Resilience News

By TOM ODULA , Associated Press [caption id="attachment_1573" align="alignright" width="483"] FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015 file photo,…

A landslide Monday buried dozens of homes in southern China, killing one person and leaving 37 missing, the local government said. The side of a mountain crashed down on the homes of 34 families on the outskirts of the city of Bijie around midday, the Guizhou provincial government said on its microblog.

The federal government has — for now — enough disaster aid money to deal with the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, but the ongoing storm appears sure to require a multibillion-dollar recovery package as did Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster fund currently contains about $3 billion, and top congressional aides said Monday that they have assurances from the Trump administration that it will be sufficient to deal with immediate needs such as debris removal and temporary shelter for tens of thousands of Texans displaced from their homes.

While scientists are quick to say that climate change didn't cause Harvey and that they haven't determined yet whether the storm was made worse by global warming, they do note that warmer air and water mean wetter and possibly more intense hurricanes in the future. "This is the kind of thing we are going to get more of," said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer. "This storm should serve as warning."

The National Weather Service says the clouds that have loomed over the Houston area since Harvey made its initial landfall will at last give way to sunshine. Harvey made landfall — again — early Wednesday, this time in southwestern Louisiana. The storm is expected to move inland , bringing continued heavy rain to Louisiana, before heading north to Arkansas, Tennessee and parts of Missouri. "Once we get this thing inland during the day, it's the end of the beginning," said National Hurricane Center spokesman and meteorologist Dennis Feltgen. "Texas is going to get a chance to finally dry out as this system pulls out."

As Texans continue to battle Hurricane Harvey, Houston-area hospitals have been grappling with the decision of whether to evacuate patients. Residents of Houston were not ordered to evacuate, leaving some area hospitals struggling to accommodate incoming patients. As of Wednesday evening, over twenty healthcare facilities had evacuated patients by ambulance and helicopter. Another twenty-five hospitals continued to operate under "internal disaster" status, treating patients but struggling to function normally.

Hurricane Harvey brought into the spotlight a critical factor in community resilience, Global Resilience Institute Founding Director Stephen Flynn said in an interview with News@Northeastern; “the hidden capacity in civil society that comes out often in these events.”

As floodwaters receded and rescuers searched waterlogged neighborhoods for more potential victims, Houston officials began turning their attention to finding temporary housing for those in shelters and getting enough gasoline for people to fill up cars — but also to the city's long-term recovery, which will take years and billions of dollars. Authorities raised the death toll from the storm to 39 late Thursday. And the latest statewide damage surveys revealed the staggering extent of the destruction.

Hurricane Irma strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm Tuesday as it roared toward the northeast Caribbean on a path that could take it to the United States. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Irma had sustained winds of 175mph (280 kph) and was centered about 270 miles (440 kilometers) east of Antigua. It was moving west at 14 mph (22 kph).

Hurricane Irma roared into the Caribbean with record-setting force early Wednesday, shaking people in their homes on the islands of Antigua and Barbuda on a path toward Puerto Rico and possibly Florida by the weekend. Irma, which was the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded north of the Caribbean and east of the Gulf of Mexico, passed almost directly over the island of Barbuda, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Authorities in the small islands of the eastern Caribbean were still evaluating the situation as the sun rose though there were widespread reports of flooding and downed trees. Antiguan police were waiting until the winds dropped before sending helicopters to check on damage reports of damage in Barbuda. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The impact of Hurricane Harvey forced 18 refineries in Texas to partially or completely shut down. The closures meant that about 3.6 million barrels of oil per day, representing about 20 percent of U.S. refining capacity, was compromised. On average, Texas produces a total of roughly 5.6 million barrels per day along the U.S. Gulf Coast, which supports communities all around the country.

With thousands of people stranded and displaced by Hurricane Harvey, volunteer civilian groups have been joining the rescue efforts across…