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Tag: Oceans

  • Ambitious plan to store CO2 beneath the North Sea set to start operations

    NORTH SEA, Denmark — Appearing first as a dot on the horizon, the remote Nini oil field on Europe’s rugged North Sea slowly comes into view from a helicopter.

    Used to extract fossil fuels, the field is now getting a second lease on life as a means of permanently storing planet-warming carbon dioxide beneath the seabed.

    In a process that almost reverses oil extraction, chemical giant INEOS plans to inject liquefied CO2 deep down into depleted oil reservoirs, 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) beneath the seabed.

    The Associated Press made a rare visit to the Siri platform, close to the unmanned Nini field, the final stage in INEOS’ carbon capture and storage efforts, named Greensand Future.

    When the project begins commercial operations next year, Greensand is expected to become the European Union’s first fully-operational offshore CO2 storage site.

    Environmentalists say carbon capture and storage, also known as CCS, has a role to play in dealing with climate change but should not be used as an excuse by industries to avoid cutting emissions.

    Mads Gade, chief executive of INEOS Energy Europe, says it will initially begin storing 400,000 tons (363,000 metric tons) of CO2 per year, scaling up to as much as 8 million tons (7.3 million metric tons) annually by 2030.

    “Denmark has the potential to actually store more than several hundred years of our own emissions,” says Gade. “We are able to create an industry where we can support Europe in actually storing a lot of the CO2 here.”

    Greensand has struck deals with Danish biogas facilities to bury their captured carbon emissions into the Nini field’s depleted reservoirs.

    A “CO2 terminal” that temporarily stores the liquefied gas is being built at the Port of Esbjerg, on the western coast of the Danish Jutland peninsula.

    A purpose-built carrier vessel, dubbed “Carbon Destroyer 1,” is under construction in the Netherlands.

    Proponents of carbon capture technology say it is a climate solution because it can remove the greenhouse gas that is the biggest driver of climate change and bury it deep underground.

    They note the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s top body of climate scientists, has said the technology is a tool in the fight against global warming.

    The EU has proposed developing at least 250 million tons (227 million metric tons) of CO2 storage per year by 2040, as part of plans to reach “net zero” emissions by 2050.

    Gade says carbon capture and storage is one of the best means of cutting emissions.

    “We don’t want to deindustrialize Europe,” he said. “We want to have actually a few instruments to decarbonize instead.”

    Experts at Denmark’s geological survey say Greensand sandstone rock is well-suited for storing the liquefied CO2. Almost a third of the rock volume is made up of tiny cavities, said Niels Schovsbo, senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

    “We found that there (are) no reactions between the reservoir and the injected CO2. And we find that the seal rock on top of that has sufficient capacity to withhold the pressure that is induced when we are storing CO2 in the subsurface,” added Schovsbo.

    “These two methods makes it a perfect site for storage right there.”

    But while there are many carbon capture facilities around the world, the technology is far from scale, sometimes uses fossil fuel energy in its operations and captures just a tiny fraction of worldwide emissions.

    The Greensand project aims to bury up to 8 million tons (7.3 million metric tons) of CO2 a year by 2030. The International Energy Agency says nearly 38 billion tons (34.5 billion metric tons) of CO2 were emitted globally last year.

    Environmental campaigners say CCS has been used as an excuse by industries to delay cutting emissions.

    “We could have CCS on those very few sectors where emissions are truly difficult or impossible to abate,” said Helene Hagel, head of climate and environmental policy at Greenpeace Denmark.

    “But when you have all sectors in society almost saying, we need to just catch the emissions and store them instead of reducing emissions — that is the problem.”

    While the chemical giant ramps up carbon storage efforts, it is also hoping to begin development at another previously unopened North Sea oil field.

    “The footprint we deliver from importing energy against producing domestic or regional oil and gas is a lot more important for the transition instead of importing with a higher footprint,” said Gade, defending the company’s plans.

    “We see a purpose in doing this for a period while we create a transition for Europe.”

    ___

    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.

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  • Ambitious plan to store CO2 beneath the North Sea set to start operations

    NORTH SEA, Denmark (AP) — Appearing first as a dot on the horizon, the remote Nini oil field on Europe’s rugged North Sea slowly comes into view from a helicopter.

    Used to extract fossil fuels, the field is now getting a second lease on life as a means of permanently storing planet-warming carbon dioxide beneath the seabed.

    In a process that almost reverses oil extraction, chemical giant INEOS plans to inject liquefied CO2 deep down into depleted oil reservoirs, 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) beneath the seabed.

    The Associated Press made a rare visit to the Siri platform, close to the unmanned Nini field, the final stage in INEOS’ carbon capture and storage efforts, named Greensand Future.

    When the project begins commercial operations next year, Greensand is expected to become the European Union’s first fully-operational offshore CO2 storage site.

    Environmentalists say carbon capture and storage, also known as CCS, has a role to play in dealing with climate change but should not be used as an excuse by industries to avoid cutting emissions.

    Future plans

    Mads Gade, chief executive of INEOS Energy Europe, says it will initially begin storing 400,000 tons (363,000 metric tons) of CO2 per year, scaling up to as much as 8 million tons (7.3 million metric tons) annually by 2030.

    “Denmark has the potential to actually store more than several hundred years of our own emissions,” says Gade. “We are able to create an industry where we can support Europe in actually storing a lot of the CO2 here.”

    Greensand has struck deals with Danish biogas facilities to bury their captured carbon emissions into the Nini field’s depleted reservoirs.

    A “CO2 terminal” that temporarily stores the liquefied gas is being built at the Port of Esbjerg, on the western coast of the Danish Jutland peninsula.

    A purpose-built carrier vessel, dubbed “Carbon Destroyer 1,” is under construction in the Netherlands.

    Climate solution

    Proponents of carbon capture technology say it is a climate solution because it can remove the greenhouse gas that is the biggest driver of climate change and bury it deep underground.

    They note the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s top body of climate scientists, has said the technology is a tool in the fight against global warming.

    The EU has proposed developing at least 250 million tons (227 million metric tons) of CO2 storage per year by 2040, as part of plans to reach “net zero” emissions by 2050.

    Gade says carbon capture and storage is one of the best means of cutting emissions.

    “We don’t want to deindustrialize Europe,” he said. “We want to have actually a few instruments to decarbonize instead.”

    Experts at Denmark’s geological survey say Greensand sandstone rock is well-suited for storing the liquefied CO2. Almost a third of the rock volume is made up of tiny cavities, said Niels Schovsbo, senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

    “We found that there (are) no reactions between the reservoir and the injected CO2. And we find that the seal rock on top of that has sufficient capacity to withhold the pressure that is induced when we are storing CO2 in the subsurface,” added Schovsbo.

    “These two methods makes it a perfect site for storage right there.”

    Limitations and criticism

    But while there are many carbon capture facilities around the world, the technology is far from scale, sometimes uses fossil fuel energy in its operations and captures just a tiny fraction of worldwide emissions.

    The Greensand project aims to bury up to 8 million tons (7.3 million metric tons) of CO2 a year by 2030. The International Energy Agency says nearly 38 billion tons (34.5 billion metric tons) of CO2 were emitted globally last year.

    Environmental campaigners say CCS has been used as an excuse by industries to delay cutting emissions.

    “We could have CCS on those very few sectors where emissions are truly difficult or impossible to abate,” said Helene Hagel, head of climate and environmental policy at Greenpeace Denmark.

    “But when you have all sectors in society almost saying, we need to just catch the emissions and store them instead of reducing emissions — that is the problem.”

    While the chemical giant ramps up carbon storage efforts, it is also hoping to begin development at another previously unopened North Sea oil field.

    “The footprint we deliver from importing energy against producing domestic or regional oil and gas is a lot more important for the transition instead of importing with a higher footprint,” said Gade, defending the company’s plans.

    “We see a purpose in doing this for a period while we create a transition for Europe.”

    ___

    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.

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  • Thousands of Cubans Struggle Without Power and Water Nearly a Month After Hurricane Melissa

    By day, families walk toward the nearest river to fill plastic containers with water and by night, they squeeze together to sleep under temporary shelters and tents.

    “We lost everything in the flood,” 80-year-old Lucía García said. “I am very depressed and very sad here.”

    García is living in a small classroom with her two sons, ages 45 and 55, and her ailing 81-year-old husband, who remains bedridden.

    The school where they’re staying in the town of Río Cauto serves as a shelter for 14 families and is providing daily meals to them and 25 other families living with relatives and neighbors. Water delivery trucks pass by every three or four days.

    Many of the town’s residents lived by the river and lost their homes after Melissa cut through eastern Cuba, forcing nearby dams to release huge amounts of water.

    More than 2,300 people were evacuated from the Río Cauto area, with more than 750 staying in private homes, according to a Nov. 10 report published in the official newspaper, Granma. It claimed that the return of residents to their homes “has been completed.”

    Major damage also was reported in the nearby town of Los Mangos, where residents said massive floods hit a day after the storm made landfall.

    “By dawn, the entire village was underwater,” recalled Anisleydis Hidalgo.

    “We were evacuated before the hurricane hit,” she said. “When we returned home, they came to tell us there would be flooding…but no one expected the water to reach the level it did.”

    She is living in a military-style tent with her 5-year-old daughter and two other families.

    Lianet Socarras, a social worker from Los Mangos, said that 58 people, including 30 children, are sharing 10 tents donated by the government of India.

    “The most critical problem we have now is the supply of drinking water in the community,” she said, noting that there is none.


    ‘The sea came into my house’

    Soaked mattresses, electrical appliances, clothing, food, furniture and other belongings remain scattered outside the homes, with the smell of decaying carcasses of animals killed during the storm hanging over the town.

    Neither the hurricane nor the floods damaged the electrical system in Los Mangos, but scheduled power outages have lasted many hours, further exacerbating an already difficult situation.

    In the southern coastal municipality of Guamá, several towns are still reeling from the storm.

    “The sea came into my house and soaked mattresses, electrical appliances and everything else that was there,” said Altagracia Fonseca, a 65-year-old retiree.

    On a recent day, she walked to a nearby river to wash some of the clothes she was able to salvage after the storm.

    Before Melissa hit, she had evacuated and packed only two changes of clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste and a towel.

    “I packed things like someone would when they are going to be away from home for a day,” she said as she burst into tears. “I never imagined I would find my house in such a state of disrepair. It was sad, very painful.”

    Elizandra Sorrilla was in a similar situation.

    “I packed clothes for myself and my children in a backpack; that’s all we have,” she said. “It’s something none of us will ever forget.”

    Sorrilla, along with her husband, two children, and their dog, Roki, are living out of a small grocery store where they have improvised a kitchen and a space that serves as both bedroom and living room.

    “They tell us they’re going to help us, but the resources haven’t arrived yet,” Sorrilla said.

    Power outages are constant in Guamá, and officials from the National Electric Union warned that repairs could take until mid-December.

    But patience is running out.

    Residents in the town of El Carmen recently blocked a main highway with fallen trees and electrical posts, noting they had been without electricity —even before Melissa hit.

    “Everyone wants electricity, and we are working tirelessly to achieve this,” said Alfredo López, director general of the National Electric Union, in a heated discussion with residents in the middle of the blocked road.

    While food, mattresses, roof tiles and other items are being distributed to those affected by the storm, many needs are still going unmet as relations between Cuba and the U.S. are at their most tense since U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio took office.

    No storm-related deaths were reported in Cuba, where authorities evacuated more than 700,000 people from coastal areas.

    The U.N. said that some 53,000 people in Cuba have been unable to return to their homes, including 7,500 living in official shelters.

    Melissa also made landfall in Jamaica, where at least 45 deaths were reported, and its outer bands swiped Haiti, where at least 43 people were killed.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

    Associated Press

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  • 4 Dead After Wooden Boat Believed to Be Ferrying Migrants Into the US Capsizes off San Diego

    A wooden skiff believed to have been ferrying migrants toward the U.S. capsized in stormy seas near San Diego, leaving at least four people dead and four hospitalized, the Coast Guard said Saturday.

    The U.S. Border Patrol found the vessel in the surf off Imperial Beach late Friday night. Six people were found on the beach just before midnight, one of whom was pronounced dead and another who was rescued after being found under the boat.

    About two hours later, authorities received a report of someone in the water near Imperial Beach Pier. A Coast Guard crew responded and found three people in the ocean, all dead.

    The Coast Guard said Saturday that it was continuing to search for others who may have been on board.

    Several of the survivors claimed Mexican nationality, while others remained unidentified, the agency said. One person was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security.

    “Our crews and partner agencies responded immediately, but this case demonstrates the severe risks posed to aliens attempting to enter the United States by sea in unstable vessels,” said Coast Guard Capt. Robert Tucker, Sector San Diego commander.

    A strong storm system hit Southern California over the weekend, prompting warnings of flash flooding and mudslides. The vessel was a panga — single- or twin-engine open fishing boat that is also commonly used by smugglers.

    Migrants are increasingly turning to the risky alternative offered by smugglers to travel by sea to avoid heavily guarded land borders, including off California’s coast. Pangas leave Mexico in the dead of night and sometimes chart hundreds of miles (kilometers) north.

    There have been several incidents in recent years of migrant vessels capsizing en route to California.

    In May, at least three people died when a panga flipped off the coast about 35 miles (56 km) north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

    In 2023, eight people were killed when two migrant smuggling boats approached a San Diego beach in heavy fog and one of them capsized in the surf. It was one of the deadliest maritime smuggling incidents in waters off the U.S. coast.

    A federal judge sentenced a San Diego man to 18 years in prison in 2022 for piloting a small vessel overloaded with 32 migrants that smashed apart in powerful surf off the coast, killing three people and injuring more than two dozen.

    Worldwide, nearly 9,000 people died last year attempting to cross borders, according to the U.N. agency for migration. The death toll set a record for the fifth year in a row.

    The U.N. Missing Migrant Project puts the number of dead and missing in the central Mediterranean at over 24,506 between 2014 and 2024, many of them lost at sea. The project says the number may be greater as many deaths go unrecorded.

    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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  • 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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  • The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves

    In 2011, Deconinck and Oliveras simulated different disturbances with higher and higher frequencies and watched what happened to the Stokes waves. As they expected, for disturbances above a certain frequency, the waves persevered.

    But as the pair continued to dial up the frequency, they suddenly began to see destruction again. At first, Oliveras worried that there was a bug in the computer program. “Part of me was like, this can’t be right,” she said. “But the more I dug, the more it persisted.”

    In fact, as the frequency of the disturbance increased, an alternating pattern emerged. First there was an interval of frequencies where the waves became unstable. This was followed by an interval of stability, which was followed by yet another interval of instability, and so on.

    Deconinck and Oliveras published their finding as a counterintuitive conjecture: that this archipelago of instabilities stretches off to infinity. They called all the unstable intervals “isole”—the Italian word for “islands.”

    It was strange. The pair had no explanation for why instabilities would appear again, let alone infinitely many times. They at least wanted a proof that their startling observation was correct.

    Bernard Deconinck and Katie Oliveras uncovered a strange pattern in computational studies of wave stability.

    Photograph: Courtesy of Bernard Deconinck

    The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves

    Photograph: Courtesy of Katie Oliveras

    For years, no one could make any progress. Then, at the 2019 workshop, Deconinck approached Maspero and his team. He knew they had a lot of experience studying the math of wavelike phenomena in quantum physics. Perhaps they could figure out a way to prove that these striking patterns arise from the Euler equations.

    The Italian group got to work immediately. They started with the lowest set of frequencies that seemed to cause waves to die. First, they applied techniques from physics to represent each of these low-frequency instabilities as arrays, or matrices, of 16 numbers. These numbers encoded how the instability would grow and distort the Stokes waves over time. The mathematicians realized that if one of the numbers in the matrix was always zero, the instability would not grow, and the waves would live on. If the number was positive, the instability would grow and eventually destroy the waves.

    To show that this number was positive for the first batch of instabilities, the mathematicians had to compute a gigantic sum. It took 45 pages and nearly a year of work to solve it. Once they’d done so, they turned their attention to the infinitely many intervals of higher-frequency wave-killing disturbances—the isole.

    First, they figured out a general formula—another complicated sum—that would give them the number they needed for each isola. Then they used a computer program to solve the formula for the first 21 isole. (After that, the calculations got too complicated for the computer to handle.) The numbers were all positive, as expected—and they also seemed to follow a simple pattern that implied they would be positive for all the other isole as well.

    Joseph Howlett

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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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    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By ARIEL FERNÁNDEZ, ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ and JOHN MYERS JR. – Associated Press

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  • Archaeological site in Alaska that casts light on early Yup’ik life ravaged by ex-Typhoon Halong

    JUNEAU, Alaska — A fragment of a mask that was preserved for hundreds of years in permafrost sat in the muck of a low tide in the western Alaska community of Quinhagak. Wooden spoons, toys, a fishing lure and other artifacts were strewn, in some cases for miles, along the beach.

    The Yup’ik community near the edge of the Bering Sea was spared the widespread devastation wrought by the remnants of Typhoon Halong on its neighbors further west earlier this month. But it suffered a different kind of blow: The lashing winds and storm surge devoured dozens of feet of shoreline, disrupting a culturally significant archaeological site and washing away possibly thousands of unearthed artifacts.

    About 1,000 pieces, including wooden masks and tools, were recovered in Quinhagak after the storm ravaged parts of southwest Alaska on Oct. 11 and 12. But many more pieces — perhaps up to 100,000 — were left scattered, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist who has worked on the Nunalleq, or old village, project for 17 years. That’s roughly the number of pieces previously recovered from the archaeological site.

    Meanwhile, freezing temperatures and ice have settled into the region, stalling immediate efforts to find and recover more displaced artifacts on searches done by four-wheeler and foot.

    Knecht called what happened a major loss. The site has yielded the world’s largest collection of pre-contact Yup’ik artifacts. Much of what’s known about Yup’ik life before outsiders arrived stems from the project, said Knecht, an emeritus senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

    “When there are holes or disturbances in the site, it’s like trying to read a book with holes in the pages. You’re going to miss a few things,” he said. “And the bigger those holes are, the weaker the story gets. There’s a few holes in the book right now.”

    While the name of the original village isn’t known, it was attacked by another village and burned around 1650, he said. Knecht has worked with elders and others in Quinhagak to combine their traditional knowledge with the technology and techniques used by the archaeology teams to study the past together.

    Quinhagak has about 800 residents, and subsistence food gathering is critically important to them.

    The storm dispersed artifacts from a site long preserved by permafrost, Knecht said. A longstanding concern has been the threat that climate change — melting permafrost, coastal erosion, the potential for more frequent or stronger storms — has posed to the site, he said.

    It poses risks to the community itself. Erosion threatens major infrastructure in Quinhagak, including a sewage lagoon, homes and fish camps. Thawing permafrost is also unsettling and undermining buildings, according to a 2024 report from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

    The excavation project itself began after artifacts began appearing on the beach around 2007. Part of the site that washed out had been excavated previously.

    “There was a big chunk where we’d only gone about halfway down and left it for later because we prioritized parts of the site that were most at risk from marine erosion,” Knecht said.

    When he left in July, there was a roughly 30-foot buffer to the sea. The storm took out the buffer and another 30 feet of the site, he said. It also left what Knecht described as piano-sized clumps of tundra on the tidal flats.

    Knecht didn’t recognize the site at first after Halong.

    “I just drove right by it because all the landmarks I’m used to on the beach and at the site were gone or changed,” he said.

    Work to preserve the rescued artifacts has included soaking the marine salts from the wood and placing the pieces in special chemicals that will help them hold together when they dry out, he said. If one were to just take one of the wooden artifacts off the beach and let them dry, they’d “crack to pieces, sometimes in a matter of hours.”

    There is a lab at the museum in Quinhagak where the artifacts are kept.

    Archaeologists hope to return to the site next spring for a “rescue excavation” of layers exposed by the storm, he said. In some ways, it feels like when teams saw the site in 2009: “We’ve got this raw site with artifacts popping off in every way,” he said. “So we’re starting from scratch again.”

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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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    By JOHN MYERS JR. and DÁNICA COTO – Associated Press

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  • Melissa Is a Beast Among a String of Monster Atlantic Storms. Scientists Explain

    Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica with record-tying 185 mph winds Tuesday, was a beast that stood out as extreme even in a record number of monster storms spawned over the last decade in a superheated Atlantic Ocean.

    Melissa somehow shook off at least three different meteorological conditions that normally weaken major hurricanes and was still gaining power as it hit, scientists said, a bit amazed.

    And while more storms these days are undergoing rapid intensification — gaining 35 mph in wind speed over 24 hours — Melissa did a lot more than that. It achieved what’s called extreme rapid intensification — gaining at least 58 mph over 24 hours. In fact, Melissa turbocharged by about 70 mph during a 24-hour period last week, and had an unusual second round of rapid intensification that spun it up to 175 mph, scientists said.

    “It’s been a remarkable, just a beast of a storm,” Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.

    When Melissa came ashore it tied strength records for Atlantic hurricanes making landfall, both in wind speed and barometric pressure, which is a key measurement that meteorologists use, said Klotzbach and University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. The pressure measurement tied the deadly 1935 Labor Day storm in Florida, while the 185 mph wind speed equaled marks set that year and during 2019’s Hurricane Dorian. Hurricane Allen reached 190 mph winds in 1980, but not at landfall.

    Usually when major hurricanes brew they get so strong that the wind twirling in the center of the storm gets so intense and warm in places that the eyewall needs to grow, so a small one collapses and a bigger one forms. That’s called an eyewall replacement cycle, McNoldy said, and it usually weakens the storm at least temporarily.

    Melissa showed some signs of being ready to do this, but it never did, McNoldy and Klotzbach said.

    Another weird thing is that Melissa sat offshore of mountainous Jamaica for awhile before coming inland. Usually mountains, even on islands, tear up storms, but not Melissa.

    “It was next to a big mountainous island and it doesn’t even notice it’s there,” McNoldy said in amazement.

    Warm water is the fuel for hurricanes. The hotter and deeper the water, the more a storm can power up. But when storms sit over one area for awhile — which Melissa did for days on end — it usually brings cold water up from the depths, choking off the fuel a bit. But that didn’t happen to Melissa, said Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist for Climate Central, a combination of scientists and journalists who study climate change.

    “It’s wild how almost easily this was allowed to just keep venting,” Woods Placky said. “This had enough warm water at such high levels and it just kept going.”

    Melissa rapidly intensified during five six-hour periods as it hit the extreme rapid intensification level, McNoldy said. And then it jumped another 35 mph and “that’s extraordinary,” he said.

    For meteorologists following it “just your stomach would sink as you’d see these updates coming in,” Woods Placky said.

    “We were sitting at work on Monday morning with our team and you just saw the numbers just start jumping again, 175. And then again this morning (Tuesday), 185,” Woods Placky said.

    “It’s an explosion,” she said.

    One key factor is warm water. McNoldy said some parts of the ocean under Melissa were 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the long-term average for this time of year.

    Climate Central, using scientifically accepted techniques of comparing what’s happening now to a fictional world with no human-caused climate change, estimated the role of global warming in Melissa. It said the water was 500 to 700 times more likely to be warmer than normal because of climate change.

    A rapid Associated Press analysis of Category 5 hurricanes that brewed, not just hit, in the Atlantic over the past 125 years showed a large recent increase in those top-of-the-scale storms. There have been 13 Category 5 storms from 2016 to 2025, including three this year. Until last year, no other 10-year period even reached double digits. About 29% of the Category 5 hurricanes in the past 125 years have happened since 2016.

    McNoldy, Klotzbach and Woods Placky said hurricane records before the modern satellite era are not as reliable because some storms out at sea could have been missed. Measuring systems for strength have also improved and changed, which could be a factor. And there was a period between 2008 and 2015 with no Atlantic Category 5 storms, Klotzbach said.

    Still, climate science generally predicts that a warmer world will have more strong storms, even if there aren’t necessarily more storms overall, the scientists said.

    “We’re seeing a direct connection in attribution science with the temperature in the water and a climate change connection, Woods Placky said. ”And when we see these storms go over this extremely warm water, it is more fuel for these storms to intensify rapidly and push to new levels.”

    Science Writer Seth Borenstein has covered hurricanes for more than 35 years and has co-authored two books on them. Data journalist M.K. Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

    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.

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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.

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  • Tropical Storm Melissa Trudges Through Caribbean as Forecasters Warn It Will Quickly Intensify

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Melissa plodded through the central Caribbean early Friday, with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane while unleashing potentially “catastrophic” flash flooding and landslides in southern Haiti.

    The slow-moving and erratic storm was expected to drop copious rain on Jamaica and the southern regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the weekend.

    “The rainfall is a huge risk with the storm,” said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Rainfall has historically been the biggest cause of loss of life of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Caribbean.”

    The slow-moving storm was centered about 150 miles (245 kilometers) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 270 miles (430 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was moving north at 3 mph (6 kph), the U.S. center said.

    A hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning were in effect for Jamaica and the southwestern peninsula of Haiti.

    Melissa was expected to slowly begin moving closer to Jamaica over the weekend. It was expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Saturday and become a major hurricane by the end of the weekend, possibly reaching Category 4 status by Tuesday.

    Forecasters said Jamaica’s eastern region could see up to 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain that could lead to flooding and landslides because the ground is already saturated from recent heavy rains unrelated to the storm.

    Schools, health centers and government offices closed across Jamaica on Thursday, with authorities warning that all airports would close within 24 hours if a hurricane warning is issued.

    “The situation is indeed serious,” said Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s minister of economic growth and job creation, as he warned people not to be fooled by the storm’s current pace and strength. “Be very attentive, because it can change in a moment’s notice.”

    Up to 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain also was forecast for southern Haiti and the southern Dominican Republic, with higher amounts possible through Sunday.

    Melissa was blamed for one death in southern Haiti, and five other people in the country’s central region were injured in flooding, authorities said. The U.N. announced Thursday that it was preparing more than 100 emergency shelters in Haiti’s southern region.

    The storm also knocked out dozens of water supply systems in the neighboring Dominican Republic, affecting more than half a million customers. It also downed trees and traffic lights and unleashed a couple of small landslides.

    All public schools across the Dominican Republic would close on Friday, while government offices in 12 provinces under alert would do the same, officials said.

    “This is an event that we should be following minute by minute,” said Juan Manuel Méndez García, emergency operations director in the Dominican Republic. He noted that evacuations in areas under alert were mandatory.

    Melissa is the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, and the first named storm to form in the Caribbean this year.

    The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had predicted an above-normal season with 13 to 18 named storms. Of those, five to nine were forecast to become hurricanes, including two to five major hurricanes, which pack winds of 111 mph (178 kph) or greater.

    The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

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  • Hong Kong prepares to reopen runway after crash though it won’t be used regularly

    HONG KONG — HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong prepared Tuesday to reopen the runway where a cargo aircraft crashed and plunged into the sea the previous day, but said it would remain out of regular use until wreckage from the accident was fully cleared from the water.

    The Boeing 747 flown by Turkey-based ACT Airlines flight from Dubai skidded off to the left after landing in the early hours of Monday and collided with a patrol car, causing both the aircraft and the car to plunge into the sea. Two workers in the car were killed. The four crew members on the plane had no apparent injuries.

    Repairs to the runway and damaged fencing have been completed, Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director for airport operations, told Radio Television Hong Kong. He added that that investigators had collected initial evidence at the scene.

    The plane’s cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have not yet been retrieved, Yiu said. The aircraft was being operated under lease by Emirates, a long-haul carrier based in Dubai.

    The runway would be put on standby status from noon, meaning it can be used for landings but will not be included in regular flight planning. Yiu said it would remain on standby until the wreckage is fully cleared from the sea.

    Hong Kong authorities were in contact with barge companies for the cleanup but they could not begin removal work while Tropical Storm Fengshen was still affecting the city, he said. Depending on weather, wreckage removal and other work could be completed within a week, Yiu said.

    Investigators were continuing to work to determine the cause of the crash. Yiu said both weather and runway conditions met standards during the incident, while mechanical and human factors were yet to be investigated.

    Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said her bureau hoped the air accident investigation authority would release an initial probe report within a month, the bureau posted on Facebook.

    Monday’s crash marked the second fatal incident for ACT Airlines. In 2017, a Boeing 747 flown by ACT Airlines under the name MyCargo crashed as it prepared to land in fog in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, killing all four crew on board and 35 people on the ground. ACT Airlines flew that route from Hong Kong on behalf of Turkish Airlines.

    A later report on the crash by Kyrgyz authorities blamed the flight crew for misjudging the plane’s position while landing in poor weather. The crew was tired and had a heated exchange with air-traffic control before the crash, the report said.

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  • Prepare for wild weather and don’t bother the sheep: What to know about visiting the Faroe Islands

    KALSOY ISLAND, Faroe Islands (AP) — While once the Faroe Islands might have slipped under the radar, more tourists than ever are arriving on the remote archipelago in the north Atlantic.

    According to Statistics Faroe Islands, a record 94,954 check-ins occurred last year at hotels, hostels and guesthouses.

    That’s relatively small for a European destination, but authorities are already thinking about how to protect the windswept 18 islands from the tourism pressure that has led to backlash elsewhere.

    Like Greenland, the Faroes are a self-governing territory of Denmark. So far, U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed no public interest in taking control of them.

    Here’s what to know about visiting.

    The weather above all

    Be ready for anything, especially when hiking. At some point, it will rain. Strong winds can pick up quickly, and fog can be disorienting.

    The Landsverk local authority has weather cams on its site, and so does FaroeIslandsLive. The official Visit Faroe Islands site has detailed advice on safe travel, as locals are aware that people can slip off trails into the sea – and sometimes do.

    “I will take photos to die for, without dying for them,” says a tourist-focused flier called “The Faroese Pledge” on the library door in the village of Fuglafjordur.

    Trails marked as suitable for children may not be. Keep in mind that hiking times and difficulty levels have been estimated by locals. A few of the most heavily traveled routes ask for a fee. The popular hike to the Kallur lighthouse on Kalsoy Island is about $30. Do not miss it.

    Undersea tunnels, upper-tier fees

    It’s best to explore with a rental car for more flexibility. Public buses are available to many locations, but timetables are limited. They are available at the Strandfaraskip site. Multi-day travel passes can be purchased at the airport’s visitor center.

    The Faroe Islands now have four undersea tunnels linking a few of the most visited islands, but prepare to pay. Fees range from over $15 for a round trip to over $27 one way. Plan day trips accordingly. Fees are paid to the rental car company at the end of a visit.

    On land, some of the older tunnels are single lanes with designated passing areas. Some of the scenic “buttercup” routes are single lanes as well. Guardrails are not always present.

    On one stretch of road leaving the community of Tjornuvik, a signal has been installed to limit traffic to one direction at a time along the well-battered guardrail above the sea. Tourists don’t know how to reverse, residents said.

    Mind the sheep, and other details

    The need for cash is almost nonexistent. The AP used it once, for a coin-operated shower in one of the public restrooms often found at camping locations or tourist-frequented villages. Pay with cards and phones.

    Food is expensive, as most of it is imported.

    English is widely enough spoken and displayed.

    Drone use is restricted. The Visit Faroe Islands site has details.

    Don’t bother the sheep. Call the police if you hit one.

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  • Take a ‘stormcation’ in the dramatic Faroe Islands, where James Bond died

    KALSOY ISLAND, Faroe Islands (AP) — The tiny Faroe Islands in the north Atlantic could be a poor choice for travelers with vertigo, seasickness or a fear of enclosed spaces. There are crumbling cliffs, sudden gale-force winds and hillsides so steep that even the sheep can tumble.

    Three tourists disappeared over two days in September. Police told the media their last locations were near a well-known waterfall that drops into the sea. Be careful, a shaken staffer at the site’s entrance said days later. “Come back.”

    The risks come with landscapes so dramatic that one became the site for James Bond’s end in “No Time to Die.” Now the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory under Denmark, like Greenland, are trying to handle a growing number of travelers also drawn by bird-watching, adventurous eating and “coolcations” as global temperatures rise.

    Its sure-footed residents once hiked over mountain passes and maneuvered wooden boats onto rocky shores just to visit church or each other. Unlike tourists, they know when to stay away from hiking trails alongside unprotected cliffs, and how disorienting sudden fogs can be.

    A rainbow appears near a lighthouse on Kalsoy Island in Faroe Islands, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

    “When you make a mistake here, nature usually wins,” a food truck vendor at one popular site said.

    It’s easier than ever to learn that lesson while exploring the Faroe Islands, which for now are largely free of the zip-lined commercialization of one of its nearest neighbors, Iceland.

    A growing network of undersea tunnels, including what’s called the world’s first undersea roundabout, are helping to link the 18 islands. Rugged isolation is giving way to smooth highways, and Airbnb has hundreds of listings among a population of over 50,000 people.

    A new co-chairmanship of the Arctic Council is bringing more global visibility, along with a stunning run toward its first soccer World Cup.

    ‘Closed for maintenance’

    Authorities are trying to both encourage tourism and protect the Faroe Islands from it. A yearly “closed for maintenance” program began in 2019, with volunteers from around the world chosen to help with anti-erosion efforts, path upkeep and other work. The national museum later launched a project to protect lands and biodiversity.

    And this year, the tourism office introduced self-navigating tours that steer visitors from the churned-mud trails of the most popular spots to lesser-known areas.

    Tour routes are revealed online as you go along. One sends users to a seaside village that hosts a popular music festival, followed by a tiny botanical garden, a fjord-side memorial to a deadly shipwreck and a small forest plantation enjoyed by Faroese on the otherwise treeless islands.

    The last leg was along a one-lane road that at times had no guardrail between its lack of shoulder and the drop to the sea. Sheep walked along one stretch, another reason for visitors to stay alert in the stunning surroundings. (There’s a police number to call if a driver hits one.)

    Visitors who love the outdoors can easily spend a week in the Faroe Islands cycling, fishing, trying an emerging sauna scene, eating sushi from locally farmed salmon and shopping for newly knitted wool sweaters. In the summer, boat tours include music concerts inside a sea cave or puffin-watching.

    Winters are fierce — a ferryman said a storm two years ago ripped the roof from an old house next to the AP’s seaside rental cottage in Sydradalur — but interest in the islands is starting to extend the peak tourist season into October.

    Ferocious winds and bewildered sheep

    Villages, especially in the wilder northern region, can have just a handful of residents. There are few tourist-focused businesses outside the capital, Torshavn, but the village of Gjogv has a welcoming guesthouse and cafe, and the village of Fuglafjordur has a charming main street and visitors’ center. English is widely spoken and displayed.

    Just be prepared for rain in the often-shifting weather, with webcams available from popular locations.

    And mind the guidance, even scolding, that some Faroese have posted for tourists who overstep.

    “Due to unmannerly behavior and lack of quietness on the graves, the cemetery is closed,” said a sign on the church in the village of Saksun.

    “Do not wash your shoes in the sink!” said a sign at the ferry stop on Kalsoy island. A worker at the island’s unexpected Thai restaurant — a sign of the small but growing migrant population — estimated that about 200 tourists a day came to a much-photographed lighthouse there this summer.

    The official Visit Faroe Islands doesn’t hold back, either, as it balances the appeal of growing tourism with the responsibility of warning travelers. Finding equilibrium is a long practice in the nation whose fishing-dominated economy requires cordial ties with a range of countries including Russia and China.

    “Stormcation,” the Visit Faroe Islands site declares, but adds: “Ferocious wind can overturn cars, fling bicycles, wheelbarrows — and sheep — or anything else that’s not anchored down.”

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  • Storm decimates 2 Alaskan villages and drives more than 1,500 people from their homes

    JUNEAU, Alaska — JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — More rain and wind were forecast Wednesday along the Alaskan coast where two tiny villages were decimated by the remnants of Typhoon Halong and officials were scrambling to find shelter for more than 1,500 people driven from their homes.

    The weekend storm brought high winds and surf that battered the low-lying Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the southwestern part of the state, nearly 500 miles (800 km) from Anchorage. At least one person was killed and two were missing. The Coast Guard plucked two dozen people from their homes after the structures floated out to sea.

    Hundreds were staying in school shelters, including one with no working toilets, officials said. The weather system followed a storm that struck parts of western Alaska days earlier.

    Across the region, more than 1,500 people were displaced. Dozens were flown to a shelter set up in the National Guard armory in the regional hub city of Bethel, a community of 6,000 people, and officials were considering flying evacuees to longer-term shelter or emergency housing in Fairbanks and Anchorage.

    The hardest-hit communities included Kipnuk, population 715, and Kwigillingok, population 380. They are off the state’s main road system and reachable this time of year only by water or by air.

    “It’s catastrophic in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint any other picture,” Mark Roberts, incident commander with the state emergency management division, told a news conference Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but it is as bad as you can think.”

    Among those awaiting evacuation to Bethel on Tuesday was Brea Paul, of Kipnuk, who said in a text message that she had seen about 20 homes floating away through the moonlight on Saturday night.

    “Some houses would blink their phone lights at us like they were asking for help but we couldn’t even do anything,” she wrote.

    The following morning, she recorded video of a house submerged nearly to its roofline as it floated past her home.

    Paul and her neighbors had a long meeting in the local school gym on Monday night. They sang songs as they tried to figure out what to do next, she said. Paul wasn’t sure where she would go.

    “It’s so heartbreaking saying goodbye to our community members not knowing when we’d get to see each other,” she said.

    About 30 miles (48 kilometers) away in Kwigillingok, one woman was found dead and authorities on Monday night called off the search for two men whose home floated away.

    The school was the only facility in town with full power, but it had no working toilet and 400 people stayed there Monday night. Workers were trying to fix the bathrooms; a situation report from the state emergency operations center on Tuesday noted that portable toilets, or “honey buckets,” were being used.

    A preliminary assessment showed every home in the village was damaged by the storm, with about three dozen having drifted from their foundations, the emergency management office said.

    Power systems flooded in Napakiak, and severe erosion was reported in Toksook Bay. In Nightmute, officials said fuel drums were reported floating in the community, and there was a scent of fuel in the air and a sheen on the water.

    The National Guard was activated to help with the emergency response, and crews were trying to take advantage of any breaks in the weather to fly in food, water, generators and communication equipment.

    Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities. Most rebuilding supplies would have to be transported in and there is little time left with winter just around the corner.

    “Indigenous communities in Alaska are resilient,” said Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But, you know, when you have an entire community where effectively every house is damaged and many of them will be uninhabitable with winter knocking at the door now, there’s only so much that any individual or any small community can do.”

    Thoman said the storm was likely fueled by the warm surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, which has been heating up because of human-caused climate change and making storms more intense.

    The remnants of another storm, Typhoon Merbok, caused damage across a massive swath of western Alaska three years ago.

    __

    Johnson and Attanasio reported from Seattle.

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  • Storm Decimates 2 Alaskan Villages and Drives More Than 1,500 People From Their Homes

    JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — More rain and wind were forecast Wednesday along the Alaskan coast where two tiny villages were decimated by the remnants of Typhoon Halong and officials were scrambling to find shelter for more than 1,500 people driven from their homes.

    The weekend storm brought high winds and surf that battered the low-lying Alaska Native communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the southwestern part of the state, nearly 500 miles (800 km) from Anchorage. At least one person was killed and two were missing. The Coast Guard plucked two dozen people from their homes after the structures floated out to sea.

    Hundreds were staying in school shelters, including one with no working toilets, officials said. The weather system followed a storm that struck parts of western Alaska days earlier.

    Across the region, more than 1,500 people were displaced. Dozens were flown to a shelter set up in the National Guard armory in the regional hub city of Bethel, a community of 6,000 people, and officials were considering flying evacuees to longer-term shelter or emergency housing in Fairbanks and Anchorage.

    The hardest-hit communities included Kipnuk, population 715, and Kwigillingok, population 380. They are off the state’s main road system and reachable this time of year only by water or by air.

    “It’s catastrophic in Kipnuk. Let’s not paint any other picture,” Mark Roberts, incident commander with the state emergency management division, told a news conference Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to continue to support that community, but it is as bad as you can think.”

    Among those awaiting evacuation to Bethel on Tuesday was Brea Paul, of Kipnuk, who said in a text message that she had seen about 20 homes floating away through the moonlight on Saturday night.

    “Some houses would blink their phone lights at us like they were asking for help but we couldn’t even do anything,” she wrote.

    The following morning, she recorded video of a house submerged nearly to its roofline as it floated past her home.

    Paul and her neighbors had a long meeting in the local school gym on Monday night. They sang songs as they tried to figure out what to do next, she said. Paul wasn’t sure where she would go.

    “It’s so heartbreaking saying goodbye to our community members not knowing when we’d get to see each other,” she said.

    About 30 miles (48 kilometers) away in Kwigillingok, one woman was found dead and authorities on Monday night called off the search for two men whose home floated away.

    The school was the only facility in town with full power, but it had no working toilet and 400 people stayed there Monday night. Workers were trying to fix the bathrooms; a situation report from the state emergency operations center on Tuesday noted that portable toilets, or “honey buckets,” were being used.

    A preliminary assessment showed every home in the village was damaged by the storm, with about three dozen having drifted from their foundations, the emergency management office said.

    Power systems flooded in Napakiak, and severe erosion was reported in Toksook Bay. In Nightmute, officials said fuel drums were reported floating in the community, and there was a scent of fuel in the air and a sheen on the water.

    The National Guard was activated to help with the emergency response, and crews were trying to take advantage of any breaks in the weather to fly in food, water, generators and communication equipment.


    Long road to recovery ahead, officials say

    Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities. Most rebuilding supplies would have to be transported in and there is little time left with winter just around the corner.

    “Indigenous communities in Alaska are resilient,” said Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But, you know, when you have an entire community where effectively every house is damaged and many of them will be uninhabitable with winter knocking at the door now, there’s only so much that any individual or any small community can do.”

    Thoman said the storm was likely fueled by the warm surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, which has been heating up because of human-caused climate change and making storms more intense.

    Johnson and Attanasio reported from Seattle.

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  • Rare October storm brings heavy rain and possible mudslides to Southern California

    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some homes were ordered evacuated in wildfire-scarred Los Angeles neighborhoods as Southern California was hit by a rare October storm that was expected to pummel the region with heavy rain, high winds and possible mudslides.

    “We’re very concerned about the weather,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Monday night, explaining that strike teams, rescue teams and helicopters were all ready to respond.

    The evacuations covered about 115 homes mostly in Pacific Palisades and Mandeville Canyon, both struck by a massive inferno in January that killed more than 30 people in all and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings in Los Angeles County. Wildfires can leave hillsides without vegetation to hold soil in place, making it easier for the terrain to loosen during storms.

    Bass and other officials warned residents across the region to remain alert and stay indoors. The worst was expected to begin early Tuesday and carry through the afternoon, and more than 16,000 had already lost power as of Monday night, according to PowerOutage.us.

    The storm could result in up to 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office, which described it as a “rare and very potent storm system.”

    Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, said the storm could even bring a couple of tornadoes, and one major challenge is its unpredictability.

    “The nature of this system is such that we cannot be certain about exactly when and where these impacts will strike, the exact details until right before they occur at the earliest,” he said.

    Teams from the Los Angeles Fire Department had started patrolling the area Monday night and a section of state Route 27, beginning at the Pacific Coast Highway, was closed in preparation for the storm, the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, said on social media.

    The weather service also warned of high winds that could knock down trees and power lines.

    To the north, up to 3 feet (1 meter) of mountain snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevadas.

    Heavy rain had already started falling Monday evening across much of Northern California, bringing some urban flooding around the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Gladstones Restaurant, located along the Pacific Coast Highway, said it was closing on Tuesday in anticipation of the heavy rains. The Pacific Palisades establishment is located at an intersection that has experienced heavy debris flow during past rains.

    In February, torrential rains unleashed debris flows and mudslides in several neighborhoods torched by the January fires. In the community of Sierra Madre, near the site of the Eaton Fire, water, debris and boulders rushed down the mountain, trapping cars in the mud and damaging several home garages. A portion of the Pacific Coast Highway by Pacific Palisades was submerged in at least 3 feet of sludge, and a swift debris flow swept a Los Angeles Fire Department vehicle into the ocean.

    Concerns about post-fire debris flows have been especially high since 2018, when the town of Montecito, up the coast from Los Angeles, was ravaged by mudslides after a downpour hit mountain slopes burned bare by a huge blaze. Hundreds of homes were damaged and 23 people died.

    Elsewhere in the U.S., Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters that swept some homes away in Alaska over the weekend. One person was dead and two were missing in western Alaska on Monday, while more than 50 people had been rescued — some plucked from rooftops.

    Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities with winter just around the corner.

    In Tempe, Arizona, a microburst and thunderstorm on Monday dropped about a half-inch of rain within 10 minutes, the National Weather Service said. The storm caused significant damage, including uprooting trees that toppled onto vehicles and buildings, and dropping them on streets and sidewalks. A business complex had its roof torn off, and thousands of homes lost power.

    ___

    Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska.

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  • Rare October Storm Brings Heavy Rain and Possible Mudslides to Southern California

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some homes were ordered evacuated in wildfire-scarred Los Angeles neighborhoods as Southern California was hit by a rare October storm that was expected to pummel the region with heavy rain, high winds and possible mudslides.

    “We’re very concerned about the weather,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Monday night, explaining that strike teams, rescue teams and helicopters were all ready to respond.

    The evacuations covered about 115 homes mostly in Pacific Palisades and Mandeville Canyon, both struck by a massive inferno in January that killed more than 30 people in all and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings in Los Angeles County. Wildfires can leave hillsides without vegetation to hold soil in place, making it easier for the terrain to loosen during storms.

    Bass and other officials warned residents across the region to remain alert and stay indoors. The worst was expected to begin early Tuesday and carry through the afternoon, and more than 16,000 had already lost power as of Monday night, according to PowerOutage.us.

    The storm could result in up to 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office, which described it as a “rare and very potent storm system.”

    Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, said the storm could even bring a couple of tornadoes, and one major challenge is its unpredictability.

    “The nature of this system is such that we cannot be certain about exactly when and where these impacts will strike, the exact details until right before they occur at the earliest,” he said.

    Teams from the Los Angeles Fire Department had started patrolling the area Monday night and a section of state Route 27, beginning at the Pacific Coast Highway, was closed in preparation for the storm, the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, said on social media.

    The weather service also warned of high winds that could knock down trees and power lines.

    To the north, up to 3 feet (1 meter) of mountain snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevadas.

    Heavy rain had already started falling Monday evening across much of Northern California, bringing some urban flooding around the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Gladstones Restaurant, located along the Pacific Coast Highway, said it was closing on Tuesday in anticipation of the heavy rains. The Pacific Palisades establishment is located at an intersection that has experienced heavy debris flow during past rains.

    In February, torrential rains unleashed debris flows and mudslides in several neighborhoods torched by the January fires. In the community of Sierra Madre, near the site of the Eaton Fire, water, debris and boulders rushed down the mountain, trapping cars in the mud and damaging several home garages. A portion of the Pacific Coast Highway by Pacific Palisades was submerged in at least 3 feet of sludge, and a swift debris flow swept a Los Angeles Fire Department vehicle into the ocean.

    Concerns about post-fire debris flows have been especially high since 2018, when the town of Montecito, up the coast from Los Angeles, was ravaged by mudslides after a downpour hit mountain slopes burned bare by a huge blaze. Hundreds of homes were damaged and 23 people died.

    Elsewhere in the U.S., Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters that swept some homes away in Alaska over the weekend. One person was dead and two were missing in western Alaska on Monday, while more than 50 people had been rescued — some plucked from rooftops.

    Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities with winter just around the corner.

    In Tempe, Arizona, a microburst and thunderstorm on Monday dropped about a half-inch of rain within 10 minutes, the National Weather Service said. The storm caused significant damage, including uprooting trees that toppled onto vehicles and buildings, and dropping them on streets and sidewalks. A business complex had its roof torn off, and thousands of homes lost power.

    Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • High Tides Raise Flood Risk in Carolinas as Tropical Storms Churn in Atlantic and Pacific

    MIAMI (AP) — A storm without a name and unusual king tides were causing some flooding on the Carolina coast early Friday as tropical storms churned in the Atlantic and along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

    About a dozen streets were already flooded in Charleston, South Carolina, and the city offered free parking in some garages. A high tide of 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) was forecast Friday morning, which would be the 13th highest in more than a century of recorded data in Charleston Harbor.

    The unnamed coastal storm and unusually high king tides, when the moon is closer than usual to the Earth, threatened to bring days of heavy winds that could cause coastal flooding, especially along the vulnerable Outer Banks of North Carolina and around Charleston.

    Along the Outer Banks, forecasters said the worst weather should occur Friday through the weekend. They warned it was likely that highway N.C. 12 on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands would likely have to close again because of ocean overwash.

    In the Pacific, Tropical Storms Priscilla and Raymond threatened heavy rain along the Mexican coast, and Priscilla could cause flash flooding across the U.S. Southwest through the weekend. Flood watches were issued for parts of Arizona, California and Nevada.

    Priscilla was centered about 190 miles (300 kilometers) west-northwest of Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico, and moving north at 6 mph (9 kph) with maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph (85 kph).

    A tropical storm warning associated with Raymond was issued from Zihuatanejo to Cabo Corrientes, Mexico. Raymond was forecast to remain off the southwestern coast of Mexico through Friday before nearing Baja California Sur on Saturday and Sunday.

    Raymond was about 95 miles (150 kilometers) south-southeast of Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph), forecasters said.

    In the Atlantic, Jerry was passing east of the northern Leeward Islands and causing heavy rainfall. Officials in Guadeloupe warned of potential power outages.

    Jerry was centered about 65 miles (100 kilometers) east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph).

    A tropical storm warning was in effect for Barbuda and Anguilla, St. Barthelemy and St. Martin, Sint Maarten and Guadeloupe and the adjacent islands. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat and Saba and St. Eustatius, the hurricane center said.

    The storm should strengthen into a hurricane Saturday. The Nor’easter expected to send rain and pounding waves into the Southeast U.S. is helping steer Jerry away from the islands and into the open Atlantic, forecasters said.

    Also Thursday, Subtropical Storm Karen formed far from land in the north Atlantic Ocean. Karen had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was expected to maintain that strength through the day.

    A subtropical storm tends to have a wide zone of strong winds farther from its center compared to a tropical storm, which generates heavier rains, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

    About seven weeks remain in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, and meteorologists warned the Pacific Ocean cooling pattern called La Nina, which can warp weather worldwide and turbocharge hurricanes, has returned.

    It may be too late in the hurricane season to impact tropical weather in the Atlantic, but this La Nina may have other impacts from heavy rains to drought across the globe.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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