Water & Oceans

"The Gulf Coast insurance crisis has hit a new low as two state-chartered insurance associations are being forced to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars for the first time in three decades to pay the hurricane claims of insolvent insurers."

"Pumped storage isn’t a new idea. But it is undergoing a renaissance in countries where wind and solar power are also growing, helping allay concerns about weather-related dips in renewable energy output."

"As seagulls circled above and tourists watched in confusion, Duncan Holmes steered his boat through thousands of dead fish bobbing at the surface of the River Thurne in east England."

"New patches of young, bright green growth dot the sandy terrain of Dollow but for the 150,000 Somalis who have left home to seek help in this southern town, the small recent rains are not enough. East Africa's worst drought in 40 years has forced millions of Somalis to leave their homes."

"Barely five weeks after the last bout of heavy rain and snow in California's historically wet winter, firefighters on Friday battled the state's first large wildfire of the year in rugged foothills east of Los Angeles."

"To preserve habitat for fish and benefits for humans, some scientists suggest we need to explore the need for assisted migration."

"More than a month after heavy storms eroded a section of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, work crews are still scrambling to complete repairs and shore up flood defenses in the face of a weeklong heat wave that threatens to trigger widespread snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada."

"All barge traffic will be halted across a wide swath of the Upper Mississippi River for weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday, as record winter snowfall in the upper Midwest is now melting and flooding into waterways."