All posts tagged "Disasters"

New Yorkers were battening down on Saturday for what is expected to be the first major winter storm of 2024, forecast to dump a snowy mix on the Big Apple and beyond through the weekend. It’s been nearly two years since New York has seen more than an inch of snow in a 24-hour time span. While it’s a near certainty the city will be hit with at least some snow, whether it will break its nearly snowless streak depends on small nuances in the storm’s track. Much of the greater New York City area is right along the storm’s rain-snow line, with meteorologists noting temperatures have been warmer in ......

NEW YORK — An earthquake rattled parts of Queens Tuesday morning and may have sparked a series of underground explosions reported on Roosevelt Island, city officials said. “The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that a 1.7 magnitude earthquake has occurred near Astoria, Queens,” Notify NYC reported. “The earthquake has reportedly been felt in the New York City area, but there are no reports of injuries or damage in New York City at this time.” Residents of both Manhattan and Queens reported hearing multiple explosions just before 6 a.m. centered Main St. in Roosevelt Island just so......

NEW YORK — When a seven-story Bronx apartment building partially collapsed Monday afternoon, creating a jaw-dropping scene of devastation, some residents were away on vacation, others at work and still others were at home, forced to spring into action to save themselves. “Let’s go, let’s go, just leave everything,” tenant Sadie Martinez recounted telling her brother before they snatched up her 1-year-old and the family dog. “I was scared for my baby, not me.” There was no immediate warning the building would crumble, but Martinez recalled hearing a loud noise that afternoon as she was preparin......

A new study from Oregon State University estimates that wildfire and drought caused $11.2 billion in economic losses to privately owned timberland in California, Oregon and Washington over the past two decades. The study, which analyzed sales of private timberland over 17 years along with wildfire and drought data, found that most of the losses were not due to forests burning directly but the perception that forests could burn due to neighboring fires. "This study shows that climate change is already reducing the value of western forests," said Oregon State economist and study co-author David ......

DETROIT — The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald not only inspired an iconic ballad from Canadian crooner Gordon Lightfoot, it also led to the advancement of Great Lakes weather monitoring and forecasting that has helped ships navigate storms ever since. Forty-eight years ago, the largest freighter in Lake Superior history sank during a November storm. "Back in 1975, there were actually zero wave-monitoring buoys on Lake Superior, which is hard to even fathom," said Matt Zika, a meteorologist at the National Weather Station's Marquette office. "You take Lake Superior, which is basically the size......

MIAMI — South Florida awoke Thursday to downed trees, roads closed due to debris and flooding, homes taking on water and massive puddles everywhere. Tens of thousands of homes were without power. The cause? A no-name storm, one that swept the region over two days and dumped up to 14 inches of rain in some spots, with gusts as high as 75 mph at Government Cut and Port Everglades. The damage was enough to rival some tropical storms that have swept the region in recent years, according to the National Hurricane Center. And it even showed a broad area of circulation on radar as it rolled past Sout......