This paper evaluates whether mangroves can mitigate the impact of hurricanes on economic activity. The paper assembles a new, regionwide panel data set that measures local economic activity using nightlights, potential hurricane damages using a detailed hurricane windstorm model, and mangrove protection by mapping the width of mangrove forests on …
Louisiana state agencies have spent more than $100 million to deal with Hurricane Isaac and the costs are expected to rise, a local news website said Thursday. The costs, estimated at $116 million, include money used to mobilize the National Guard, set up shelters, provide food and water to hurricane-affected …
Torrential rain dropped by Hurricane Isaac threatened to burst a dam on Thursday, forcing evacuation of up to 60,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and leaving large areas of the region flooded and without power. Isaac, which was downgraded to a tropical depression on Thursday after moving in from the …
The latest track of Tropical Storm Isaac puts more than $36 billion in Gulf Coast residential property at risk of flooding from storm surges, with southeastern Louisiana at greatest peril of huge losses, residential data analysis company CoreLogic said on Sunday. Isaac bore down on the Florida Keys Sunday afternoon, …
Colorado State University researchers on Friday raised their forecast for the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season to 13 tropical storms, with five hurricanes and two major hurricanes. In April they forecast 10 tropical storms, with four strengthening into hurricanes and two becoming major hurricanes with winds of at least 111 miles …
Writing in Nature Climate Change, Lin and colleagues show that the combined effect of storm climatology and sea-level rise will greatly shorten surge-flooding return periods. Future climate effects may cause the present-day 100-yr and 500-yr surge flooding in New York City (NYC) to occur every 3–20 yrs and every 25–240 …
Bill Read, the top U.S. hurricane forecaster for the last 4-1/2 years, says researchers may be edging closer to finding the "holy grail" of hurricane forecasting. But Read, who steps down as director of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center on June 1, acknowledged in an interview it could be the …
I support the warning about the hazards of power sanding and their call for enforcing the New Orleans, Louisiana, Code of Ordinances (2001) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule (U.S. EPA 2008) for cleanup of residual lead dust at residential properties. Power sanding has been …
Natural disasters, such as Japan's earthquake and floods in Australia and Thailand, cost the global economy a record $370 billion in 2011, with losses for the insurance industry the second largest ever, Swiss Re (SRENH.VX) said on Wednesday. Insured catastrophe losses more than doubled in 2011 to $116 billion, Swiss …
Disasters led by the Japan earthquake cost the world a record figure of more than $380 billion last year, a UN official said Monday. While countries are managing to control the disaster death toll, economic costs are increasing more than ever before, said Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN special envoy on …
When at least 80 tornadoes rampaged across the United States, from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, last Friday, it was more than is typically observed during the entire month of March, tracking firm AccuWeather.com reported on Monday. According to some climate scientists, such earlier-than-normal outbreaks of tornadoes, which …
The number of Americans who believe global warming is happening is on the rise, according to a Brookings Institution report on the latest National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change (NSAPOCC) survey conducted in December of 2011. The report shows much of that new-found belief comes from direct …
As a result of Hurricane Katrina, > 100,000 homes were destroyed or damaged and a significant amount of sediment was deposited throughout the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Researchers have identified the potential for increased lead hazards from environmental lead contamination of soils. The authors assessed the distribution of residential …
Insurance industry damage claims from natural disasters like the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand reached a record $105 billion in 2011, said Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer. The cost to insurers from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March, which caused nearly 16,000 deaths, was estimated at …
Much media reporting of climate change exaggerates its impact, it’s necessary to get real now Extreme weather is often said to be one of the main reasons for taking firm action on global warming. Nowadays, no hurricane or heat wave passes without an activist claiming it as evidence of the …
High winds returned to the Los Angeles area early on Saturday as over 100,000 homes and businesses lost power, due to fallen trees and other damage from an ongoing windstorm. Southern California Edison said that at mid-afternoon it still had 73,600 customers affected by the outages, which were mainly concentrated …
Small island states may disappear under rising seas if an international agreement to tackle climate change is delayed for another decade, an official said on Monday.The European Union is calling for a global deal to be reached by 2015 and implemented by 2020, but the 43-member Alliance of Small Island …
At least some of the weather extremes being seen around the world are consequences of human-induced climate change and can be expected to worsen in coming decades, a United Nations panel reported on Friday. It is likely that greenhouse gas emissions related to human activity have already led to more …
Deaths and health problems from floods, drought and other U.S. disasters related to climate change cost an estimated $14 billion over the last decade, researchers said on Monday. "When extreme weather hits, we hear about the property damage and insurance costs," said Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist at Natural Resources …
Mexican President Felipe Calderon urged Washington and Beijing on Thursday to agree to curb the release of climate-warming gases to ensure the success of United Nations climate talks in South Africa later this month. "An agreement between the U.S. and China is absolutely required," Calderon told a gathering of business …
