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  • Umair Irfan

    Umair Irfan

    No, you can’t just nuke a hurricane. But there are other options.

    Hurricane Michael is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Florida’s Gulf Coast.
    Hurricane Michael is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Florida’s Gulf Coast.
    Hurricane Michael is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Florida’s Gulf Coast.
    NASA Earth Observatory

    No, you cannot just drop a nuclear weapon on a hurricane.

    It is such a frequently asked question that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration debunks the idea on its frequently asked questions page.

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  • Sean Sublette

    I’m a TV weatherman. Here’s what happened when I discussed climate change on air.

    A photo of Tropical Storm Harvey taken by astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station on August 28, 2017.
    A photo of Tropical Storm Harvey taken by astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station on August 28, 2017.
    A photo of Tropical Storm Harvey taken by astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station on August 28, 2017.
    Credits: NASA

    My former colleagues in the broadcast meteorology field have certainly had a busy past year. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria devastated the Texas coastline, Florida, and Puerto Rico, where thousands still suffer power outages. Wildfires spread across the West Coast. I know broadcast meterologists’ first job is to protect life and property, but on this Earth Day, I wonder how many of my former colleagues have mentioned climate change in their longform coverage of these natural disasters.

    It was not so long ago that climate change was a topic broadcast meteorologists would not bring up. Some still don’t. The reasons are complicated, ranging from what meteorologists are taught in college to not wanting to upset their viewers. But they are increasingly changing. I’ve spoken to many former colleagues who want to start having these conversations on air and doing what they can to inform the public about the issue.

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  • Brian Resnick

    Brian Resnick

    Hurricane season 2017: what the hell just happened?

    This is one of the most incredible images of 2017. It’s a satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration peering down on Hurricanes Katia and Irma and Tropical Storm Jose (from left to right) on September 8.

    It’s an image that sums up what a punishing Atlantic hurricane season it has been. From late August to early October, it seemed that just as one storm was barreling west, another was spinning up right behind it.

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  • Julia Belluz

    Julia Belluz

    Flesh-eating bacteria, cancer-causing chemicals, and mold: Harvey and Irma’s lingering health threats

    Floods Hinder Recovery Efforts In Southeast Texas
    Floods Hinder Recovery Efforts In Southeast Texas
    A casket in Texas uprooted by the floods of Hurricane Harvey.
    Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    In the weeks following Hurricane Irma, parts of Florida have been awash in millions of gallons of sewage. Meanwhile, in Texas, oil refineries and chemical plants have dumped a year’s worth of cancer-causing pollutants into the air following Hurricane Harvey. In both states, doctors are on the lookout for an uptick in respiratory problems, skin infections, and mosquito-borne diseases brought on by the water and mold the storms left behind.

    Thanks in part to better emergency planning and response, the immediate death tolls from Harvey and Irma seem to be far lower than those of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, which took some 1,400 and 117 lives in the US respectively. So far, a total of 80 deaths have been reported in Texas after Harvey, and there have been at least 42 deaths in Florida as a result of Irma.

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  • Brian Resnick

    Brian Resnick

    Why Hurricane Maria is such a nightmare for Puerto Rico

    Maria totally engulfed Puerto Rico on September 20.
    Maria totally engulfed Puerto Rico on September 20.
    Maria totally engulfed Puerto Rico on September 20.
    NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens

    When Hurricane Irma was advancing toward Florida in early September, weather officials were looking at a very scary scenario: an extremely powerful Category 4 or 5 storm hitting with 150 mph winds, flooding rains, and up to 15 feet of storm surge for coastal cities like Miami and Tampa.

    But there’s always some unpredictability about a hurricane’s path, and Florida got lucky: The worst-case scenario didn’t happen, due to small changes in Irma’s path.

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  • All of Puerto Rico has lost power. It could take months to restore it.

    Joe Raedle/Getty Images

    Hurricane Maria made landfall early Wednesday morning in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 Hurricane, packing 140 mph winds and dropping up to 25 inches of rain. The island’s fragile electrical system was no match for it.

    At 4 am, about half of the customers for the island’s only utility company, known as PREPA, had no power, according to the island’s emergency manager.

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  • Umair Irfan

    Umair Irfan

    The stunning price tags for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, explained

    Tower cranes loom over Miami skyscrapers as Hurricane Irma makes landfall
    Tower cranes loom over Miami skyscrapers as Hurricane Irma makes landfall
    Tower cranes loom over Miami skyscrapers as Hurricane Irma makes landfall
    Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Estimates for the cost of Hurricane Harvey’s damage have come in at $65 billion, $180 billion, and as high as $190 billion — the last of which would make it the costliest disaster in US history.

    The numbers from the second record-breaking storm that hit the US this summer, Hurricane Irma, meanwhile, are still rolling in. But totals range from $50 billion to $100 billion.

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  • Carlos Maza

    Carlos Maza

    Treating natural disasters like war zones hurts survivors

    News coverage of natural disasters like hurricanes Harvey and Irma is often similar to coverage of war zones. There are flashy, dramatic graphics, wide helicopter shots of destruction on the ground, stories of heroism in the face of danger, and reporters broadcasting live from dangerous areas. Much of the language is similar too: Storms bring an “onslaught” of rain and winds; neighborhoods are caught in the “line of fire,” etc.

    News networks do this because treating natural disasters like war gives them a compelling way to tell stories about storms like Harvey and Irma.

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  • Umair Irfan

    Umair Irfan

    Why utilities don’t move power lines out of hurricanes’ way

    Florida residents shopped in the dark after Hurricane Irma knocked out power in the state.
    Florida residents shopped in the dark after Hurricane Irma knocked out power in the state.
    Florida residents shopped in the dark after Hurricane Irma knocked out power in the state.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Millions of Floridians are ready to get on with their recovery from Hurricane Irma, which roared through the state earlier this week, pummeling homes and flooding streets. But for the moment, many are stuck anxiously waiting in the sweltering heat for the power (and the all-important air conditioning) to come back on.

    One of the largest Atlantic storms ever, Irma knocked out power to 6.7 million accounts in Florida, or about two-thirds of the state. As of Wednesday afternoon, state emergency officials estimated that one-third were still without power.

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  • Kainaz Amaria

    Kainaz Amaria and Eliza Barclay

    Photos: Hurricane Irma’s pummeling of Florida

    It was just two days ago that Hurricane Irma paid a punishing visit to Florida after thrashing several Caribbean islands for much of last week. The storm, a record-breaker that made landfall in Florida as a Category 4, did not end up delivering on some of worst predictions of catastrophic storm surge to vulnerable urban areas like Tampa and Miami.

    But many parts of Florida are reckoning with significant wreckage and floodwater along its coasts and on inland farms. Reports and images show inundated streets and damage to buildings, vehicles, boats, and trees in the particularly Florida Keys, where FEMA says 25 percent of houses have been destroyed.

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  • Kainaz Amaria

    Kainaz Amaria and Eliza Barclay

    Photos: what Hurricane Irma’s destruction in the Caribbean looks like on the ground

    We had no sooner taken stock of the extraordinary damage wrought by Hurricane Harvey in Texas than another uniquely fierce and record-breaking hurricane began heading straight toward the Caribbean and the southeast US.

    We’ve been tracking the damage from Hurricane Irma since Thursday, and the images coming out of region reveal that the storm’s impact on several Caribbean islands — including St. Martin/St. Maarten, Barbuda, Anguilla, the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, and parts of Cuba — was severe. “I think it’s going to take a long time for Barbuda to get back on its foot,” one Barbudan who evacuated to Antigua told CNN. “Everything is completely destroyed.”

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  • Brian Resnick

    Brian Resnick

    Hurricane Irma left 6.5 million Floridians without power. Here’s what that looks like from space.

    Javier Zarracina/Vox

    When Hurricane Irma roared into Florida on Sunday and Monday, its winds and rains knocked out power for 6.5 million people in the state. That’s more than a quarter of the state’s population without electricity.

    “We’ve never had that many outages, and I don’t think any utility in the country ever has,” Eric Silagy, the chief executive of Florida Power & Light, told reporters Monday. His company alone had 4.5 million customers without power. In some areas, restoration of power is expected to take weeks.

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