"MONTCOAL, W.Va. -- Twenty-five miners were killed Monday after a huge explosion at a Massey Energy mine in Raleigh County, the worst mine disaster in the United States in more than a quarter-century."
"Impacts from a decade of extreme storms on the coastline of the northern Gulf of Mexico have left many coastal areas vulnerable to future storm events, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned [Thursday]."
"As flood waters recede in rain-soaked New England, March's record-smashing storms highlight the need for planners in the region to place an increased emphasis on reducing flood risks and boosting their communities' resilience to floods."
"ANACORTES, Wash. -- Officials say four workers are injured and three are missing in an explosion and fire at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes."
The plants, ranging from very large to very small, are now using chemicals and processes such as liquid chlorine bleach, calcium hypochlorite, or ultraviolet light — allegedly making ~40 million people living nearby safer.
"The Red River rose three feet on Tuesday, getting closer to causing major flooding at Fargo, North Dakota for the second straight spring in the key U.S. wheat-growing state."
"A settlement of up to $657.5 million has been reached in the cases of thousands of rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero who sued the city over damage to their health, according to city officials and lawyers for the plaintiffs."
"A former foreman at one of West Virginia's largest underground coal mines admitted Wednesday that he lied about conducting a key safety test, as a federal criminal probe continued into allegations that Patriot Coal officials covered up evidence of explosive methane levels at their Federal No. 2 Mine in Monongalia County."
The Pacific "ring of fire" -- the zone where tectonic plates crunch -- doesn't stop at the equator. It extends through the U.S. Pacific Northwest, which is also vulnerable to intense quakes. States like Oregon are just beginning to retrofit potentially lethal buildings, and the seismic clock is ticking.
"They ran for blocks when they saw the big truck with the Minnesota license plate roll by. Little girls and old women, little boys and young men, all chasing the shiny silver tanker down streets of Cite Soleil, one of the world’s worst slums. Past fly-infested garbage piles, by canals reeking of raw sewage, they carried buckets, pans, pots, tubs — anything that could hold what has become gold in the ruins of Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake: clean water."
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