Kirk becomes a hurricane in the Atlantic and is expected to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, forecasters say

Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — Kirk becomes a hurricane in the Atlantic and is expected to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, forecasters say.

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  • About 100 rescued elephants escape flash floods at popular sanctuary in northern Thailand, two killed in evacuation

    Flash floods swept through a popular elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand on Thursday, killing two elephants and forcing the evacuation of about 100 more alongside dozens of tourists, amid urgent pleas for help.

  • About 100 rescued elephants escape flash floods at popular sanctuary in northern Thailand

    Flash floods swept through a popular elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of about 100 elephants and trapping dozens of tourists, amid urgent pleas for help.

  • Taiwan cleans up after Typhoon Krathon batters south

    Workers removed felled trees and swept up shattered glass in southern Taiwan on Friday as Typhoon Krathon was downgraded to a tropical depression after killing two people and injuring hundreds more.Across the island, two people were killed, one was missing and nearly 700 were reported injured, with more than 70,000 homes still without power as of Friday afternoon.

  • My wife and I lost our multimillion-dollar home in a landslide — but the bank still chases us for our mortgage

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  • Thai animal rights group defends zoo against PETA’s Moo Deng abuse claims

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  • Helene’s powerful storm surge killed 12 near Tampa. They didn't have to die

    Aiden Bowles was stubborn, so even as Florida officials told residents of the barrier island north of St. Petersburg that Hurricane Helene's storm surge could be deadly, the retired restaurant owner stayed put. Caregiver Amanda Normand begged the 71-year-old widower to stay with her inland, but there had been many evacuation warnings over the years as hurricanes neared his Indian Rocks Beach home — the storm surge never got more than knee-high.

  • Weather: Hurricane Kirk remnants to batter UK with heavy gales, rain and snow

    Thundery showers have been forecast for London with snow set to fall in other parts of the UK

  • Only 10 countries have a ‘climate reliable’ outlook for snowsport events by 2040, WMO warns

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  • After Helene: in North Carolina, most find they're uninsured

    STORY: Few of the North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene will have help from federal insurance to rebuild.A Reuters analysis of government data shows only around 1 in 200 people in the state’s flood-stricken west are covered by the National Flood Insurance Program.That’s a far lower rate than the coastal or riverside areas it’s meant to serve.The Brosseaus, living near Asheville, weren’t among the insured."It came up to here. I'm surprised it didn't come through the windows. I mean it was pretty close, and the water was coming up from that way, which nobody would have expected that."Pamela Brousseau and her husband were beginning a long clean-up job on Thursday."I cried. I still cry. You walk into a place that you know what it looks like and then it's not there. It's pretty hard, but thankful that we had, you know, ourselves here to take care of things, to assess it, and I don't know, it was pretty hard."When they first moved in, the two were required to have flood insurance. But after three years, Libre, Pamela’s husband, said the flood maps were redrawn and their home was no longer required to have it.“…we were no longer included in the flood plain, the 100-year flood plain. There was mention of a thousand-year flood plain. But at any rate, the requirement of the bank was no longer mandatory to have the flood insurance. We're not wealthy people, so we opted out of that coverage."The insurance wasn't required because the federal program is mostly focused on the flood risks posed by rising seas and swelling rivers.It doesn’t anticipate the threat posed by the sort of extreme rainfall brought on by Helene.Asheville is the largest city in the area.It had actually gotten a reputation as a climate refuge in recent years – with people moving there from storm-prone areas.The federal government even moved its national data center for environment records there.And private insurance companies see the area as relatively safe. The industry asked state regulators earlier this year to approve a 99% rate increase for coastal areas, but only asked for a 4% hike for some of the mountain counties that Helene went on to hit.Yet as the storm approached, insurance was very much on the Brosseaus’ minds. "Yeah, it is. It was probably one of the first things we discussed as the storm was coming. Like holy crap. But if it's $600 a month and you have a mortgage on top of that, it's just really hard to do.”Heavy rainfall events like Helene are likely to be even more damaging with climate change, since warmer air can hold more moisture.According to the Environmental Protection Agency, since 1900 precipitation in the U.S. has increased as temperatures rise, and rain and snow are increasingly falling in intense bursts.

  • Mexico’s new president promises to resume fight against climate change

    In her first days as Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum made a point of distancing herself from the fossil fuel reliance promoted by her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and vowed to resume an energy transition that he halted. Specifics are still scant, but her speech marks a sharp departure from the energy policy of former President López Obrador, a fierce defender of fossil fuels who, among other things, spent more than $20 billion to build a new oil refinery and stopped the auctions that had allowed developers to build solar and wind farms in the country.

  • Cities across Taiwan deal with aftermath of heavy rain from Typhoon Krathon

    Trees were brought down by high winds and roads were flooded in Kaohsiung, prompting the closure of schools and businesses, while a landslide in Keelung City triggered a large emergency service response. (AP video shot by Johnson Lai)

  • Hurricane Helene Exposed Major Problems With FEMA. Now Homeowners Will Foot the Bill.

    FEMA’s flood maps are incomplete and outdated. The result: Many Americans don’t have the insurance they need.

  • Solar power companies are growing fast in Africa, where 600 million still lack electricity

    Companies that bring solar power to some of the poorest homes in Central and West Africa are said to be among the fastest growing on a continent whose governments have long struggled to address some of the world's worst infrastructure and the complications of climate change. The often African-owned companies operate in areas where the vast majority of people live disconnected from the electricity grid, and offer products ranging from solar-powered lamps that allow children to study at night to elaborate home systems that power kitchen appliances and plasma televisions. Central and West Africa have some of the world’s lowest electrification rates.

  • Businesses urged to commit to reducing methane leak at Baku Climate Action Week

    Baku Climate Action Week highlighted the need for cleaner natural gas as NGOs push for reduced methane emissions from oil companies before COP29.

  • Scientists ‘shocked’ as parts of Antarctica turning green at ‘dramatic’ rate

    Vegetation cover across the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold over the last four decades.

  • Northern Lights possible as solar storms gather

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  • Work and travel resumes across Taiwan after Typhoon Krathon finally dissipates

    Work, classes and flights resumed across Taiwan on Friday after Typhoon Krathon brought torrential rainfall to the island but finally dissipated over a mountain range. A heavy rain advisory remained in place for the northern coast and mountainous areas, where two landslides occurred early Friday. Krathon had brought much of the island to a standstill for three days but weakened to a tropical depression early Friday.

  • Deep Floodwater Swamps Streets in North Thailand

    Crews worked to transport residents and tourists affected by flooding in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Friday, October 4, as the Ping River continued to rise, according to the Chiang Mai Municipality.Water levels in parts of the Ping River reached critical levels in a rainy Chiang Mai province, according to local reports, citing Thailand’s Department of Water Resources.This footage by X user @Talatletle shows high floodwater in Chiang Mai.Water levels in the city were expected to peak at 5.2 meters (roughly 17 feet) on Friday, according to the Chiang Mai Municipality.There were no injuries or deaths reported due to the floods at the time of writing. Credit: @Talatletle via Storyful

  • Opinion: Helene destroyed my hometown. I don't want climate change stories of false hope

    The hurricane leveled Asheville and other towns in western North Carolina. The push for optimism about our climate future rings hollow right now.