Latest news with #weatherdisasters
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New study warns that one type of US home foreclosures could surge by staggering 380%: 'Hidden risks'
Weather-related foreclosures across the United States could jump 380% over the next 10 years, reported CBS MoneyWatch. By 2035, weather-driven events could account for up to 30% of all foreclosures, compared with roughly 7% today. The research from First Street, a climate impact analysis firm, shows how rising repair costs and insurance premiums are creating a perfect storm for American homeowners. Weather-driven foreclosures happen when extreme conditions damage homes so badly that owners can't afford the repairs or insurance costs. Unlike traditional foreclosures caused by job loss or financial hardship, these stem directly from floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other weather disasters. The problem hits families with low and moderate incomes the hardest since most of their wealth is tied up in their homes. When a storm destroys your house and insurance doesn't cover the full cost, foreclosure often becomes the only option. These foreclosures are a concealed financial risk that most lenders don't consider when approving mortgages, per the report. Banks typically look at your income, debt, and credit score but not whether your future home sits in a flood zone or wildfire path. First Street projects lenders will lose $1.2 billion this year alone, with losses climbing to $5.4 billion annually by 2035. For every 1% increase in insurance costs, it estimates foreclosure rates jump by roughly 1% nationwide. "Such losses represent the 'hidden risks' of climate change that lenders often fail to account for in their underwriting practices," CBS MoneyWatch wrote while paraphrasing Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at First Street. This oversight leaves both homeowners and banks vulnerable when disaster strikes. Florida faces the biggest risk, with eight of the top 10 counties for the highest projected credit losses. Duval County alone could experience $60 million in losses from 900 foreclosures in a severe weather year. Do you think America is in a housing crisis? Definitely Not sure No way Only in some cities Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. However, the impact goes beyond coastal areas. Heavy rainfall and river flooding threaten inland communities too, especially where flood insurance coverage remains spotty. The real problem lies in insurance gaps. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood maps cover just under 8 million properties, but First Street estimates nearly 18 million homes face flood risk. That leaves millions of homeowners without proper coverage. "About half the people with significant flood risk aren't mapped into [FEMA's] Special Flood Hazard Area," Porter explained. "So it leads to a state where we have a lot of underinsurance across the country." Properties outside official flood zones saw foreclosure rates 52% higher than those inside protected areas when flooding occurred from 2002 to 2019. "If you don't protect yourselves, then when the event does occur it's completely on you. You end up having to pay out of pocket and you may go into foreclosure," Porter said. When buying a home, ask about flood risk even if you're not in an official flood zone. Consider flood insurance regardless of requirements, and factor potential weather-related costs into your budget. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
E&E News
15-05-2025
- Climate
- E&E News
NWS offers employees new jobs in new locations
The Trump administration is trying to shuffle experienced National Weather Service employees into understaffed forecast offices after firings and early retirements left the agency with open jobs in regions that face high risk from weather and climate disasters. A memo sent to all NWS employees Tuesday offers transfers to fill 76 meteorology vacancies by the end of May, including in hurricane hot zones along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts and in southernmost Florida, including Miami and Key West. The agency is seeking to fill an additional 79 positions in other areas, including information technology, physical scientists and technicians, according to two people who've seen other recently sent memos. Advertisement Among five meteorologist vacancies in Texas, two are in Houston, including a meteorologist in charge of its spaceflight meteorology group. Houston is also one of the lowest-lying major cities in the United States, where even moderate rainstorms can cause localized flooding. A large portion of the city was flooded by rain from Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Fast Company
09-05-2025
- Climate
- Fast Company
NOAA to stop tracking costs of extreme weather fueled by climate change
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will no longer track the cost of climate change-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change. NOAA falls under the U.S. Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service. The agency said its National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database beyond 2024, and that its information — going as far back as 1980 — would be archived. For decades, it has tracked hundreds of major events across the country, including destructive hurricanes, hail storms, droughts and freezes that have totaled trillions of dollars in damage. The database uniquely pulls information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistance data, insurance organizations, state agencies and more to estimate overall losses from individual disasters. NOAA Communications Director Kim Doster said in a statement that the change was 'in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.' Scientists say these weather events are becoming increasingly more frequent, costly and severe with climate change. Experts have attributed the growing intensity of recent debilitating heat, Hurricane Milton, the Southern California wildfires and blasts of cold to climate change. Assessing the impact of weather events fueled by the planet's warming is key as insurance premiums hike, particularly in communities more prone to flooding, storms and fires. Climate change has wrought havoc on the insurance industry, and homeowners are at risk of skyrocketing rates. One limitation is that the dataset estimated only the nation's most costly weather events. The information is generally seen as standardized and unduplicable, given the agency's access to nonpublic data, and other private databases would be more limited in scope and likely not shared as widespread for proprietary reasons. Other datasets, however, also track death estimates from these disasters. Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, pointed to substitutes from insurance brokers and the international disaster database as alternative sources of information. Still, 'The NOAA database is the gold standard we use to evaluate the costs of extreme weather,' Masters said, 'and it's a major loss, since it comes at a time when we need to better understand how much climate change is increasing disaster losses.' These moves also don't 'change the fact that these disasters are escalating year over year,' Kristina Dahl, vice president of science at nonprofit climate organization Climate Central. 'Extreme weather events that cause a lot of damage are one of the primary ways that the public sees that climate change is happening and is affecting people.' 'It's critical that we highlight those events when they're happening,' she added. 'All of these changes will make Americans less safe in the face of climate change.' The move, reported Thursday by CNN, is yet another of President Donald Trump's efforts to remove references to climate change and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the weather from the federal government's lexicon and documents. The change also marks the administration's latest hit overall to the weather, ocean and fisheries agency. The Trump administration fired hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal NOAA employees on probationary status in February, part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency efforts to downsize the federal government workforce. It began a second round of more than 1,000 cuts at the agency in March, more than 10% of its workforce at the time. At the time, insiders said massive firings and changes to the agency would risk lives and negatively impact the U.S. economy. Experts also noted fewer vital weather balloon launches under NOAA would worsen U.S. weather forecasts.
Malay Mail
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
US climate agency stops tracking natural disasters after Trump cuts billion-dollar funding
WASHINGTON, May 9 — US President Donald Trump's administration will stop updating a long-running database of costly climate and weather disasters as part of its deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to a Thursday announcement. The database, which spans the years 1980-2024, has allowed researchers, the media and the public to keep a tally of events ranging from wildfires to hurricanes that caused losses exceeding US$1 billion, adjusted for inflation. 'In alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes, NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information will no longer be updating the Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product,' a banner on the landing page said. Past years will remain archived. From 1980 to 2024, the United States experienced 403 weather and climate disasters with damages exceeding US$1 billion each, adjusted to 2024 dollars. The cumulative cost of these events surpassed US$2.9 trillion. A time-series chart shows that while there is year-to-year variation, the overall number of billion-dollar disasters is rising sharply, driven by climate destabilization linked to fossil fuel emissions. 'Hiding many billions in costs is Trump's latest move to leave Americans in the dark about climate disasters,' said Maya Golden-Krasner of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. 'Trump's climate agenda is to leave people unsafe and unprepared while oil companies pocket record profits,' Golden-Krasner added. 'The pressure is on for leaders with integrity to keep counting the costs of climate disasters and hold polluters accountable for the damage.' Trump, who withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement on day one of his second term, has pursued aggressive rollbacks of climate-focused institutions. His administration appears to be following 'Project 2025,' a blueprint authored by right-wing think tanks that labels NOAA a key source of 'climate alarmism.' NOAA has since undergone mass layoffs affecting roughly 20 percent of its workforce, and the White House is seeking to slash the agency's annual budget by US$1.5 billion – nearly a quarter of its total funding. The move follows another major blow to federal climate science: the dismissal of more than 400 authors behind the National Climate Assessment, a report mandated by Congress and considered the government's foremost climate evaluation. — AFP
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Noaa to stop tracking cost of climate crisis-fueled disasters: ‘major loss'
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) will no longer track the cost of climate crisis-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change. Noaa falls under the US Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service. The agency said its National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database beyond 2024, and that its information – going as far back as 1980 – would be archived. For decades, it has tracked hundreds of major events across the country, including destructive hurricanes, hail storms, droughts and freezes that have totaled trillions of dollars in damage. The database uniquely pulls information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistance data, insurance organizations, state agencies and more to estimate overall losses from individual disasters. Noaa's communications director, Kim Doster, said in a statement that the change was 'in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes'. Scientists say these weather events are becoming increasingly more frequent, costly and severe with the climate crisis. Experts have attributed the growing intensity of recent debilitating heat, Hurricane Milton, the southern California wildfires and blasts of cold to the climate crisis. Assessing the impact of weather events fueled by the planet's warming is key as insurance premiums hike, particularly in communities more prone to flooding, storms and fires. The climate crisis has wrought havoc on the insurance industry, and homeowners are at risk of skyrocketing rates. One limitation is that the dataset estimated only the nation's most costly weather events. The information is generally seen as standardized and unduplicable, given the agency's access to nonpublic data, and other private databases would be more limited in scope and likely not shared as widespread for proprietary reasons. Other datasets, however, also track death estimates from these disasters. Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, pointed to substitutes from insurance brokers and the international disaster database as alternative sources of information. Still, 'the Noaa database is the gold standard we use to evaluate the costs of extreme weather,' Masters said, 'and it's a major loss, since it comes at a time when we need to better understand how much climate change is increasing disaster losses.' These moves also don't 'change the fact that these disasters are escalating year over year', Kristina Dahl, the vice-president of science at non-profit climate organization Climate Central. 'Extreme weather events that cause a lot of damage are one of the primary ways that the public sees that climate change is happening and is affecting people.' 'It's critical that we highlight those events when they're happening,' she added. 'All of these changes will make Americans less safe in the face of climate change.' The move, reported on Thursday by CNN, is yet another of Donald Trump's efforts to remove references to the climate crisis and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the weather from the federal government's lexicon and documents. The president has instead prioritized allies in the polluting coal, oil and gas industries, which studies say are linked or traced to climate damage. The Trump administration fired hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal Noaa employees on probationary status in February, part of Elon Musk's unofficial 'department of government efficiency' efforts to downsize the federal government workforce. It began a second round of more than 1,000 cuts at the agency in March, more than 10% of its workforce at the time. At the time, insiders said massive firings and changes to the agency would risk lives and negatively impact the U.S. economy. Experts also noted fewer vital weather balloon launches under Noaa would worsen US weather forecasts. More changes to the agency are expected, which could include some of those proposed in the president's preliminary budget. The agency's weather service also paused providing language translations of its products last month – though it resumed those translations just weeks later.
