disaster recovery News

More Families Building Their Own Tornado Shelters

When deadly twisters chewed through the South and Midwest in 2011, thousands of people in the killers’ paths had nowhere to hide. Now many of those families are taking an unusual extra step to be ready next time: adding tornado …

Kansas Tornado Relief Efforts Turn Toward Housing

With debris cleanup now in its second week, immediate relief efforts for Kansas tornado victims have been scaled back as disaster help moves into the next stage. The Small Business Administration is taking applications for low-interest federal loans to homeowners, …

Bill Would Funnel Fines Paid by BP to Gulf States

U.S. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss) say they are hopeful that a key Senate committee will this week approve legislation to direct a significant portion of federal fines paid by BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill …

Former Florida Governor Bush Goes into Disaster Response Business

Jeb Bush, former Florida Governor, has entered into one of the state’s for-profit disaster response businesses. Bush has joined O’Brien’s Response Management Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings Inc. The Fort Lauderdale-based SEACOR is a multinational company that provides …

Japan Marks 6 Months Since Earthquake, Tsunami

Up and down Japan’s devastated northeast coast, survivors prayed and communities came together Sunday to mark six months since the massive earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, a date that changed everything for them and their country. As the …

North Carolina County Recovers From Trio of Disasters

Driving along the back roads of Bertie County, it’s hard sometimes to tell one disaster’s damage from another. That huge old tree, its limbs chopped and stacked after falling across a road, was definitely toppled by Hurricane Irene. But what …

Alabama Governor Names Tornado Recovery Panel

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley chose the president and CEO of Protective Life Corp., Johnny Johns, and the publisher of The Birmingham News, Pam Siddall, this week to lead his Tornado Recovery Action Council. Bentley announced the creation of the council …

Tennessee Still Cleaning Up After April’s Tornadoes

The Rev. Bill Akers stood in a yard in Lookout Valley, pointing across a small valley at two stumps, gnarled remnants rising out of barren dirt in a place once flush with trees. Just a few hundred yards away, brush …

One Year Later, Hard Times for Kentucky Flood Victims

Along a newly paved road at Harless Creek in Kentucky’s Pike County, dozens of new vehicles and a handful of new modular homes point to progress since severe flooding hit the area a year ago. At Raccoon Creek, freshly cut …

Joplin Tornado Death Toll Rises; Engineers Assess Hospital Damage

Rescue and recovery work in Joplin, Missouri was shadowed by uncertainty as crews still hoping to find survivors combed areas that had already been searched several times and engineers entered the battered Joplin hospital where the tornado killed five to …