Disasters

"A bomb cyclone produced freezing temperatures across a large portion of the US from the Gulf coast to New England, bringing heavy snow to North Carolina where two were killed in storm-related conditions, and setting records in Florida, where officials warned of ice and falling iguanas."

"The FEMA Review Council recommends replacing the decades-old system for distributing money to states with a plan triggered by weather conditions, not monetary damage."

"Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has created a "logjam" for roughly $1 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster prevention projects around the country, NOTUS reported on Wednesday morning."

"Earth is closer than it’s ever been to destruction as Russia, China, the U.S. and other countries become “increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic,” a science-oriented advocacy group said Tuesday as it advanced its “Doomsday Clock” to 85 seconds till midnight."

"The Trump administration has overhauled a set of nuclear safety directives and shared them with the companies it is charged with regulating, without making the new rules available to the public, according to documents obtained exclusively by NPR."

"The storm is very large, and it could be particularly dangerous because a frigid mass of air known as a polar vortex will linger for days after the snow and freezing rain stop falling." "But winter weather patterns are shifting as the global climate warms, and scientists are working to understand those changes." "Cuts made by the Trump administration to federal climate research could threaten that work."

"Conservationists fighting Alaskan efforts to build a 211-mile industrial mining road across pristine lands of the southern Brooks Range, including a portion of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, told a federal court that President Donald Trump and his team violated numerous environmental laws in pushing through approvals to let it proceed."

"US natural gas continued to extend eye-popping gains, ending the day nearly 30% higher than Friday’s closing price as freezing weather sweeps across much of the country, boosting heating demand and disrupting supplies."

"Many in the U.S. faced another night of below-freezing temperatures and no electricity after a colossal winter storm heaped more snow Monday on the Northeast and kept parts of the South coated in ice. At least 29 deaths were reported in states afflicted with severe cold."