the Earth’s surface.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s governor has declared a state of emergency in 11 counties across central Ohio struck by severe weather last week.
Gov. Mike DeWine also activated the Ohio National Guard to help officials in one county, Logan County, where three deaths were confirmed, with the cleanup of storm debris on public property. DeWine announced the emergency declaration Sunday.
The declaration also covers Auglaize, Crawford, Darke, Delaware, Hancock, Licking, Mercer, Miami, Richland and Union counties. It orders all relevant state departments and agencies to lend their services, equipment, supplies, and personnel to aid in response and recovery efforts, the governor’s office said.
Thursday night’s storms claimed three lives in the Indian Lake area of Logan County, one of the hardest-hit regions.
The storms also left trails of destruction across parts of Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas. About 40 people were injured and dozens of homes were damaged in one Indiana community. Tornadoes were also reported in Illinois and Missouri.
The National Weather Service confirmed nine tornados in Ohio, including an EF-3 tornado that began in southern Auglaize County near Fryburg and continued through the Lakeview area in northern Logan County. Forecasters say EF-3 tornados can pack winds up to 136 to 165 mph (219 to 266 kph).
EF-2 tornados – which forecasters say can have winds up to 111 to 135 mph (179 to 218 kph) — were confirmed in central Union County and in Darke and Miami counties as well as in Crawford/Richland counties.
As Floridians continue to grapple with a state property insurance crisis, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has warned that the state-backed insurer of last resort for disaster damage is insolvent.
This squeeze has pushed more homeowners to explore insuring with Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which holds about 1.2 million policies. The company is considered the “insurer of last resort” because it offers policies to customers who are seen as high risks because their properties are particularly vulnerable to damage, making them unattractive to conventional insurers.
Insurers of last resort do not have to agree to cover properties they consider too risky, and they may require potential policyholders to adhere to certain conditions for protecting a property before offering a policy.
During the legislative session, DeSantis touted efforts to improve Florida’s insurance market, saying new companies have entered the state.
On Feb. 27 on CNBC’s “Last Call,” DeSantis said the companies that recently entered the Florida market “have taken out hundreds of thousands of policies from this Citizens Property Insurance, which was created decades ago.
“It is not solvent,” DeSantis said of Citizens, “and we can’t have millions of people on that because if a storm hits, it’s going to cause problems for the state.”
DeSantis has repeated the claim several times over the last year — catching Washington, D.C.’s attention. In a Nov. 30 letter to Florida officials and Citizens, U.S. Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said his committee began investigating Citizens’ finances “in light of the state’s acknowledgment of Citizens’ potential insolvency.” Whitehouse outlined concerning implications for the Florida insurance market, state taxpayers and the potential of a federal bailout.
However, the company’s financial data undermines DeSantis’ use of “not solvent.” Financial experts said that term is inaccurate for the situation.
Citizens’ latest financial report, from December 2023, shows that the insurer had a $5 billion surplus at the end of 2023. The company expects a $6.3 billion surplus by the end of 2024. (A surplus is the amount of money or resources an organization has that is not immediately being used to pay expenses.)
Additional state funding, and the company’s ability to draw funds from Florida taxpayers in a pinch, brings the insurer’s total reserves to about $17.8 billion, according to the report.
Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary, told PolitiFact that Citizens was never meant to accommodate as many policies as it currently does, and, therefore, “at its current growth rate, Governor DeSantis is correct.”
But this is not what “insolvency” means — it means that an entity can no longer meet its financial obligations today. Citizens could be considered insolvent if its debts exceeded the value of its assets, economics experts said.
If the company can now pay out claims and other expenses it isn’t insolvent. This remains true even if Citizens had to offload its expenses onto policyholders, which is allowed by Florida law, but would likely be unpopular.
“Citizens has the capacity to levy surcharges on property insurance policies,” said Hakan Yilmazkuday, an economics professor at Florida International University. “In other words, Citizens can never be ‘insolvent’ in technical terms.”
Redfern acknowledged that Citizens can’t run out of money to pay claims.
“Citizens is structured so that it will always be able to protect its policyholders and pay claims,” Redfern said. “But this comes at the expense of all Florida insurance policy holders.” These charges can be levied on nearly every type of property and casualty policy in Florida, including homeowner, renter, auto, boat and pet insurance policies.
Citizens CEO Timothy Cerio made a point similar to Redfern’s in a Dec. 15 reply to Whitehouse, writing the senator’s concern about insolvency showed “a fundamental misunderstanding” of how the company operates and its ability to pay claims.
He told PolitiFact in an email that DeSantis has been “consistent and clear” in his concern that, if there were a major storm or series of storms and Citizens exhausted its surplus and reinsurance, Florida law would require the company to levy an emergency charges on state policyholders — “83% of whom are not even Citizens’ customers.”
“Although Citizens’ assessment authority means that it will always be able to pay claims. Citizens’ rates are currently actuarially unsound,” Cerio wrote. “It is critical that Citizens be able to charge actuarially sound rates to help minimize the risk of such assessments on the people of Florida.” (Citizens said “actuarially unsound” means charging rates that inadequately cover potential losses.)
Cerio further explained to Politico’s E&E News that the company’s premiums are 55% below their actuarially sound level and, in some areas, 40% below rates charged by insurance companies. The Insurance Information Institute verified the data with PolitiFact.
With a major storm, Citizens may not have enough resources to pay its customers. It would then need to rely on financial assistance from the state, and that would mean a hit to Florida taxpayers.
“If certain property insurance policies are transferred to multiple private policy companies, the stress on each company would be easier to handle … without any impact on the Florida State budget,” Yilmazkuday said.
Still, he said that DeSantis inaccurately defined Citizens’ fiscal position in the CNBC interview. DeSantis could have described Citizens as financially stressed, financially vulnerable, under financial strain, or a state budget risk, Yilmazkuday said.
Efforts to shift policies from Citizens to other insurers have led to some small results. The number of Citizens’ policies declined from 1.4 million in September to about 1.2 million in January. That’s still about three times more Citizens policies than the company had in 2019.
Our ruling
DeSantis said that Citizens Property Insurance is “not solvent.”
Insolvency means a company cannot pay its bills today. That’s not so with Citizens, which has a $5 billion surplus and expects a surplus of more than $6 billion by the end of 2024.
Citizens faces significant financial challenges and must worry about one or more massive storms pressuring those surpluses. If that happens, the company can rely on backstopping from taxpayers under state law. That would be unpopular, but is different from insolvency.
DENVER — A major storm dumped heavy snow in Colorado on Thursday – forcing flight cancellations and shutting down a highway that connects Denver to Colorado ski resorts.
“Our city hasn’t seen a storm like this in a few years,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston posted Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The storm, which began Wednesday night, delivered the slushy, wet snow typical for March, one of the snowiest months in Denver, and wasn’t expected to wind down until Friday morning. The heaviest snow accumulations were expected in Colorado’s Front Range region, where the vast majority of the state’s population lives, with most falling in the foothills and mountains west of Denver. Those higher elevations were expected to get 18 to 36 inches (45 to 91 centimeters), and some amounts exceeding 4 feet (1.2 meters), the National Weather Service said.
Major sections of Interstate 70 were closed in the Colorado mountains, with numerous reports of vehicles stranded on the highway for hours. While a boon to Colorado’s ski industry, the extreme conditions shut down at least one ski resort.
“Stay home !! Troopers are getting stuck trying to get to all the stranded motorists,” the Colorado State Patrol posted on X.
Aspen Springs, in the foothills west of Denver, had more than 3 feet (about 1 meter) of snow as of Thursday morning.
The storm started as rain in the Denver area and turned into snow. The area was expected to get 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of snow, with up to 2 feet (60 centimeters) in the western suburbs, the weather service said. The snow eased up in the morning but was expected to get heavier again in the afternoon and evening.
Denver deployed 36 residential plows starting at 3 a.m. Thursday with the plan to shave the top few inches of snow off streets, to help clear paths to main streets.
Denver International Airport was open early Thursday, but about 800 flights were canceled and others were delayed, according to Flightaware.com.
The snowstorm comes as other parts of the country face severe weather. Massive chunks of hail pelted parts of Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday night, with storms unleashing possible tornadoes in Kansas.
After wildfires broke out in Texas, the largest in the state’s history, a familiar conspiracy theory began circulating online: Social media users are claiming the blaze was set intentionally using “directed energy weapons.”
A March 3 Instagram post shared side-by-side videos of a purported “directed energy weapon” attack and the Texas wildfires. The video on the left showed what appeared to be a flash of lightning with a green laser beaming down behind a house at night. The video on the right showed a Texas landscape covered in smoke and fire.
The video’s text says, “Could these two events be related?”
(Screengrab from Instagram)
Other Instagramposts also shared the green laser video and suggested it was related to the Texas wildfires.
One post’s caption read, “If this is actual footage … we’re looking at yet ANOTHER intentionally set fire courtesy of DEWS (directed energy weapons) and our lovely (government).”
Some X postsshared a clip of President Joe Biden discussing the Texas wildfires and claimed he said directed energy weapons were involved. We previously fact-checked social media posts that took this clip of Biden out of context. The president was discussing the need for buildings to be up to code to better withstand wildfires.
These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
In the week since fires broke out across the Texas Panhandle, more than 1 million acres of land have burned, and at least two people have been killed. The fires have also killed thousands of livestock animals, scorched fields of crops and destroyed hundreds of buildings.
Directed energy weapons are real and fire concentrated electromagnetic energy at light speed. Such weapons include high-energy lasers, high-power microwaves and radio frequency devices. The United States and other countries are researching using directed-energy weapons for military purposes, but there is no evidence they were used to ignite the Texas wildfires.
Authorities are still investigating how the Smokehouse Creek fire, which still burns, started. A Texas homeowner sued a utility company, blaming a downed power line, but officials have not determined a link. Hot weather, dry land and high winds have fueled the fire’s spread.
The green laser beam video predates these Texas fires. Reverse-image searches using Google Images found this video was shared online as early as Dec. 31, 2023. The account that appears to have first shared it is known for videos that claim to show paranormal or extraterrestrial activity.
Last year, social media users alsoclaimed thatdirected energy weapons ignited fires that devastated Maui, Hawaii. There have been similar claims about fires in Canada and Russia. But all these claims are unfounded.
We rate the claim that the Texas wildfires were started by directed energy weapons False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
After the recent wildfires in Texas, social media users resurfaced a conspiracy theory that blue structures are immune to flames. This time, they’re claiming President Joe Biden knows about this, too.
A Feb. 29 Instagram post shared a clip of Biden speaking at the U.S.-Mexico border. In the video, Biden said, “If you fly over these areas that are burned to the ground, you’ll see in the midst of 20 homes that are just totally destroyed, one home sitting there because it had the right roof on it.”
Text on the video read, “Remember the blue roofs during the Lahaina fires? Biden just seemed to confirm our suspicions.”
(Screengrab from Instagram)
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The wildfire that broke out across the Texas Panhandle is the largest fire in the state’s history, engulfing more than 1 million acres of land and killing at least two people. Hot weather, dry land and high winds fueled the fire’s spread. Authorities are still investigating how the fire started.
The Instagram post takes Biden’s remarks out of context. In a longer clip, Biden talked about climate change and rebuilding after disaster strikes.
“My administration is going to keep building on the progress we’ve made fighting the climate crisis, and we’re going to keep (helping) folks rebuild themselves in the wake of these disasters. And we rebuild to the standards that are up-to-date standards and building codes and the rest,” Biden said.
The president was saying some roofs were intact because the structures were up to code, not because they were blue.
The combined total of confirmed deaths and missing is more than 22,000 (nearly 20,000 deaths and 2,500 missing). Deaths were caused by the initial earthquake and tsunami and by post-disaster health conditions.
At the time of the earthquake, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors, with two under construction, and 17 power plants, which produced about 30% of Japan’s electricity (IAEA 2011).
Material damage from the earthquake and tsunami is estimated at about 25 trillion yen ($300 billion).
There are six reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, located about 65 km (40 miles) south of Sendai.
A microsievert (mSv) is an internationally recognized unit measuring radiation dosage. People are typically exposed to a total of about 1,000 microsieverts in one year.
The Japanese government estimated that the tsunami swept about five million tons of debris offshore, but that 70% sank, leaving 1.5 million tons floating in the Pacific Ocean. The debris was not considered to be radioactive.
March 11, 2011 – At 2:46 p.m., an 8.9 magnitude earthquake takes place 231 miles northeast of Tokyo. (8.9 = original recorded magnitude; later upgraded to 9.0, then 9.1.) – The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues a tsunami warning for the Pacific Ocean from Japan to the US. About an hour after the quake, waves up to 30 feet high hit the Japanese coast, sweeping away vehicles, causing buildings to collapse, and severing roads and highways. – The Japanese government declares a state of emergency for the nuclear power plant near Sendai, 180 miles from Tokyo. Sixty to seventy thousand people living nearby are ordered to evacuate to shelters.
March 12, 2011 – Overnight, a 6.2 magnitude aftershock hits the Nagano and Niigata prefectures (USGS). – At 5:00 a.m., a nuclear emergency is declared at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Officials report the earthquake and tsunami have cut off the plant’s electrical power, and that backup generators have been disabled by the tsunami. – Another aftershock hits the west coast of Honshu – 6.3 magnitude. (5:56 a.m.) – The Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency announces that radiation near the plant’s main gate is more than eight times the normal level. – Cooling systems at three of the four units at the Fukushima Daini plant fail prompting state of emergency declarations there. – At least six million homes – 10% of Japan’s households – are without electricity, and a million are without water. – The US Geological Survey says the quake appears to have moved Honshu, Japan’s main island, by eight feet and has shifted the earth on its axis. – About 9,500 people – half the town’s population – are reported to be unaccounted for in Minamisanriku on Japan’s Pacific coast.
March 13, 2011 – People living within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the Fukushima Daini and 20 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi power plants begin a government-ordered evacuation. The total evacuated so far is about 185,000. – 50,000 Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel, 190 aircraft and 25 ships are deployed to help with rescue efforts. – A government official says a partial meltdown may be occurring at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant, sparking fears of a widespread release of radioactive material. So far, three units there have experienced major problems in cooling radioactive material.
March 14, 2011 – The US Geological Survey upgrades its measure of the earthquake to magnitude 9.0 from 8.9. – An explosion at the Daiichi plant No. 3 reactor causes a building’s wall to collapse, injuring six. The 600 residents remaining within 30 kilometers of the plant, despite an earlier evacuation order, have been ordered to stay indoors. – The No. 2 reactor at the Daiichi plant loses its cooling capabilities. Officials quickly work to pump seawater into the reactor, as they have been doing with two other reactors at the same plant, and the situation is resolved. Workers scramble to cool down fuel rods at two other reactors at the plant – No. 1 and No. 3. – Rolling blackouts begin in parts of Tokyo and eight prefectures. Downtown Tokyo is not included. Up to 45 million people will be affected in the rolling outages, which are scheduled to last until April.
March 15, 2011 – The third explosion at the Daiichi plant in four days damages the suppression pool of reactor No. 2. Water continues to be injected into “pressure vessels” in order to cool down radioactive material.
March 16, 2011 – The nuclear safety agency investigates the cause of a white cloud of smoke rising above the Fukushima Daiichi plant. Plans are canceled to use helicopters to pour water onto fuel rods that may have burned after a fire there, causing a spike in radiation levels. The plume is later found to have been vapor from a spent-fuel storage pool. – In a rare address, Emperor Akihito tells the nation to not give up hope, that “we need to understand and help each other.” A televised address by a sitting emperor is an extraordinarily rare event in Japan, usually reserved for times of extreme crisis or war. – After hydrogen explosions occur in three of the plant’s reactors (1, 2 and 3), Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says radiation levels “do not pose a direct threat to the human body” between 12 to 18 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) from the plant.
March 17, 2011 – Gregory Jaczko, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tells US Congress that spent fuel rods in the No. 4 reactor have been exposed because there “is no water in the spent fuel pool,” resulting in the emission of “extremely high” levels of radiation. – Helicopters operated by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces begin dumping tons of seawater from the Pacific Ocean on to the No. 3 reactor to reduce overheating. – Radiation levels hit 20 millisieverts per hour at an annex building where workers have been trying to re-establish electrical power, “the highest registered (at that building) so far.” (Tokyo Electric Power Co.)
March 18, 2011 – Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raises the threat level from 4 to 5, putting it on a par with the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. The International Nuclear Events Scale says a Level 5 incident means there is a likelihood of a release of radioactive material, several deaths from radiation and severe damage to the reactor core.
April 12, 2011 – Japan’s nuclear agency raises the Fukushima Daiichi crisis from Level 5 to a Level 7 event, the highest level, signifying a “major accident.” It is now on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union, which amounts to a “major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures.”
June 6, 2011 – Japan’s Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters reports reactors 1, 2 and 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a full meltdown.
June 30, 2011 – The Japanese government recommends more evacuations of households 50 to 60 kilometers northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The government said higher radiation is monitored sporadically in this area.
July 16, 2011 – Kansai Electric announces a reactor at the Ohi nuclear plant will be shut down due to problems with an emergency cooling system. This leaves only 18 of Japan’s 54 nuclear plants producing electricity.
October 31, 2011 – In response to questions about the safety of decontaminated water, Japanese government official Yasuhiro Sonoda drinks a glass of decontaminated water taken from a puddle at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
November 2, 2011 – Kyushu Electric Power Co. announces it restarted the No. 4 reactor, the first to come back online since the March 11 disaster, at the Genkai nuclear power plant in western Japan.
November 17, 2011 – Japanese authorities announce that they have halted the shipment of rice from some farms northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after finding higher-than-allowed levels of radioactive cesium.
December 5, 2011 – Tokyo Electric Power Company announces at least 45 metric tons of radioactive water have leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility and may have reached the Pacific Ocean.
December 16, 2011 – Japan’s Prime Minister says a “cold shutdown” has been achieved at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a symbolic milestone which means the plant’s crippled reactors have stayed at temperatures below the boiling point for some time.
December 26, 2011 – Investigators report poorly trained operators at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant misread a key backup system and waited too long to start pumping water into the units, according to an interim report from the government committee probing the nuclear accident.
February 27, 2012 – Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, an independent fact-finding committee, releases a report claiming the Japanese government feared the nuclear disaster could lead to an evacuation of Tokyo while at the same time hiding its most alarming assessments of the nuclear disaster from the public as well as the United States.
May 24, 2012 – TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) estimates about 900,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials were released between March 12 and March 31 in 2011, more radiation than previously estimated.
June 11, 2012 – At least 1,324 Fukushima residents lodge a criminal complaint with the Fukushima prosecutor’s office, naming Tsunehisa Katsumata, the chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) and 32 others responsible for causing the nuclear disaster which followed the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and exposing the people of Fukushima to radiation.
June 16, 2012 – Despite public objections, the Japanese government approves restarting two nuclear reactors at the Kansai Electric Power Company in Ohi in Fukui prefecture, the first reactors scheduled to resume since all nuclear reactors were shut down in May 2012.
July 1, 2012 – Kansai Electric Power Co. Ltd. (KEPCO) restarts the Ohi nuclear plant’s No. 3 reactor, resuming nuclear power production in Japan for the first time in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown following the tsunami.
July 5, 2012 – The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission’s report finds that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis was a “man-made disaster” which unfolded as a result of collusion between the facility’s operator, regulators and the government. The report also attributes the failings at the plant before and after March 11 specifically to Japanese culture.
July 23, 2012 – A Japanese government report is released criticizing TEPCO. The report says the measures taken by TEPCO to prepare for disasters were “insufficient,” and the response to the crisis “inadequate.”
October 12, 2012 – TEPCO acknowledges in a report it played down safety risks at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant out of fear that additional measures would lead to a plant shutdown and further fuel public anxiety and anti-nuclear movements.
July 2013 – TEPCO admits radioactive groundwater is leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi site, bypassing an underground barrier built to seal in the water.
August 28, 2013 – Japan’s nuclear watchdog Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) says a toxic water leak at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant has been classified as a Level 3 “serious incident” on an eight-point International Nuclear Event Scale (lINES) scale.
February 20, 2014 – TEPCO says an estimated 100 metric tons of radioactive water has leaked from a holding tank at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
November 22, 2016 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits the Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures and is considered an aftershock of the 2011 earthquake. Aftershocks can sometimes occur years after the original quake.
February 2, 2017 – TEPCO reports atmospheric readings from inside nuclear reactor plant No. 2. as high as 530 sieverts per hour. This is the highest since the 2011 meltdown.
September 9, 2021 – The IAEA and Japan agree on a timeline for the multi-year review of Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.
February 18, 2022 – An IAEA task force makes its first visit to Japan for the safety review of its plan to discharge treated radioactive water into the sea.
July 4, 2023 – An IAEA safety review concludes that Japan’s plans to release treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean are consistent with IAEA Safety Standards.
Extreme weather and climate hazards are becoming more frequent, posing a threat not only for homeowners but for renters.
More than 18 million rental units across the U.S. are exposed to climate- and weather-related hazards, according to the latest American Rental Housing Report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Harvard researchers paired data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index with the five-year American Community Survey to find out what units are in the areas that are expected to have annual economic loss from environmental hazards such as wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes and more.
“The rental housing stock is the oldest it ever has been, and a lot of it is not suited for the growing frequency, severity and diversity in environmental hazards,” said Sophia Wedeen, research analyst focused on rental housing, residential remodeling and affordability at the Joint Center for Housing Studies.
In 2023, there were 28 weather and climate disasters with damages totaling $1 billion or more, a record high, according to the latest report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information. These weather disruptions collectively cost $92.9 billion in damages, an estimate adjusted for inflation, the agency found.
“It’s clear that not only are climate hazards happening more often, but they’re happening more often in places where people live, which is why we’re seeing all of these damages increase over time,” said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research for First Street Foundation, a nonprofit organization in New York.
In addition, about twice as many properties in the U.S. have flood risks than what FEMA accounts for, according to research by First Street Foundation.
And flood insurance is only mandated for properties inside official flood zones, Porter said.
“Half the properties across the country don’t know they have a flood risk, which means the building owner may not have flood insurance,” he said.
At a national level, 45% of single-family rentals and 35% to 40% of units in small, midsize and large multifamily buildings are located in census tracts, or neighborhoods, that are exposed to annual losses from climate-related hazards, the Harvard study found.
Units with the highest risk are manufactured housing, such as mobile homes and RVs, said Wedeen. While they’re a smaller share of the rental stock, 52% of manufactured units are located in areas with extreme weather exposure.
As the market already faces a declining supply of low-rent units available, “environmental hazards would really exacerbate the existing affordability concerns,” Wedeen said.
Renters in manufactured housing, low-rent or subsidized units are also often stuck with the housing they have or lack the same level of mobility as wealthier renters, experts say.
“These populations are more vulnerable and don’t have the financial means to protect themselves against the risks that exist,” Porter said. “It’s sort of a compounding risk when we see these increases in climate hazards and start impacting people who can’t afford to move away from the risk.”
Most of the state and local funds that cover post-disaster assistance go to homeowners, not rental property owners.
“That in turn puts a lot of burden on renters who are displaced by natural disasters and who may find it hard to find new housing,” she said.
Low-rent or subsidized units also face preservation issues, leaving them in poor physical condition. According to the Harvard study, units renting for less than $600 per month have higher rates of physical inadequacy from disrepair and structural deterioration.
Manufactured housing units are more likely to be physically inadequate, meaning they are “much less able to withstand the impact of a weather-related hazard,” Wedeen said.
What renters need is greater investment in the existing housing stock and upgrades that can mitigate the damage to a building and improve its resilience to hazards, Wedeen said.
“Without substantial investment, displacements and units becoming uninhabitable is only going to continue,” Wedeen said.
It’s important for tenants to understand that they need renter’s insurance to protect their possessions.
Landlords and building owners are responsible for repairing physical damage to the unit or building from a climate-related hazard, and those repairs will depend on whether the landlord or building owner is covered by property insurance, said Porter.
But the landlord’s insurance on the building does not cover renters’ personal property.
Renters should check what type of disasters are included in their renter’s insurance policy. They may need riders or a separate policy to cover risks such as flooding or earthquakes, experts say.
While a lot of the risks are out of the hands of renters, they can research to make informed decisions and prepare.
Before moving to a new area, renters should research the floodplain, look for a building with resilient features and find out what risks that area is exposed to by using search tools such as the FEMA flood map or riskfactor.com, a search tool backed by First Street Foundation’s data analysis.
In some areas, landlords must disclose to prospective tenants if a property is in a floodplain or has experienced flooding in the past.
LOS ANGELES — The second of back-to-back atmospheric rivers churned slowly through California early Monday, flooding roadways and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompting a rare warning for hurricane-force winds as the already soggy state braced for another day of heavy rains.
The storm inundated streets and brought down trees and electrical lines Sunday across the San Francisco Bay Area, where winds topped 60 mph (96 kph) in some areas. Gusts exceeding 80 mph (128 kph) were recorded in the mountains.
Just to the south in San Jose, emergency crews pulled occupants out of the windows of a car stranded by floodwaters and rescued people from a homeless encampment alongside a rising river.
The storm then moved into Southern California, where officials warned of potentially devastating flooding and ordered evacuations for canyons that burned in recent wildfires that are at high risk for mud and debris flows.
Classes were canceled Monday for schools across Santa Barbara County, which was devastated by mudslides caused by powerful storms in 2018.
Further down the coast, strong winds and heavy rain brought treacherous conditions to the city of Ventura, said Alexis Herrera, who was trying to bail out his sedan which was filled with floodwater. “All the freeways are flooded around here,” Herrera said in Spanish. “I don’t know how I’m going to move my car.”
More than 845,000 customers were without electricity statewide by Sunday evening, according to poweroutage.us.
Winds caused hours-long delays at San Francisco International Airport. By 2:30 p.m. Sunday, 155 departing flights were delayed and 69 had been canceled, according to the tracking website FlightAware. There were also delays at the airports in San Jose and Sacramento.
Palisades Tahoe, a ski resort about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, said Sunday it was anticipating the heaviest snowfall yet this season, with accumulations of 6 inches (15 centimeters) per hour for a total of up to two feet (60 centimeters). Heavy snow was expected into Monday throughout the Sierra Nevada and motorists were urged to avoid mountain roads.
Much of the state had been drying out from the system that blew in last week, causing flooding and dumping welcome snow in mountains. The latest storm, also called a “Pineapple Express” because its plume of moisture stretches back across the Pacific to near Hawaii, arrived offshore in Northern California on Saturday, when most of the state was under some sort of wind, surf or flood watch.
The weather service issued a rare “hurricane force wind warning” for the Central Coast, with wind gusts of up to 92 mph (148 kph) possible from the Monterey Peninsula to the northern section of San Luis Obispo County.
Meanwhile, the southern part of the state was at risk of substantial flooding beginning late Sunday because of how slow the system was moving, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Los Angeles-area office.
“The core of the low pressure system is very deep, and it’s moving very slowly and it’s very close to us. And that’s why we have those very strong winds. And the slow nature of it is really giving us the highest rainfall totals and the flooding risk,” he said at a Sunday briefing.
Evacuation orders and warnings were in effect for mountain and canyon areas of Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. LA County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath urged residents near wildfire burn areas of Topanga and Soledad canyons to heed orders to get out ahead of possible mudslides.
“If you have not already left, please gather your family, your pets, your medications and leave immediately,” Horvath said at a Sunday briefing. The county set up shelters where evacuees could spend the night.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services activated its operations center and positioned personnel and equipment in areas most at risk.
The storm was expected to move down the coast and bring heavy rain, possible flash-flooding and mountain snow to the Los Angeles area late Sunday, before moving on to hammer Orange and San Diego counties on Monday.
As of Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, said it was planning to open schools as usual Monday. The decision would be reevaluated at 6 a.m. Monday, said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
The weather service forecast up to 8 inches (20 cm) of rainfall across Southern California’s coastal and valley areas, with 14 inches (35 cm) possible in the foothills and mountains. Heavy to moderate rain is expected in Southern California until Tuesday.
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Associated Press videographer Eugene Garcia in Ventura, Calif., and radio reporter Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.
Authorities in Chile’s Valparaiso region extended stay-at-home orders as forest fires continue to rage after killing at least 56 people in the country’s deadliest disaster since a massive earthquake in 2010.
Blazes that began on Friday spread through bushland and into populated areas on the edge of the coastal city of Viña del Mar, about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Santiago, fed by blustering wind and high temperatures.
Power and water services have been disrupted, causing Chile’s second largest oil refinery to halt operations. As firefighters continued to battle the blazes, authorities said the fires may have been intentionally lit.
“It’s evident that there was intentionality” when four separate fires start simultaneously in the same forest, Valparaíso Governor Rodrigo Mundaca told reporters on Sunday.
President Gabriel Boric declared a state of emergency in the Valparaiso region late Friday. In a televised address on Saturday, he said that the death toll could still rise. Boric is traveling there again on Sunday.
The government estimates that between 3,000 and 6,000 hectares (7,413-14,826 acres) and 1,000 homes have been razed so far, with at least 1,600 people occupying shelters as authorities and NGOs start relief efforts. More than 300 people are still unaccounted for, according to officials.
Enap, Chile’s state-owned energy company, halted operations at its second-biggest oil refinery after wildfires caused power cuts. The Aconcagua plant on the country’s central coast was placed in a what’s known as a safe position to begin gradually restarting operations, a company official said in text messages late Saturday.
The transport of copper from the large Los Bronces mine in central Chile has been unaffected by the fires, according to operator Anglo American Plc. Codelco didn’t immediately provide comment when asked about any logistical impact on its nearby Andina mine.
— With assistance from Matthew Malinowski
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LOS ANGELES — Another potentially dangerous “Pineapple Express” storm was expected to hit California late Saturday, bringing the threat of flooding and mudslides over the next couple of days.
Californians spent Friday and Saturday preparing for what forecasters are saying could be the largest storm of the season, with the worst expected to hit Ventura and Santa Barbara counties on Sunday and Monday. Most of the state was under some sort of wind, surf or flood watch by Saturday afternoon.
The storm marks the second time this week the state will be pummeled by an atmospheric river, a long band of moisture that forms over the Pacific. The first arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, delivering downpours and heavy snowfall that brought cable car service to a halt before moving south to Los Angeles and San Diego on Thursday.
Last winter, California was battered by numerous drought-busting atmospheric rivers that unleashed extensive flooding, big waves that hammered shoreline communities and extraordinary snowfall that crushed buildings. More than 20 people died.
This “Pineapple Express” — called that because the atmospheric river’s plume of moisture stretches back across the Pacific to near Hawaii — was to arrive in Northern California on Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rains and strong winds were expected through the night into Sunday.
The storm is forecast to move south down the Central Coast and hit the Los Angeles area with downpours, flash floods and high-elevation mountain snow beginning Sunday morning. It is expected to strike farther south, in Orange County and San Diego, on Monday. Heavy to moderate rain is expected to stay in Southern California until Tuesday.
The National Weather Service forecasts 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) of rainfall across Southern California’s coastal and valley areas, with 6 to 12 inches (15.2 to 30.5 centimeters) likely in the foothills and mountains. Rainfall rates are expected to be 1/2 to 1 inch (1.3 to 2.5 centimeters) per hour, with locally higher rates. Forecasters predict mudslides, debris flows and flooding to occur.
In the mountains with elevation above 7,000 feet (2,134 meters), 2 to 4 feet (0.61 to 1.2 meters) of snow will likely fall.
Parts of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties will likely get hammered hardest by this storm, according to the National Weather Service. The south-facing slopes in the Transverse Ranges will be getting the heaviest rainfall, and flooding is likely to be exacerbated by already saturated soil from earlier winter storms.
Evacuation orders were issued for parts of Ventura County and some of Santa Barbara County, including along burn scars caused by wildfires, and in the city of Santa Barbara’s coastal areas. High winds will contribute to hazardous seas.
NASCAR moved The Clash at the Coliseum to Saturday night out of concerns for the impending inclement weather. Only heat races had been scheduled to be run Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but with a forecast calling for heavy rains and flooding to begin Sunday, NASCAR abruptly changed the schedule.
The Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, canceled its eight-race program that was scheduled for Sunday. The park also rescheduled a pair of graded stakes, the Grade III, $100,000 Las Virgenes and the Grade III, San Marcos, for next Saturday.
More damage is possible this year with El Nino, which is expected to bring additional storms to California caused by the temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide.
Rising sea levels from global warming are also causing the waves to be bigger off California’s coast, according to research. The coast is additionally seeing some of the highest tides of the season.
