Articles by Leslie Kaufman

Leslie Kaufman writes the Climate Report newsletter about the impact of global warming. To contact the author of this story: Leslie Kaufman in New York at lkaufman27@bloomberg.net

FEMA Index Offers Closer Look at Social Risks in Disaster Resilience

The free digital tool that the US government gives communities to help evaluate local risks from 18 natural hazards is getting a makeover. The Federal Emergency Management Agency introduced the National Risk Index last summer. Aimed primarily at planners and …

Glut of Plastic Polluting World’s Oceans Is Growing Fast: Research

There are more than 170 trillion tiny plastic particles β€” or 2 million tons of them β€” floating on the surface of the ocean, and many of them got there after 2004, according to a paper published Wednesday in the …

Hurricanes Moving Farther North to Pummel Millions More Homes in US

Is it possible to predict exactly where the wind will blow? How about where it will blow 30 years from now? The First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that works to define and communicate risks posed by climate change, says it …

The Tiny Insurance Company Standing Between Taxpayers and a Costly Coal Industry Bailout

In a quiet commercial strip in an upscale suburb of Nashville, there’s a single-story brick building housing a company that may determine whether another billion-dollar taxpayer bailout of the coal industry is needed. It is the main office of Indemnity …

How to Lower Home Insurance Premiums and Wildfire Risks

Homeowners in the US got new guidance to help them defend against increasingly frequent wildfires and associated rising insurance premiums. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a research nonprofit funded by insurers, announced it has developed the first …

81% of Flood Insurance Policyholders Will See Rate Increases, Report Says

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency rolled out a major overhaul to its beleaguered National Flood Insurance Program last April, it promised that bigger, richer homes would bear the brunt of premium increases, while almost 90 percent of policyholders would …

Rates to Rise for Millions of Homeowners Under National Flood Insurance Program

The federal government Friday rolled out a flood-insurance program revamped to reflect worsening climate change, a program that will raise rates for millions of homeowners in wealthy coastal areas and humble inland communities alike. The Federal Emergency Management Agency in …

Millions Risk Losing Homeowners Insurance in Fire-Ravaged California

A California moratorium guaranteeing insurance in wildfire-threatened areas lapsed Saturday, putting 347,000 homes in Pasadena and other Los Angeles foothills communities at the mercy of the market. As many as 2.4 million homes are at risk of losing protection in …

Q&A: New Director Criswell Prepares FEMA for a Hot, Chaotic Future

Deanne Criswell, the first woman to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in April took over a 20,000-person operation exhausted by managing responses to disasters linked to global warming: wildfires and the 2020 hurricane season, the most active on record. …

Tropical Storm Nicholas to Test Post-Harvey Houston Infrastructure

On Aug. 25, the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, which dumped about 50 inches of rain on Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that the city “is safer today as it prepares to move forward.” Now comes Tropical Storm Nicholas as …