Disasters

"Last night, Michael Bromwich, the new director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (formerly known as the Minerals Management Service), circulated an email to staffers outlining new ethics policies for employees who deal with offshore drilling, an attempt to reform his run amuck division's rep for being too cozy with oil and gas interests."

"Tourists on a North Carolina vacation destination island were preparing to board the ferries and head for the mainland early Wednesday and more evacuations could be on the way as powerful Hurricane Earl threatened to sideswipe the East Coast."

"The company that runs the trans-Alaska pipeline remains under federal investigation and is in the middle of major changes after an internal probe this summer raised serious concerns about how it handled a major pipeline leak and emergency shutdown in May."

"India's supreme court has reopened the Bhopal  toxic gas leak case in response to a government petition seeking harsher punishment for officials from Union Carbide, the chemical company responsible."

"Pinpointing the amount of oil lingering in the Gulf of Mexico continues to be a source of frustration for journalists and scientists alike, with multiple, contradictory — if not necessarily 'dueling' —research reports having been published on the subject over the last few weeks."

"With prayers and the solemn tolling of bells, but also with second-line parades and the drumming of Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleanians throughout the region on Sunday took stock of their rebuilt lives in the five years since the worst event in the region's history, and promised each other to keep the recovery going."

"The U.S. National Hurricane Center was monitoring three tropical systems in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, and computer models still showed all three steering clear of key oil and gas producing areas in the Gulf of Mexico."

"A release of of toxic anhydrous ammonia from a refrigeration plant in Theodore, Alabama that sent more than 130 people to hospital has drawn investigators from three federal agencies and several state agencies to the scene."

"Flood-ravaged Pakistan ordered nearly half a million people to evacuate towns Thursday as the United Nations vowed to forge ahead with relief operations despite threats against foreign aid workers."