Disasters

A wind-driven wildfire in tinder-dry Southern California that prompted calls for the evacuation of more than 20,000 homes may be close to being controlled.

"Last week was Wildfire Awareness Week in California, a time when firefighters and forest managers travel up and down the state talking about fire risk and public safety. Usually that would mean wildfire conditions were just picking up, with higher temperatures drying out fuels nurtured by winter rain and snowpack."

"The federal agency responsible for making sure states effectively oversee the safety of natural gas and other pipelines is failing to do its job, a government watchdog said in a report released Friday."

"The Indian Point power plant is one of 10 sites considered most in need for a re-evaluation of earthquake vulnerability, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Friday."

"A warning from U.S. scientists that Oklahoma may be hit by a major earthquake has caused a run on insurance policies for tremors in the heartland state, adding to the woes of residents already in the firing line of devastating tornadoes."

"A new statistical review of stillbirths that occurred in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita show they occurred more frequently in areas suffering the worst damage to individual homes, including Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Vermilion parishes, according to a peer-reviewed study published Thursday (May 8)."

"More than 50,000 malnourished children in Somalia are at "death's door" less than three years after a famine, a group of aid agencies has warned."

"WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Department issued an emergency order Wednesday requiring that railroads inform state emergency management officials about the movement of large shipments of crude oil through their states and urged shippers not to use older model tanks cars that are easily ruptured in accidents, even at slow speeds."

"The annual membership directory of state utility regulators lists several hundred key staff members of the 50 state commissions. Not a single staff position in the 81 pages has 'cybersecurity' in the title."