Disasters

Flood maps for riparian areas and coastal zones are in need of significant improvement, according to a new National Academies report. The benefits of implementing the improvements would substantially outweigh the costs.

After the disastrous collapse of a Kentucky coal waste impoundment in October 2000, Congress asked the National Research Council to recommend ways to help reduce the potential for future calamities at about 700 U.S. facilities.

The Poynter Institute Web site has published an array of resources and advice for journalists who are covering the attacks and tragedies of September 11, 2001.

A few lessons were buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Humans change the environment -- and build environments -- in ways that make them vulnerable to catastrophe.

Drinking water sources, purification, and distribution systems are essential to public health, and failures could be catastrophic.

Security of nuclear power plants was definitely on people's minds as the WTC burned and nobody knew where the next plane would hit.

The Bureau of Reclamation announced laconically Sept. 12 that it had stepped up security at Hoover, Glen Canyon, and Grand Coulee dams.

Because of their length, ubiquity, and remoteness, pipelines can be nearly impossible to defend.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, many experts have become more concerned that terrorists may maliciously spread biological agents such as anthrax or smallpox.

There are places along the Mississippi River (e.g. New Orleans) where many people live in areas that would normally be flooded, were it not for levees or other flood control works.