Tag: flood

Categories
Politics

Biden to Go to Northeast Flood Zones as Demand Grows for Local weather Motion

Biden to Visit Northeast Flood Zones as Demand Grows for Climate Action

As residents sought to clean up and assess the damage caused by catastrophic flash floods in the northeast last week, President Biden prepared to visit the hardest-hit areas of New York and New Jersey where he faced political ferment that is about the climate-related disaster.

The deadly flood from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which killed more than 45 people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, has fueled the fighting that began with Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to slow climate change and protect the population Communities tightened. The floods are already sharpening the debate about whether city and country leaders are doing enough – even those who, like Mr Biden, are publicly advocating strong action.

Mr Biden’s trip comes as he and the Democratic leaders struggle to get Congress to incorporate measures to curb planet warming emissions into a $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill and funds to protect communities from disasters increase like last week.

Within hours of the downpours in the New York area, Mr. Biden had linked it directly to his climate agenda. In a speech he described the floods as “another reminder that these extreme storms and the climate crisis are here” and called for more spending on modernizing power grids, sewers, water systems, bridges and roads.

But some climate groups are blaming his government for including large new funds for building and upgrading highways in the measure.

In New York and New Jersey, advocates of stricter climate action are hoping the disaster will give new impetus to ambitious state and local climate laws and regulations and help counter opposition to even broader proposals like a city council bill banning gas heaters and stoves in all new buildings.

Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, and Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, pledged to step up the fight on climate change as state and city agencies stepped up to help residents apply for assistance and file insurance claims close. However, some residents still complained that days after the flood there had not been an officer in their block.

Ms. Hochul said on Twitter on Sunday that she got 378 million back. “

Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and majority leader, said he would use the moment to add more extreme weather protection to the budget and pledged to support the state’s call for Washington to speed up damage assessments and federal aid. But some New York City residents pressed for more.

Dozens of protesters waved life jackets – each representing a New Yorker killed in the flood – outside Schumer’s Brooklyn home on Saturday, calling on him to come up with a $ 1.43 trillion proposal for a “Green New Deal” for public schools to support.

Climate and environmental justice groups said they would also protest against Mr Biden. Their message: The deaths – at least 13 in New York City and at least 27 in New Jersey – show that government action has been too hesitant to curb both the burning of oil and gas, which is driving climate change, and the Protecting people from the effects of climate change storms, fires and heat waves, which become more frequent and intense as the planet warms up.

Rachel Rivera, a resident of the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn who campaigned against a new gas pipeline there, said she wanted to urge not only Mr. Biden but also local officials to “stop both the pollution that is causing all of this” also to start financing the work ”. to get us to safety. “

Extreme weather

Updated

9/3/2021, 2:38 p.m. ET

“It’s neither one nor the other,” she said. “It’s both. In every storm they talk big, but then they do nothing.”

Ms. Rivera joined New York Communities for Change, a group working on environmental and public housing issues after her roof collapsed during Hurricane Sandy. She said her teenage daughter still suffers from traumatic flashbacks when it rains.

Mr. Biden will visit the New York borough of Queens, home to the majority of New York City residents who were killed in the floods last week. Most of them drowned when rainwater poured into basement apartments that violated housing codes.

The president will also visit Manville, NJ, which recorded 10 inches of rain in the downpour on Wednesday, forcing the city to rescue residents by helicopter and boat.

Both New York and New Jersey were devastated by Hurricane Sandy nearly nine years ago, sparking new policies and grassroots movements to combat climate change. Ambitious infrastructure plans for renewable energy development and coastal protection such as levees and dune restoration have been drawn up. Public pension funds began divesting fossil fuel companies and passed laws drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But many of these projects remain unfinished, and more far-reaching proposals have not made it into law. Proponents of more ambitious ideas like the city’s bill to ban gas appliances in new homes are now mobilizing for a new boost.

This includes a growing number of local lawmakers, chosen on promises to adopt bold measures to curb carbon emissions and address issues and inequalities that have been allowed – in housing, transport, disaster preparedness and other areas – and the extreme weather conditions cause more deadly.

Small issues that may not have been noticed before the flood are already attracting new attention. A protest against Jenifer Rajkumar, a state lawmaker, was planned for Monday in Queens over a proposed parking space she supports in Forest Park, one of the largest green spaces in the district.

The official response to the recent disaster did not begin until Sunday. The police went door to door looking for people who were still missing. State authorities are setting up command centers in flooded areas to help people get information and assistance. The New York Sanitation Department collected storm debris and said it would reverse a plan for garbage collectors to suspend Labor Day.

On the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, Linda Bowman, another member of the New York Communities for Change, had to contend with a flood for the second time; her house had also been flooded during Sandy.

“I need help,” she said. “Don’t just talk.”

Categories
World News

Afghanistan Flood Kills 80 – The New York Occasions

Hong Kong Website Doxxing Police Gets Blocked, Raising Censorship Fears

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 80 people were killed with a hundred more missing after a flash flood tore through a village in a Taliban-controlled area of eastern Afghanistan late Wednesday night, Afghan officials said.

The deluge swept away most of the village in the Nuristan Province, destroying around 200 homes, and caught most residents off guard because they were sleeping. By Thursday night, villagers had recovered around 80 bodies but as the search continues, local officials expect the death toll to surpass 200.

“It is wiped out, nothing remains after floods,” said Abdul Naser, a resident of the district who visited the village on Thursday. “No aid has arrived yet, and there are no measures for caskets, coffins and funerals.”

The flash flood is the latest blow for Afghanistan, where fighting between government forces and the Taliban has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in recent months and pushed the country to the brink of a humanitarian crisis, aid agencies say. Since international troops began withdrawing in May, the Taliban have made a swift military advance across the country, gaining control of more than half of the country’s 400-odd districts.

But as the militant group presses on in its offensive, raising the possibility of a complete Taliban takeover, many have questioned whether they could effectively govern the war-stricken and foreign aid dependent country if they seize power. The flood, in Kamdesh district, offered an early test for the Taliban’s ability to provide relief services — a sign of effective governance — in the areas they control.

On Thursday afternoon, local officials called on the Taliban to grant aid groups access to the district to provide emergency services. But by the afternoon, search and rescue teams had still not been able to reach the remote village largely because the Taliban control the roads into the district, according to a statement from the Ministry for Disaster Management. Local disaster management committees in nearby Kunar and Laghman provinces were working on getting their rescue teams to the area.

“The area is under Taliban control, if the Taliban allow us, we will take aid to the area,” said Hafiz Abdul Qayum, the governor of Nuristan Province.

In a statement Thursday evening, a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the group welcomed aid organizations’ assistance.

Floods in northern and eastern Afghanistan are not uncommon this time of year. In August last year, flooding in Charikar, a city on the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains, in northern Afghanistan, killed at least 92 people and injured 108 others.

But the flash flood in Nuristan comes as extreme weather has taken a grim toll around the world this summer and scientists warn that warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is changing the climate. Heavy rainfall is a visible sign of that change, they say, because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture — producing more powerful rain.

This month alone, floods deemed once-in-a-millennium or rarer killed at least 170 people in Europe and caused billions in damages after homes, businesses, vehicles and electricity and sewer systems were wiped away. Floodwaters trapped terrified passengers in submerged subway cars, swept cars away and caused power outages in Zhengzhou, China. And monsoon rains set off a flash flood in the Grand Canyon in the United States.

In recent decades, flash floods have become increasingly common in Afghanistan after widespread deforestation largely destroyed the open woodlands and closed forests that once slowed the flow of water down mountainsides. With weak governance and entrenched conflict putting people in additional peril, Afghanistan consistently ranks as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, according to the World Bank.

Of the 110,000 Afghans who have been affected by some sort of natural disaster so far this year, 75 percent experienced flooding, according to the United Nations.

Fahim Abed reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Zabihullah Ghazi from Jalalabad.

Categories
Business

‘The Market Appears Loopy’: Begin-Ups Wrestle With Flood of Provides

‘The Market Seems Crazy’: Start-Ups Wrestle With Flood of Offers

The frenzy has already created problems. Nikola, an electric car startup that went public in June via a SPAC, fell more than 80 percent after mutual fund Hindenburg Research accused the company in September of lying about its technology, overvaluing deals and being fooled into rolling a truck down a hill in a product video. Nikola founder and chairman Trevor Milton has resigned and the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department have started investigations into the company.

The SEC has also launched an investigation into Clover Health, a health insurance start-up, and Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicle start-up, both of which have gone public through blank check companies in recent months.

On March 10, the SEC warned that SPACs face various risks and potential conflicts of interest. The agency particularly criticized those endorsed by celebrities and concluded that “celebrities, like anyone else, can be tricked into participating in a risky investment.”

For the time being, the special vehicles will remain on the lookout for destinations.

Jedidiah Yueh, executive director of Delphix, a data infrastructure company in Redwood City, California, heard the interest firsthand. Mr Yueh, who founded Delphix 13 years ago, said SPACs started reaching out last summer as his business picked up amid the pandemic. The company, which helps clients process and automate data, recently turned profitable and is a candidate for an IPO.

But Mr. Yueh said he had not decided whether Delphix would go public via a traditional offering or some other route such as “direct listing” or SPAC. While he’s sorted the options, SPACs have flooded his inbox with messages almost daily. A mailer was even sent to Delphix’s vacant office last year while everyone was working from home in the pandemic.

Mr. Yueh said he met with some SPACs out of curiosity. But he quickly got the feeling that sponsors were telling him what they thought they heard. When they found out that Delphix was profitable, “just shift gears and talk about how easy it is to work with you,” he said.

He said he stopped responding to cold pitches and created a can response to fend off others. The investors he’s met with aren’t the kind of long-term supporters Delphix wanted, he said. But alluding to the trend of prominent SPACs, he added, “I would have had a meeting with Shaq.”

Categories
Health

Kids’s hospitals are pitching in to assist with the flood of grownup Covid-19 sufferers.

Children’s hospitals are pitching in to help with the flood of adult Covid-19 patients.

With Covid-19 patients on the rise threatening to overwhelm hospitals, U.S. public health officials are reaching for a safety valve the Northeast used in the spring: borrowing beds in children’s hospitals to care for adults.

U.S. hospital stays hit a record high of 104,600, according to the Covid Tracking Project, and the nation set a record for the most deaths in a seven-day period last week.

“When the fall came in and the second spike hit, we’re seeing a lot more of it now,” said Amy Knight, president of the Children’s Hospital Association, a national group that represents more than 200 US facilities.

According to Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology, it is rare in American children’s hospitals to admit adult patients or to relax their admission criteria. The fact that this is happening now speaks to the severity of the crisis at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

“I don’t even know if this happened during the first half of 2009, so I can’t think of too many modern precedents,” he said.

Since coronavirus infections appear to largely spare younger children compared to teenagers and adults, children’s hospitals and the children’s wards of general hospitals tended not to be flooded at the beginning of the pandemic.

“It was more like a trickle of children being hospitalized,” Ms. Knight said.

Since then, however, the number of children who become infected and need hospital care has risen sharply, and children’s hospitals may have less space and resources available if the need for pediatric beds due to influenza increases anyway.

“We are much less able to treat pediatric critical diseases across the country,” said Dr. Brian Cummings, who works in the intensive care unit at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston. “Obviously we are overwhelming the capacity of the adult intensive care unit, and using an even scarcer resource affects all of us who care about children.”

Even so, children’s hospitals are helping with the rise in the coronavirus in a number of ways. The Association of Children’s Hospitals published guidelines in April for several possible approaches, including admitting pediatric patients from general hospitals to free up space in these facilities and increasing their maximum admission age.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital, part of BJC HealthCare, opened its doors to adult patients in November, and another St. Louis children’s hospital, Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, has accepted transfers for adults without Covid-19. Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo said it will temporarily raise the admission limit to admit patients up to 25 years of age.

During the first major surge in the northeast from April to June, the MassGeneral Hospital for Children admitted adult patients to its 14-bed intensive care unit. “When we saw how hospitals were overwhelmed, everyone wanted to do their part,” said Dr. Cummings.

The unit returned to normal in the summer, but with Massachusetts cases picking up again, he said, “We’re definitely worried we’ll have patients again in the next week or two.”