Latest news with #hurricanes
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
The US treasure hunters who seek out violent storms
From the beaches of North Carolina to the reefs of Bermuda, powerful storms are uncovering long-lost wrecks – and you don't need to be a pro diver to discover them. As hurricane season ramps up along the US East Coast and through the Atlantic, residents brace themselves for flooded streets and battered coastlines. But for divers, snorkellers and even everyday beachgoers, storm surges can reveal something extraordinary: centuries-old shipwrecks, long-buried maritime treasures and other items that could reshape our understanding of history. In the Carolinas and Bermuda – among the world's most shipwreck-dense coastlines – hurricanes are exposing long-lost hulls, artefacts and cargo. Marine archaeologists are racing to catalogue and protect these discoveries, but increasingly, ordinary travellers are among the first on the scene. North Carolina's coast, long known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic", is littered with more than 1,000 known shipwrecks, from Civil War blockade runners to German U-boats. Meanwhile, Bermuda sits atop a coral platform that has claimed more than 300 ships since the 1500s, making the infamous "Bermuda Triangle" one of the densest shipwreck zones in the world. "It's shipwreck island" and it always has been, says Philippe Rouja, Bermuda's government-appointed Custodian of Wrecks. He explains that since the island has no Indigenous population or natural resources, every ship that came to the island "was like its own little mini-Walmart", bringing everything it would need. For centuries, Bermudans salvaged those wrecks loaded with invaluable materials. Now, Rouja is charged with protecting more than 40 open-to-the public shipwrecks, as well as mapping, cataloging and studying hundreds more. During hurricanes, storm surges, waves and winds can move entire wrecks, revealing the treasures within. "Any shipwreck that you think you know, you want to go look at it again after a hurricane," he says, " it's a mixture of anticipation and a bit of worry." Rouja works with local dive shops to monitor sites and report new finds, meaning certified divers visiting during hurricane season – roughly June to November – may be the first to glimpse artefacts not seen for centuries. He says that anything from an old shoe or a can of anchovies could help his team identify a shipwreck. Recently, he recalls, "We had some accountant who liked to go lobster diving who just bumped into a shipwreck on the inner reef." It turned out to be the Justice, a ship sunk in 1950. You don't even need to dive However, discoveries don't always require a tank. In North Carolina, many recent discoveries have been found buried under beach dunes. Wrecks either crashed there centuries ago and were buried by shifting sand or have washed up after storms. "Folks will absolutely be walking their dog down the beach and see a ship frame sticking out of the dune after storms," says Stephen Atkinson, a shipwreck and archeology expert with North Carolina's Underwater Archaeology department. That was the case with the Corolla Wreck, discovered in the northern Outer Banks by a local who noticed exposed pieces of a hull after a huge wind event. Gold coins found nearby date to the early 1600, suggesting that it could be state's oldest known shipwreck. Before that, the record was held by the infamous Queen Anne's Revenge, captained by Blackbeard himself, sunk in 1718 and discovered in 1996. Beachcombers are asked to document and report their findings to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Their names stay attached to the finds and they can be as involved as they want in the ensuing research and historical process. "We had a man named Scott Smith who reported a wreck," says Atkinson. "So, I wrote in my database, 'the Scott Smith wreck'." He receives reports at least weekly from people who think they've found something – and he is always open to more. "I love when people send me photos," he says, noting that public reports, even if minor, help track the impacts of wrecks over time. "They're extremely beneficial to us." He describes beachcombing after storms as "one of the bigger tourist draws" around areas like the Outer Banks, and that's not by accident. The state has a "Citizen Archaeologist" programme for reporting any finds, wrecks or otherwise, and will soon join Florida's Shipwreck Tagging National Archaeological Program in which beachgoers can scan a QR code on timber and other pieces of wreck to help track their movements after weather events. In South Carolina, treasure hunters look forward to storms too. The state loses an average of 6-8ft of shoreline per year, and storms speed up that process – leading to casual beachcombers stumbling across rare finds. "Storms can strip away sand to reveal long-hidden fossils," says Katie Lyons of Charleston Fossil Adventures, a South Carolina company that runs fossil beachcombing tours. After a recent hurricane, the team at Charleston Fossil Adventures found a monk seal arm bone dating to the Ice Age – now in a local museum – and they often find dozens of fossils in a single day after big storms. The excitement of the hunt leads to plenty of opening-day bookings around the season's start in mid-March, driven by anxious collectors. "A lot of the diehard collectors are eager to get out to the secluded sites to see what the storm has washed up," Lyons says. She recommends searching in piles of shells and rocks on the beach. "Since the ocean is sorting material by size, you're going to find more in patches of thicker gravel than you will on flat, barren stretches of sand." The thrill of treasure hunting Bermuda's most famous underwater treasure hunter is the late Teddy Tucker, who discovered the emerald-crusted Tucker Cross on a 16th-Century Spanish wreck in 1950. It was famously stolen around 1975, moments before it was supposed to be shown to Queen Elizabeth, and has been lost ever since. "That brought treasure hunting to a new generation," says Rouja. As divers learned that provenance increased a find's value, many became hobbyist researchers and historians, ushering in the era of marine archaeology. "It's more fun for people to be part of the public story of finding something than to just go home and have it sit on their shelf," he adds. More like this:• Scuba diving in the South Pacific's most inexplicable feeding frenzy• How underwater and deep-sea tourism became so popular• The 'sea gypsies' who live with whale sharks Divers can maximise their chances by avoiding popular sites. Rouja suggests exploring a few hundred metres from wreck rather than immediately outside it. The majority of Bermuda's wrecks lie above 80ft and Rouja estimates there are "many, many more" waiting to be found across the rest of the islands' "largely unexplored" reefs. As storms intensify due to climate change, experts expect more wrecks will surface – and there will be more opportunities for travellers to play a role in rewriting maritime history. New tech like drones and underwater mapping programmes are making discoveries more accessible. And past high-profile finds, like five bottles of wine from the 1864 Marie Celeste wreck, continue to fuel public fascination with underwater treasure hunting. Rouja's white whale is the 100lb bronze rooster that served as the masthead of the Cristobal Colon, lost by Tucker in an early salvage expedition. Keep your eyes peeled," he says. "If someone found that, that would be so cool." -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Former Vero Beach Mayor Mary Beth McDonald dies at 73 following lengthy illness
VERO BEACH — Mary Beth McDonald, a former City Council member and mayor from 2005-2006, died July 4 after a lengthy illness. She was 73. McDonald was elected to the City Council in 2004 and served until 2006. She was heralded for her leadership during hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma. "Her resolve and hard work were unparalleled during her time on council," said Dr. John W. McDonald, her husband of 48 years. "Though she served only one term, it was an eventful term." John McDonald will remember his wife for her optimism, humor and honesty, he said. After leaving office, McDonald was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees, and served from 2013-2021. Historic hurricanes When hurricanes Frances and Jeanne hit the city in 2004, McDonald's communication skills and optimism shone through. "She was so instrumental in getting the city through what is probably its darkest hour," said former City Clerk Tammy Bursick. "She was so focused and driven. I really admired her for that." The following year, Hurricane Wilma brought immense flooding, seemingly setting the city's recovery back. But not on McDonald's watch. "We couldn't have recovered as quickly as we did without her," said Bursick. "She was so graceful during that time, and her communication skills and leadership were a site to behold." She facilitated rebuilding until the end of her term, said Bursick. "The hurricanes really are the big story of her time on council," said John McDonald. "She hardly got a break during that time because of the storms." Long-time resident McDonald — originally of Chevy Chase, Maryland — arrived in Vero Beach in 1982. She and her husband were establishing a dermatology practice after relocating from Washington, D.C. The two were married in 1977, and had two sons, John Lawrence and Patrick Warren. A graduate of FAU with a degree in communications, McDonald's career spanned more than 25 years. She ascended to the role of communications director for the city, wrote freelance for Florida Parenting News, was a speech and drama teacher at St. Edward's School and opened her own marketing agency, One Source Media and Marketing. Other accomplishment during her term on council were facilitating the opening of Quail Valley Golf Club, Costa d'Este Beach Resort and Spa and renovating the Vero Beach Theater. "She really enjoyed her time on council and serving the city in any way she could," said her husband. "She loved Vero Beach." Education news: New state law means some Treasure Coast high schools likely to continue early start times Larry's take: Vero Beach percentage of county population wanes; major challenges faced | Opinion She also was very active in civic organizations, including the Jasmine Circle Garden Club, Florida Medical Association Ladies Auxiliary and Friends of the Riverside Theater. She is survived by her husband, her sons and two sisters, Susan and Martha Widmayer. Funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 1 at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 500 Iris Lane, Vero Beach. The family requests donations to VNA Hospice House, at Nick Slater is TCPalm's Indian River County Watchdog reporter. You can reach him at and 224-830-2875. This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Former Vero Beach Mayor Mary Beth McDonald has passed away at age 73 Solve the daily Crossword
Fast Company
4 days ago
- Science
- Fast Company
AI and drones still need help from humans to find missing flood victims
For search and rescue, AI is not more accurate than humans, but it is far faster. Recent successes in applying computer vision and machine learning to drone imagery for rapidly determining building and road damage after hurricanes or shifting wildfire lines suggest that artificial intelligence could be valuable in searching for missing persons after a flood. Machine learning systems typically take less than one second to scan a high-resolution image from a drone, versus one to three minutes for a person. Plus, drones often produce more imagery to view than is humanly possible during the critical first hours of a search, when survivors may still be alive. Unfortunately, today's AI systems are not up to the task. We are robotics researchers who study the use of drones in disasters. Our experiences searching for victims of flooding and numerous other events show that current implementations of AI fall short. However, the technology can play a role in searching for flood victims. The key is AI-human collaboration. AI's potential Searching for flood victims is a type of wilderness search and rescue that presents unique challenges. The goal for machine learning scientists is to rank which images have signs of victims and to indicate where in those images search-and-rescue personnel should focus. If the responder sees signs of a victim, they pass the GPS location in the image to search teams in the field to check. The ranking is done by a classifier, which is an algorithm that learns to identify similar instances of objects—cats, cars, trees—from training data in order to recognize those objects in new images. For example, in a search-and-rescue context, a classifier would spot instances of human activity, such as garbage or backpacks, to pass on to wilderness search-and-rescue teams, or even identify the missing person themselves. A classifier is needed because of the sheer volume of imagery that drones can produce. For example, a single 20-minute flight can produce over 800 high-resolution images. If there are 10 flights—a small number—there would be over 8,000 images. If a responder spends only 10 seconds looking at each image, it would take over 22 hours of effort. Even if the task is divided among a group of 'squinters,' humans tend to miss areas of images and show cognitive fatigue. The ideal solution is an AI system that scans the entire image, prioritizes images that have the strongest signs of victims, and highlights the area of the image for a responder to inspect. It could also decide whether the location should be flagged for special attention by search-and-rescue crews. Where AI falls short While this seems to be a perfect opportunity for computer vision and machine learning, modern systems have a high error rate. If the system is programmed to overestimate the number of candidate locations in hopes of not missing any victims, it will likely produce too many false candidates. That would mean overloading squinters or, worse, the search-and-rescue teams, which would have to navigate through debris and muck to check the candidate locations. Developing computer vision and machine learning systems for finding flood victims is difficult for three reasons. One is that while existing computer vision systems are certainly capable of identifying people visible in aerial imagery, the visual indicators of a flood victim are often very different compared with those for a lost hiker or fugitive. Flood victims are often obscured, camouflaged, entangled in debris, or submerged in water. These visual challenges increase the possibility that existing classifiers will miss victims. Second, machine learning requires training data, but there are no datasets of aerial imagery where humans are tangled in debris, covered in mud, and not in normal postures. This lack also increases the possibility of errors in classification. Third, many of the drone images often captured by searchers are oblique views, rather than looking straight down. This means the GPS location of a candidate area is not the same as the GPS location of the drone. It is possible to compute the GPS location if the drone's altitude and camera angle are known, but unfortunately, those attributes rarely are. The imprecise GPS location means teams have to spend extra time searching. How AI can help Fortunately, with humans and AI working together, search-and-rescue teams can successfully use existing systems to help narrow down and prioritize imagery for further inspection. In the case of flooding, human remains may be tangled among vegetation and debris. Therefore, a system could identify clumps of debris big enough to contain remains. A common search strategy is to identify the GPS locations of where flotsam has gathered, because victims may be part of these same deposits. An AI classifier could find debris commonly associated with remains, such as artificial colors and construction debris with straight lines or 90-degree corners. Responders find these signs as they systematically walk the riverbanks and flood plains, but a classifier could help prioritize areas in the first few hours and days, when there may be survivors, and later could confirm that teams didn't miss any areas of interest as they navigated the difficult landscape on foot.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Why drones and AI can't quickly find missing flood victims, yet
For search and rescue, AI is not more accurate than humans, but it is far faster. Recent successes in applying computer vision and machine learning to drone imagery for rapidly determining building and road damage after hurricanes or shifting wildfire lines suggest that artificial intelligence could be valuable in searching for missing persons after a flood. Machine learning systems typically take less than one second to scan a high-resolution image from a drone versus one to three minutes for a person. Plus, drones often produce more imagery to view than is humanly possible in the critical first hours of a search when survivors may still be alive. Unfortunately, today's AI systems are not up to the task. We are robotics reseachers who study the use of drones in disasters. Our experiences searching for victims of flooding and numerous other events show that current implementations of AI fall short. However, the technology can play a role in searching for flood victims. The key is AI-human collaboration. AI's potential Searching for flood victims is a type of wilderness search and rescue that presents unique challenges. The goal for machine learning scientists is to rank which images have signs of victims and indicate where in those images search-and-rescue personnel should focus. If the responder sees signs of a victim, they pass the GPS location in the image to search teams in the field to check. The ranking is done by a classifier, which is an algorithm that learns to identify similar instances of objects – cats, cars, trees – from training data in order to recognize those objects in new images. For example, in a search-and-rescue context, a classifier would spot instances of human activity such as garbage or backpacks to pass to wilderness search-and-rescue teams, or even identify the missing person themselves. A classifier is needed because of the sheer volume of imagery that drones can produce. For example, a single 20-minute flight can produce over 800 high-resolution images. If there are 10 flights – a small number – there would be over 8,000 images. If a responder spends only 10 seconds looking at each image, it would take over 22 hours of effort. Even if the task is divided among a group of 'squinters,' humans tend to miss areas of images and show cognitive fatigue. The ideal solution is an AI system that scans the entire image, prioritizes images that have the strongest signs of victims, and highlights the area of the image for a responder to inspect. It could also decide whether the location should be flagged for special attention by search-and-rescue crews. Where AI falls short While this seems to be a perfect opportunity for computer vision and machine learning, modern systems have a high error rate. If the system is programmed to overestimate the number of candidate locations in hopes of not missing any victims, it will likely produce too many false candidates. That would mean overloading squinters or, worse, the search-and-rescue teams, which would have to navigate through debris and muck to check the candidate locations. Developing computer vision and machine learning systems for finding flood victims is difficult for three reasons. One is that while existing computer vision systems are certainly capable of identifying people visible in aerial imagery, the visual indicators of a flood victim are often very different compared with those for a lost hiker or fugitive. Flood victims are often obscured, camouflaged, entangled in debris or submerged in water. These visual challenges increase the possibility that existing classifiers will miss victims. Second, machine learning requires training data, but there are no datasets of aerial imagery where humans are tangled in debris, covered in mud and not in normal postures. This lack also increases the possibility of errors in classification. Third, many of the drone images often captured by searchers are oblique views, rather than looking straight down. This means the GPS location of a candidate area is not the same as the GPS location of the drone. It is possible to compute the GPS location if the drone's altitude and camera angle are known, but unfortunately those attributes rarely are. The imprecise GPS location means teams have to spend extra time searching. How AI can help Fortunately, with humans and AI working together, search-and-rescue teams can successfully use existing systems to help narrow down and prioritize imagery for further inspection. In the case of flooding, human remains may be tangled among vegetation and debris. Therefore, a system could identify clumps of debris big enough to contain remains. A common search strategy is to identify the GPS locations of where flotsam has gathered, because victims may be part of these same deposits. An AI classifier could find debris commonly associated with remains, such as artificial colors and construction debris with straight lines or 90-degree corners. Responders find these signs as they systematically walk the riverbanks and flood plains, but a classifier could help prioritize areas in the first few hours and days, when there may be survivors, and later could confirm that teams didn't miss any areas of interest as they navigated the difficult landscape on foot. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Robin R. Murphy, Texas A&M University and Thomas Manzini, Texas A&M University Read more: FEMA's flood maps often miss dangerous flash flood risks, leaving homeowners unprepared California wildfires force students to think about the connections between STEM and society An expert on search and rescue robots explains the technologies used in disasters like the Florida condo collapse Robin R. Murphy receives funding from the National Science Foundation. She is affiliated with the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. Thomas Manzini is affiliated with the Center for Robot Assisted Search & Rescue (CRASAR), and his work is funded by the National Science Foundation's AI Institute for Societal Decision Making (AI-SDM).
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Earth just had one of its shortest days in over 50 years
July 10, 2025 was the shortest day of this year, so far, as well as one of the shortest days the planet has seen since atomic clocks were invented. The odd thing is, we're not exactly sure why! The length of each day here on Earth, at 24 hours, is what's known as a solar day — the length of time it takes for planet to rotate around so that the Sun returns to the exact same position in the sky as the previous day. We define the length of day as equal to 86,400 seconds, and scientists track that timing, day by day, using extremely precise atomic clocks. There's one complication, though. Only rarely is each day actually 86,400 seconds long. The western hemisphere of Earth at night. (NASA's Earth Observatory) Due to a variety of factors, our days are usually a tiny bit shorter or longer, on the order of 1 or 2 thousandths of a second (a.k.a. a milliseconds). There are many things that influence Earth's rotation. Our distance from the Sun and the Moon's distance from Earth affect the tides, which can shorten or lengthen the day. The motions of Earth's core, mantle, and crust can do so as well. Even much more transient events, such as powerful hurricanes and earthquakes have their effects. Plus, we've already seen how changes in the mass of glaciers near Earth's poles can change the length of day. READ MORE: So far, the pattern doesn't really match up with anything specific, though. It could even be a combination of some, or even all of these things, but nobody knows for sure. And there is a pattern! Over a half century of records now, the shortest day of each year has occurred in June, July, or August. Meanwhile, the longest day has usually been sometime between March and May, but occasionally happened in October or November. There is even a shorter pattern of oscillations overlaid on top of that longer pattern, where the length of day swings back and forth between longer and shorter every 5-8 days or so. This graph of length of day (in milliseconds over (+) or under (-1) the average of 86,400,000 ms) shows the unusual pattern in the lengthening and shortening of our days here on Earth. The data represented, ranging from April 17 through July 14, 2025, is the latest data available from the IERS as of July 16. (Data from IERS) According to the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), in 2025, the longest day of the year so far was Saturday, March 29, at 1.12 milliseconds longer than usual. The shortest day of the year, so far, was Thursday, July 10, at 1.37 milliseconds shorter than usual. That's not the shortest day in history. July 5, 2024 appears to hold that title, at least over the past half-century or so, at 1.66 ms shorter. However, based on the data presented by July 10, 2025 is the fifth shortest day, going back to 1973. This, in of itself, is rather odd. From 1973 through 2019, each year has seen an average length of day greater than usual, and the tally of all that 'extra time' at the end of each year has added up to anywhere from 100 to 1,100 milliseconds. In fact, this is the reason why we have introduced leap seconds into our calendar. So far, there have been 25 leap seconds added, either on June 30 or December 31 of any specific year. This happened when the total yearly differences in the actual time vs the standard time added up to around 1 second or more. Sometimes it took more than one year for that extra time to accumulate. However, since 2020, Earth has been spinning faster. The average length of day and the total yearly difference have both been negative for each year of the past 5 years, and also for 2025, so far. This table reveals how Earth's days have been getting shorterly in recent years. (Earth at night courtesy NASA's Earth Observatory. Data courtesy IERS via "Nobody expected this," Leonid Zotov, a leading authority on Earth's rotation at Moscow State University, told "The cause of this acceleration is not explained." According to Zotov, most researchers believe it may be something inside the Earth that is causing the days to get shorter right now. As for when this trend might reverse, Zotov has seen indictations, in both early 2024 and again in 2025, that the acceleration may be slowing. "I think we have reached the minimum," he told "Sooner or later, Earth will decelerate." Watch below: Why one planet in our solar systems spins 'backwards' — Out of this World Click here to view the video
