By Javier Panzar and Michael Livingston 22 December 2017 VENTURA (Los Angeles Times) – The Thomas fire on Friday became California’s largest wildfire on record, burning 273,400 acres during its destructive march across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The fire eclipsed the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego County, which burned 273,246 acres. The milestone […]
By Jie Jenny Zou 14 December 2017 (The Guardian) – On sunny days, when his classmates run out to play, Gabriel Rosales heads to the school nurse for a dose of Albuterol. The fine mist opens his airways, relaxing the muscles in his chest. Without it, recess could leave the nine-year-old gasping for breath. He […]
By Lin-Manuel Miranda 13 December 2017 (The Washington Post) – Since Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico 84 days ago, my Uncle Elvin hasn’t had electricity. You read that right. Eighty-four days without being able to turn on a light, or stock a refrigerator, or take a hot shower. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans on […]
By Arelis R. Hernández, Whitney Leaming, and Zoeann Murphy 15 December 2017 (The Washington Post) – Puerto Rico’s apagón, or “super blackout,” is the longest and largest major power outage in modern U.S. history. Without electricity, there is no reliable source of clean water. School is out, indefinitely. Health care is fraught. Small businesses are […]
By Melissa Etehad and Ben Poston 17 December 2017 (Los Angeles Times) – The massive Thomas Fire continued to grow Sunday morning even after an epic battle to protect homes along the Santa Barbara County coast Saturday proved successful despite intense winds.The third-largest fire in California history was burning a massive swath from Santa Barbara […]
17 December 2017 (Desdemona Despair) – The year 2017 is on track to be the third worst year on record for wildfires in the United States.Driven by California’s deadliest wildfire season on record, including the third-largest wildfire in state history, 2017 is making a run at the Number Two spot, as California’s wildfire season stretches […]
VENTURA, California, 10 December 2017 (CBS News) – The raging Thomas Fire triggered new evacuation orders Sunday for the Ventura-Santa Barbara county lines, authorities said. Overnight, new orders were sent out for the Carpinteria and Montecito areas as one structure was lost, CBS Los Angeles reports.In addition, the Thomas Fire is now the sixth largest […]
By Omaya Sosa Pascual 7 December 2017 SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (Center for Investigative Journalism) – It’s official. In the 40 days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, at least 985 additional people died, when compared to the same period in 2016. And if the entire months of September and October are included (since Hurricane […]
By Robinson Meyer 2 December 2017 (The Atlantic) – When Bernadette Demientieff was in high school, she gave up her heritage. Demientieff is a member of the Gwich’in, an indigenous tribe of roughly 9,000 people that spans north-central Alaska and northern Canada. “The ways of living in this world that are being pushed on our […]
By Rob Kuznia, Mark Berman, Max Ufberg, and Soo Youn 10 December 2017 VENTURA, California (The Washington Post) – Raging wildfires continued to burn through Southern California on Sunday, stretching into a second week as authorities warned that the blazes could still spread and pose new dangers. The fires have been blamed for one death, […]
