As Hurricane Melissa swept through the Caribbean with historic Category 5 winds, communities across Jamaica faced life-threatening flooding, severe storm surge, and devastating rainfall. With winds reaching 185 mph, Melissa became one of the strongest storms the region has ever experienced. While the storm has passed, the road to recovery is far from over. Operation USA…
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Over the July 3 and 4 weekend, torrential downpours triggered catastrophic flooding across Central Texas as the Colorado and Guadalupe rivers rapidly rose and overflowed their banks. In just three hours, the Guadalupe surged more than 20 feet, from 10 cubic feet per second to over 120,000, causing widespread devastation across Austin, San Antonio, and…
Since January 6th, a series of devastating wildfires fueled by record-breaking Santa Ana winds have swept through Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, killing at least two dozen people, and displacing hundreds of thousands more. The two largest fires—Palisades and Eaton—have burned over 37,000 acres, destroyed and damaged more than 11,000 structures,…
In late 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton left a lasting impact across the southeastern United States, causing widespread destruction and hardship for countless communities. Hurricane HeleneMaking landfall as a powerful Category 4 storm, Hurricane Helene brought life-threatening flooding and widespread devastation to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Families and communities faced immense…
Updated: 1/22/2025 On January 15th, Israeli and Hamas reached a three-phase ceasefire agreement, temporarily halting the warfare after 470 continuous days. The ceasefire comes in 3 phases, with Phase 1 lasting six weeks and marked by the release of hostages by both Hamas and Israeli, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from central Gaza, and…
We often speak of “natural disasters” as the floods, winds, fires and earthquakes that can wreak such great damage on our communities, seemingly at random. But in truth, disasters are never truly natural and they are less random than we realize. Experts use the following as shorthand to demonstrate this notion that nearly all disasters…