Disasters

"Forest fires are burning longer and stronger across the western United States, lighting up the landscape with alarming frequency. Residents are forced to flee, homes are incinerated, wildlife habitats are destroyed, lives are lost. Last year, the Forest Service spent more than half its annual budget fighting fires."

"LUMBERTON, N.C. -- With floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew on the rise, at least one North Carolina city appeared near chaos Monday, its police station shuttered and sporadic gunfire in the air, and authorities worried that more communities could end up the same way."

"(MSNBC Video) Rachel Maddow reports on devastating and deadly flooding in North Carolina following Hurricane Matthew and notes concerns by environmentalists and flooded rivers that wash through farms and coal ash sites could spread toxins through miles of waterways."

"ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- Joan Galasso walked through the empty wreck of the waterfront seafood restaurant she and her husband started a quarter-century ago and was horrified."

"The number of people killed by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti rose rapidly into the hundreds on Thursday, mainly in villages making contact with the outside world days after the cyclone ripped through the impoverished nation's picturesque western peninsula."

"The first major hurricane threatening a direct hit on the United States in more than 10 years lashed Florida on Friday with heavy rains and winds after killing at least 339 people in Haiti on its destructive march north through the Caribbean."

"The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on Monday issued an interim final rule that will allow it to issue emergency orders on oil and natural gas pipelines, satisfying a requirement from a comprehensive pipeline safety bill enacted last summer."

"President Barack Obama on Wednesday said the U.S. government has teams and supplies positioned to respond to Hurricane Matthew as the storm barrels toward Florida and other southeastern states." Millions were told to evacuate in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

"Florida and Georgia have also called states of emergency for a storm that has pounded the Caribbean."

"Hurricane Matthew assaulted Haiti’s southern coast with deadly fury on Tuesday, destroying homes and crops, sweeping away livestock and cutting off transportation as a large part of the Caribbean was pummeled by the storm’s 145-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rain."