US News and World Report (July 17)
“Just as the European Union was announcing plans to spend billions of euros to contain climate change, massive clouds gathered over Germany and nearby nations to unleash an unprecedented storm that left death and destruction in its wake.” Both politicians and weather forecasters were left “shocked at the ferocity of the precipitation that caused flash flooding that claimed more than 150 lives.”
Tags: Climate change, Death, Destruction, EU, Euros, Ferocity, Forecasters, Germany, Politicians, Precipitation, Shocked, Storm, Unprecedented, Weather
Financial Times (August 12)
“It’s the calm before the storm…. As any number of indicators now show—from weak purchasing managers’ indices in the US, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, to rising corporate bankruptcies and a spike in US lay-offs—the global downturn has already begun.”
Tags: Calm, Corporate bankruptcies, France, Germany, Indicators, Italy, Lay-offs, PMI, Spain, Storm, U.S., Weak
Deutsche Welle (September 25)
“Sunday’s federal election proved quite a storm for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. Now, a day after these remarkable results, the skies over Berlin’s River Spree are cloudy, drizzly, and unpleasant. The sunny days are over.” The inclement forecast is largely due to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which proved unexpectedly strong, landing a third place finish. The AfD won 94 of the Bundestag’s 709 seats. Their victory marks the first time for a right-wing party to be represented in the Bundestag since the Nazi defeat in 1945.
Tags: AfD, Berlin, Bundestag, Election, Government, Merkel, Nazis, Results, Right wing, Storm
Chicago Tribune (August 29)
“The scale of flooding in the Houston area as a result of Hurricane Harvey is hard to imagine, and the images of suffering are horrifying to behold. In central and south Texas, an area the size of Michigan is now a storm-tossed lake.”
Tags: Flooding, Horrifying, Houston, Hurricane Harvey, Michigan, Scale, Storm, Suffering, Texas
BBC (September 29)
All of South Australia blacked out when a vicious storm struck, toppling approximately 20 transmission towers and leveling nearly 80,000 lightning strikes, some of these damaged power plants and facilities. The unprecedented weather “has very quickly turned into an Australian political storm, with the state’s dependency on renewable energy now being debated with the full force and bluster of a tornado.”
Tags: Black out, Damage, Dependency, Lightning, Political storm, Power plants, Renewable energy, South Australia, Storm, Transmission towers, Weather
Washington Post (July 3)Washington Post (July 3)
A “freak summer storm that laid waste to much of the mid-Atlantic on Friday night left chaos in its howling wake — and a mess of questions about the region’s capacity to cope with the unexpected.” Emergency 911 phone service was disrupted, as was electricity supply. In certain areas, nearly 10% of customers were expected to still be powerless a week after the storm. “The storm gave rise to massive inconveniences and discomforts across the Washington area. Usefully, it also exposed the region’s absence of reliable fail-safes, spotty preparedness and sluggish response times in the face of emergencies. Now it’s up to leaders to identify and act on those shortcomings.”A “freak summer storm that laid waste to much of the mid-Atlantic on Friday night left chaos in its howling wake — and a mess of questions about the region’s capacity to cope with the unexpected.” Emergency 911 phone service was disrupted, as was electricity supply. In certain areas, nearly 10% of customers were expected to still be powerless a week after the storm. “The storm gave rise to massive inconveniences and discomforts across the Washington area. Usefully, it also exposed the region’s absence of reliable fail-safes, spotty preparedness and sluggish response times in the face of emergencies. Now it’s up to leaders to identify and act on those shortcomings.”
Tags: 9/11, Disaster preparedness, Electricity, Storm, Washington
