Wildfire prompts evacuations near Athens as summer's first heat wave hits Greece
The fire came as temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Greece's first heatwave of the summer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Evacuations ordered after wildfire sparks in northern Colorado
Evacuations have been ordered after a wildfire broke out in northern Colorado on Thursday. The North Lone Pine Fire sparked to the west of Red Feather Lakes in Larimer County around 3 p.m. According to NoCo Alert, mandatory evacuations have been ordered near Deadman Road, including County Road 86. Authorities said residents in the area need to leave immediately. Images from the U.S. Forest Service show smoke rising in the distance from the Deadman Lookout camera. In a tweet, the USFS said the fire is currently estimated to be 5-10 acres and is torching and spotting. Helicopters are en route to help with suppression efforts.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Firefighters battle thick smoke as wildfires burn in Florida's Everglades
A wildfire broke out Tuesday evening near Alligator Alley in the US state of Florida. Firefighters and authorities are working to bring the situation in the Everglades under control. Thick smoke is significantly worsening the air quality in the area.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why did the Wisconsin State Fair Park flood so quickly during Milwaukee's storms?
The second-to-last day of the Wisconsin State Fair opened amid sweltering heat. The uncomfortably hot conditions persisted throughout the morning and afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 9, offering little hint of what was to come. At 6 p.m., the first clue arrived when the sky began to look "maybe a little overcast," said John Yingling, chairman of the Wisconsin State Fair Park Board of Directors. After that, things escalated quickly: "By 6:30, it had started to rain, and by 7, it was raining big-time," Yingling said. In the hours that followed, a deluge of historic rainfall left fairgoers splashing, wading and even swimming through rising floodwater as they tried to leave the State Fair Park. The tunnel between the fairgrounds and the Milwaukee Mile was flooded for hours, and the fair ultimately canceled its last day. But why did the State Fair Park seem to flood so fast? Officials offered a few different answers: the fact that Honey Creek runs under the fair park; that pipes carrying the creek were ill-prepared for a storm of such magnitude; and that the drains around the fairgrounds need to be upgraded. Here's what officials said about the flood risk at the State Fair Park and how they're working to address it. Plans to restore Honey Creek pipes were underway before State Fair flooding Even before the flooding, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District was aware that the culverts carrying Honey Creek under the State Fair Park were not designed for a storm as intense as the one that hit Milwaukee earlier this month, Kevin Schafer, the district's executive director, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Installed in the 1960s, the culverts were built for a 10- to 25-year storm, not a 1000-year event like the city saw between Aug. 9 and 10, Schafer said. "[During the storm], I'm sure those pipes were flowing full and probably overwhelmed, and then, just like everything else in the area, they filled with water," he said. Since late 2023, the sewage district has been working to rehabilitate the pipes in case of a weather event like this month's storm. The four culverts, which are 9.5 feet tall and 14 feet wide, run under the Exposition Center, the Milwaukee Mile and the parking lot. However, the project was paused in June to allow State Fair preparations to get underway, Schafer said. He expected, as of Aug. 21, that crews would begin work again soon and said that the project is on track to be finished by 2026, before next year's fair. The Wisconsin State Fair has been held in West Allis since 1892. "We built over the top of Honey Creek," Schafer said of the park. "That's usually not a very wise thing to do, we're just maintaining the infrastructure that's there." Overwhelmed drains also led to flooding, State Fair says MMSD has been focusing its efforts on restoring the Honey Creek pipes, but Yingling said he doesn't think the creek was the main problem for the park during the storm. "What we believe is all of the drain capacity in the State Fair and completely surrounding State Fair was just overwhelmed," Yingling said. "And I think we saw that in West Allis, certainly saw that as well in Tosa." Schafer said that the overwhelmed drainage systems had also likely contributed to flooding at the park. Since 2020, the State Fair has been working to replace the underground infrastructure around the park, particularly near Central Mall and north and middle Grandstand Avenues, Yingling said. As a state agency, the Wisconsin State Fair Park has to get approval from the State Building Commission for any construction-related project, he said. "Anywhere where we've been able to replace infrastructure, things worked pretty well," Yingling said of the storm. "There are areas of the park that we do need to continue to upgrade in terms of infrastructure, which is water and sewer." By 8 a.m. Aug. 10, the morning after the storm, Yingling said the fairgrounds were mostly back to normal, except for two areas that still had standing water: the manure pits, which slope downward, and the tunnel between the fair park and the Milwaukee Mile. State Fair vendors will be responsible for their own flood damage costs Overall, Yingling said the fairgrounds emerged relatively unscathed from the flooding: none of the barns flooded, so all the animals were safely contained during the storm, and there was no structural damage to the fair park, aside from a few leaky roofs. However, with its closing day canceled, the fair fell under its standard of its million-plus attendees for the first time since 2021. Many vendors missed out on crucial final-day sales, undercutting their profit for this year's fair. State Fair vendors are also responsible for securing and insuring their own property — meaning they will be responsible for their own flood damage costs, Yingling said. He said he hasn't heard of any vendor having a total "washout" of their goods. Jessica Jerky, owner of Appleton-based All Things Jerky, said she thinks it's "understandable" that vendors will have to pay for damages themselves. "I didn't think the State Fair would ever be responsible for vendor damage," she said. "I figured from the beginning we'd be on our own." Her rare meat stand was near South Grandstand Avenue, one of the most heavily flooded areas. For her and other nearby vendors, she said the loss of final-day sales was a bigger hit than property damage — though one of her workers did have their car flood in the vendor parking area. "We're just trying to do the best we can," Jerky said. "You can't plan for a natural disaster, and as far as the fair is concerned, they've done what they can." This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why did the Wisconsin State Fair Park flood so quickly?
