BOONE, N.C. — Freddie Pell helps lift a vintage wooden chair off the sidewalk and back inside his art gallery. It’s starting to rain in downtown Boone, and he doesn’t want it to get soaked — again. Inside, vast muddy puddles spread across the room as workers use mops to push the water out the … Read more
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Nearly 6,000 people in Haiti are starving, with nearly half the country’s population of more than 11 million people experiencing crisis levels of hunger or worse as gang violence smothers life in the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond, according to a new report released Monday. The number of Haitians facing crisis, emergency … Read more
The hallmarks of climate change — extreme heat and drought; larger, more intense wildfires and supercharged hurricanes, typhoons and rainstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding — are being seen and felt around the globe. Drought in Brazil. Wildfires in Portugal, Peru and the Western U.S. Severe flooding swamping Central Europe, Southeast Asia and Western Africa. … Read more
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana businessman who sent more than 800 elderly residents from his seven nursing homes to ride out Hurricane Ida in a crowded, ill-equipped warehouse pleaded no contest to 15 criminal counts Monday and was sentenced to three years of probation. Bob Dean Jr. also must pay more than $358,000 in restitution … Read more
SPRING, Texas — As the temperature soared in the Houston-area home Janet Jarrett shared with her sister after losing electricity in Hurricane Beryl, she did everything she could to keep her 64-year-old sibling cool. But on their fourth day without power, she awoke to hear Pamela Jarrett, who used a wheelchair and relied on a … Read more
GALVESTON, Texas — Vacuums sucked the water out of the seaside inn run by Nick Gaido’s family in Galveston since 1911 as power was still spotty nearly one week after a resurgent Hurricane Beryl swept into Texas. Blue tarp covered much of the torn off roof. Gaido scheduled cleanup shifts for the hotel and restaurant … Read more
CAROLINA, Puerto Rico — Vianca Braña never used to attend basketball games in her hometown of Carolina, Puerto Rico — or anywhere else in the United States territory. But in recent years, the 23-year-old has left the arena with a hoarse voice, often wearing a T-shirt that reads “Carola,” a nickname for her town. “We … Read more
Earth’s more than year-long streak of record-shattering hot months kept on simmering through June, according to the European climate service Copernicus. There’s hope that the planet will soon see an end to the record-setting part of the heat streak, but not the climate chaos that has come with it, scientists said. The global temperature in … Read more
PHOENIX — Priscilla Orr, 75, was living in her old white Kia in a supermarket parking lot last summer after telling her family she lost her money and home to a romance scam. But the car broke down, and the air conditioner stopped working, leaving her vulnerable to the dangerous desert heat. Orr collapsed last … Read more
