Hurricane Maria, currently headed for Puerto Rico, stunned forecasters by rapidly intensifying from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 within a 15-hour period on Monday, battering the island of Dominica in the process. Indeed, the forecast error for Maria’s wind speed is one of the worst for a 24-hour hurricane forecast in the […]
On Sept. 8, someone in New York City dialed 311, the city’s non-emergency hotline, and asked for information about a Hurricane Sandy disaster relief program. This was not a fluke. It’s been nearly five years since the storm devastated the mid-Atlantic, causing 43 deaths in the city and $19 billion in damage. But still, nearly […]
The hurricanes in the Gulf and Florida over the last few weeks have left people displaced — and from more than just their homes. Places of worship, community centers, parks and schools are underwater, missing roofs or windows. And those losses can set the social infrastructure of a person’s life adrift. Years after the family […]
With the torrential rains of Hurricane Harvey, the historic winds of Irma, and Jose still meandering slowly through the Caribbean, the last few weeks have been full of powerful and frequent hurricanes. If the 2017 hurricane season continues like this, it could join 2005 and 2010 as one of the most intense hurricane seasons in […]
As Irma makes its way up Florida’s Gulf Coast, it’s on a path to disrupt some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. The Florida coasts and flood-prone areas are home to many people who are particularly vulnerable in storms, including people living in mobile homes, migrant laborers and older people, many of whom have limited […]