Hurricane Harvey’s toxic impact deeper than public told
March 23, 2018 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — A toxic onslaught from the nation's petrochemical hub was largely overshadowed by the record-shattering deluge of Hurricane Harvey as residents and first responders struggled to save lives and property...
The Latest: Floodwaters rise in southwest Louisiana homes
August 29, 2017 GMTBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Latest on Harvey's effects in Louisiana (all times local):
Residents near Harvey-damaged chemical plant wary of water
March 22, 2018 GMTCROSBY, Texas (AP) — The skeleton crew at Arkema's chemical plant knew it was time to go by the morning of Aug...
EPA orders more repairs at Texas toxic site following Harvey
October 19, 2017 GMTWASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency ordered two companies on Thursday to make more extensive repairs to stabilize the area around a Superfund toxic waste site near Houston following Hurricane Harvey...
US storm survivors: We need money faster, less red tape
October 29, 2022 GMTMIDDLETOWN, N.J. (AP) — Survivors of storms that pounded several U.S. states say the nation's disaster aid system is broken and that they want reforms to get money into victims' hands faster, with less red tape.
Residents: Tests find toxic chemicals after Texas plant fire
October 3, 2017 GMTDALLAS (AP) — Tests detected toxic substances in soil, water and ash samples taken miles from a chemical plant that flooded during Hurricane Harvey, caught fire and partially exploded, nearly 20 Houston-area residents said Monday...
Texas county sues chemical plant owner over fires, blasts
November 16, 2017 GMTDALLAS (AP) — The county that's home to Houston has asked a state court to order safeguards and fine the owner of a chemical plant that partially exploded during Hurricane Harvey...
AP Exclusive: Evidence of spills at toxic site during floods
September 19, 2017 GMTPASADENA, Texas (AP) — The U.S. government received reports of three spills at one of Houston's dirtiest Superfund toxic waste sites in the days after the drenching rains from Hurricane Harvey finally stopped...
AP EXCLUSIVE: Toxic waste sites flooded in Houston area
September 3, 2017 GMTHIGHLANDS, Texas (AP) — As Dwight Chandler sipped beer and swept out the thick muck caked inside his devastated home, he worried whether Harvey's floodwaters had also washed in pollution from the old acid pit just a couple blocks away...
Hurricane Ian gets nasty quickly, turbocharged by warm water
September 27, 2022 GMTHurricane Ian is quickly gaining monstrous strength as it moves over oceans partly heated up by climate change, just like 30 other Atlantic tropical storms since 2017 that became much more powerful in less than a day.
Residents say tests find toxic chemicals after plant fire
October 3, 2017 GMTDALLAS (AP) — Tests detected toxic substances in soil, water and ash samples taken from residents' property miles away from a Houston-area chemical plant that flooded during Hurricane Harvey, caught fire and partially exploded, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday...
Fewer Harvey victims at shelters doesn’t end housing needs
September 5, 2017 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — One couple displaced by Harvey managed to get a hotel room, but got kicked out after one night for lacking state identification that was lost to the flooding...
Dutch queen learns about flood control during Houston visit
September 10, 2022 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — A visit to Houston on Friday by the Dutch queen highlighted a long friendship between Texas and the Netherlands that grew from their fight against a mutual enemy: flooding.
HUD, Texas at odds over flood relief discrimination claim
August 27, 2022 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — The faded and weathered construction permits still taped to Houston resident Mal Moses’ front door are reminders of the difficulties he faced in trying to get his mold-infested walls and leaky roof repaired after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Climate-driven flooding poses well water contamination risks
June 8, 2022 GMTST. LOUIS (AP) — After a record-setting Midwestern rainstorm that damaged thousands of homes and businesses, Stefanie Johnson’s farmhouse in Blandinsville, Illinois, didn’t have safe drinking water for nearly two months.
HUD says Texas agency discriminated in flood relief funding
March 9, 2022 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Texas' administration of flood relief money from Hurricane Harvey broke federal law by discriminating against Black and Hispanic residents in the Houston area, according to a decision by the federal housing agency that could channel millions of dollars of aid to communities battered by the 2017 storm.
Federal funding halted for Hurricane Harvey assistance
January 8, 2022 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development has halted the distribution of $1.95 billion that was approved for flood mitigation projects in Texas following Hurricane Harvey.
Nicholas, now a tropical depression, still douses Gulf Coast
September 15, 2021 GMTSURFSIDE BEACH, Texas (AP) — Tropical Storm Nicholas continued weakening Tuesday night after being downgraded to a tropical depression and slowing to a crawl over southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, drenching both states with flooding rains.
Nicholas strengthens to hurricane ahead of Texas landfall
September 14, 2021 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Nicholas strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Monday as it headed toward landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast and it was expected to bring heavy rain and floods to coastal areas from Mexico to storm-battered Louisiana.
Houston furniture store’s new truck to help during flooding
June 5, 2021 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — A Houston furniture store owner who’s rescued and sheltered people at his business during past flooding events, including Hurricane Harvey, has some new equipment that'll let him help even more residents whenever the next big storm hits.
Houston seethes over being frozen out of federal flood funds
June 1, 2021 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Residents of the East Aldine neighborhood of Houston are tired of their homes flooding during hurricanes and of worrying every time it rains because their streets and waterways don't drain well.
Houston area getting little of $1B in Harvey flood aid
May 21, 2021 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Houston area officials expressed shock and anger on Friday after learning that their communities, which suffered the brunt of damage from Hurricane Harvey, would be getting only a small part of the $1 billion that Texas is awarding as part of an initial distribution of federal funding given to the state for flood mitigation.
Houston area flood control effort facing $1.4B shortfall
March 10, 2021 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Flood control projects approved by Houston area voters in 2018 in response to Hurricane Harvey are facing a $1...
Most Oregonians who applied for disaster aid denied
February 13, 2021 GMTSALEM, Ore. (AP) — More than 24,000 Oregonians applied for federal disaster assistance after the catastrophic 2020 wildfires and about 57% of them were denied...
Judge tosses case over chemical plant fire during Harvey
October 1, 2020 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Thursday dismissed the criminal case against a chemical manufacturer and one of its former employees over a fire at its plant near Houston during Hurricane Harvey, saying prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to support the charges...
3 years after Harvey, some in Houston still waiting for help
August 24, 2020 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Some Houston residents say they endured difficult, often hazardous living conditions while waiting months, even years for help from the city to fix flood-damaged homes after Hurricane Harvey...
‘They’re killing us,’ Texas residents say of Trump rollbacks
April 19, 2020 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Danielle Nelson’s best monitor for the emissions billowing out of the oil refineries and chemical plants surrounding her home: The heaving chest of her 9-year-old asthmatic son...
Houston area sees relief, rescues after Imelda leaves 4 dead
September 21, 2019 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Emergency workers used boats Friday to rescue about 60 residents of a Houston-area community still trapped in their homes by floodwaters following one of the wettest tropical cyclones in U...
Storm-scarred Texas coast picks up after lmelda’s deluge
September 20, 2019 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Kids were still in classrooms as roads around them became rivers. Drivers warned to stay off highways wound up abandoning their submerged cars...
2 dead as Imelda strands drivers, floods homes in Texas
September 20, 2019 GMTCHINA, Texas (AP) — The slow-churning remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda flooded parts of Texas on Thursday, leaving at least two people dead and rescue crews with boats scrambling to reach stranded drivers and families trapped in their homes during a relentless downpour that drew comparisons to Hurricane Harvey two years ago...
The Latest: In Houston, O’Rourke backs assault weapons ban
March 31, 2019 GMTEL PASO, Texas (AP) — The latest on Beto O'Rourke official presidential campaign kickoff in Texas (all times local):
6:10 p.m.
Beto O'Rourke has evoked a school shooting last year near Houston to call for banning assault weapons and points to that city's 2017 devastation during Hurricane Harvey to push for fighting climate change.
Never too soon to begin preparing for next natural disaster
January 12, 2019 GMTSome of the recommendations to the Legislature from the governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas — to help the state prepare for catastrophic storms — come with hefty price tags. But they don’t all carry sticker shock.
Despite hurricane, at-risk Houston students made gains
October 2, 2018 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Principal Jonathan Trinh feared the worst for his Houston high school.
He took in a hundred new pupils displaced by the storm, his students' overwhelmingly low-income families were struggling with lost jobs and other distractions, and Trinh worried this would be the year that test scores sank enough to make his Wisdom High School a target for state intervention.
Placido Domingo reopens Houston venue after Harvey flooding
September 27, 2018 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Opera star Plácido Domingo took the stage for the gala reopening of a Houston venue that suffered about $100 million in Hurricane Harvey flood damage last year...
After Deadline: Whether or not you want it, the weather comes
August 31, 2018 GMTIn my first month working full time at the Post Bulletin, I was sent out one day to get some man-on-the-street quotes about a snowstorm that had hit Rochester the night before.
Post-Harvey, Texas still unprepared for the next big one
August 25, 2018 GMT1On Aug. 24, 2017, we all watched the radar screen on the news as the storm gained energy in the Gulf of Mexico and began making its way toward the Texas coast. No one understood the unprecedented rainfall that was about to hit portions of Texas and Louisiana over the next five days, nor the devastation that would be left in its wake.
Year after Harvey, poor having toughest time recovering
August 23, 2018 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Shirley Paley's life before Hurricane Harvey was already a struggle: The 61-year-old former postal worker was raising her 17-year-old autistic grandson while dealing with a workplace injury that left her legally blind, on disability and in need of three cornea transplants...
Harvey’s devastating flooding boosts insurance in Texas
July 30, 2018 GMTKATY, Texas (AP) — Little more than two months before Hurricane Harvey slammed the Gulf Coast of Texas, Alberto Castañeda let his home's flood insurance lapse...
Katy Memorial Pediatrics helps Puerto Rico’s hurricane survivors
July 6, 2018 GMTAs devastating footage of Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico first began to emerge last fall, people and organizations around the world responded by donating any assistance they had to the rescue and recovery effort.
McCaul says efforts need to be expedited to help storm survivors
July 3, 2018 GMTU.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, whose 10th district includes Katy, said he is pleased that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved Texas’ $5 billion action plan for Hurricane Harvey relief.
Remember to read the fine print on your insurance
June 27, 2018 GMTWhether you already have flood insurance or are looking into getting a new policy, make sure it covers what you need, attorneys and experts advise.
It is also important to know what constitutes catastrophic damage when a disaster hits, they said.
AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s tale of Texas hurricane gawkers
June 7, 2018 GMTAUSTIN, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump is mischaracterizing the thousands of water rescues in Texas last year during Hurricane Harvey by saying "people went out in their boats to watch" the deadly Category 4 storm...
Unhurried hurricanes: Study says tropical cyclones slowing
June 6, 2018 GMTWASHINGTON (AP) — Tropical cyclones around the world are moving slightly slower over land and water, dumping more rain as they stall, just as Hurricane Harvey did last year, a new study found...
Report confirms record scope of Harvey’s impact
June 6, 2018 GMTIn the weeks and months after Hurricane Harvey, the evidence of its historic scope and intensity trickled out bit by bit: Record rainfall totals. Record reservoir levels. Record destruction.
Centers look to new Facebook tools for help during disasters
May 11, 2018 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Community health centers in Texas that helped thousands of people during and after Hurricane Harvey have new crisis-response tools from Facebook that could enhance their ability to reach victims when a hurricane hits.
HomeAid initiative, BuildAid brings hope to homeowners
May 4, 2018 GMTHomeAid Houston's Hurricane Harvey rebuild initiative, BuildAid is providing assistance to homeowners whose homes were devastated by the floods. Once pre-qualified through an online form on the BuildAid website, www.buildaidhouston.org, these homeowners will be matched with experienced builders, members of the Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA) who will walk them through a finish selection process and the actual remodeling.
City stages storm preparedness meetings
May 2, 2018 GMTFriendswood city officials are planning meetings to inform residents what they need to know to prepare for the first hurricane season since the trauma of Hurricane Harvey last year.
Harvey recovery funds may prioritize wealthy, advocates say
April 27, 2018 GMTAUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Advocacy groups said Friday that Texas is poised to unfairly distribute billions in federal funding provided for housing repairs following Hurricane Harvey's devastation — prioritizing wealthy homeowners over poorer victims in ways that could constitute racial discrimination...
Sen. Cruz introduces Missouri City Mayor Owen in Commerce Committee hearing on hurricane preparedness
April 17, 2018 GMTMissouri City Mayor Allen Owen joined U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week entitled: “Are We Ready for the Next Hurricane Season?
Updating the list of storm names
April 16, 2018 GMTWhat's in a name? When it comes to hurricanes, quite a lot — respect, for one. The World Meteorological Organization has decided that naming some tropical storm Harvey five years from now when it's barely holding itself together out in the open Atlantic would show a lack of respect to those who were impacted by Hurricane Harvey last year.
Just Ask Us: How do hurricanes get their names?
April 15, 2018 GMTQ: How do hurricanes get their names?
A: Names used to identify tropical stories and hurricanes aren’t arbitrary. They’re named by the World Meteorological Organization using a list of 21 names in alphabetical order that aren’t repeated for six years.
7 months after Harvey, flood-control projects’ fate unclear
March 24, 2018 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Large-scale projects long considered essential to easing Houston's flooding woes went to the top of the area's to-do list after Hurricane Harvey inundated large swaths of the nation's fourth-largest city...
Harvey spurs interest in drainage district election
March 15, 2018 GMTAgainst the backdrop of lingering effects from Hurricane Harvey, Galveston County Consolidated Drainage District is staging the first election in its 16-year history to feature contested races.
The board president faces two challengers - both who say they were prompted to run because of the storm's devastation in the area.
GOP candidates for Galveston County judge talk about storm protection
February 28, 2018 GMTEconomic development, the tax rate and the proposed coastal barrier are issues in the Republican primary race for Galveston county judge, which pits incumbent Mark Henry against 56th District Court Judge Lonnie Cox.
Disaster relief back on the table as part of budget deal in Congress
February 8, 2018 GMTWASHINGTON – A major budget deal brokered by Senate leaders Wednesday was a long time coming, but it could sweeten the pot for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and other natural disasters.
The Senate agreement could provide nearly $90 billion in aid for Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and other states and territories hit by storms and wildfires.
Jump in late mortgages after Harvey sparks foreclosure fears
January 27, 2018 GMTFRIENDSWOOD, Texas (AP) — As Jacob Lerma surveyed the skeletal beams of his suburban Houston home that was flooded during Hurricane Harvey, he kept muttering three words as he wondered if his family would ever be able to move back in: "I don't know...
Texas towns hit hard by Hurricane Harvey work to recover
January 15, 2018 GMTROCKPORT, Texas (AP) — Some Texas coastal towns where Hurricane Harvey made landfall are working to restore tourism and other economic attractions nearly five months after the storm.
Houston braces for more flooding, chemical plant fires out
September 4, 2017 GMTHOUSTON (AP) — Authorities carried out a controlled burn Sunday at a chemical plant damaged by Harvey, sending small flames and gray smoke into the sky, after saying the highly unstable compounds that had caused previous explosions needed to be neutralized...
Want to help after Harvey? A guide to donations
September 2, 2017 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — The recovery from Harvey will be long and expensive. Want to help? Local and national charities are asking for donations after the Hurricane Texas and Louisiana, leaving countless residents — and pets — displaced from their homes...