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Back to school for children displaced by LA-area gas leak
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on January 11th, 2016
Reuters: In the latest disruption from the biggest methane gas leak in California history, nearly 2,000 Los Angeles children returning to class this week after winter break have been reassigned to schools outside the affected area over health concerns.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest public school system, announced the plan after students described headaches, bloody noses, nausea and breathing irritations.
Eleven-year-old Cameron Michaels said he suffered daily health...
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Sierra wildfire destroys homes, threatens 6,400 California residences
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on September 13th, 2015
Reuters: Four firefighters were injured on Saturday in a fast-moving wildfire in Northern California that forced the evacuation of thousands of people, officials said. The firefighters suffered second-degree burns as they battled the so-called Valley Fire, in Lake County, north of San Francisco, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. The Valley Fire broke out on Saturday afternoon and quickly spread to 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said...
Smoke blankets parts of Washington state as firefighters guard town from flames
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on August 22nd, 2015
Reuters: Firefighters battling a group of fierce wildfires in central Washington state labored on Saturday to expand containment lines outside a lakeside resort town, as large blazes scorched dry land in other parts of the U.S. West.
The continuing fight against a complex of fires near the town of Chelan came a day after President Barack Obama signed a federal declaration of emergency for Washington state to coordinate relief efforts in 11 counties and several Indian reservations hard hit by wildfires....
California curtails some longstanding water rights over drought
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on June 13th, 2015
Reuters: California's water board, facing a devastating four-year drought, on Friday curtailed some longstanding water rights for agriculture and other uses in Northern and Central California for the first time in nearly 40 years, officials said. The curtailment affects more than 100 so-called senior water rights holders, including water districts and farmers of commodities such as almonds, pears and grapes, with most of those located near the Sacramento River, the State Water Resources Control Board said...
California suffers dry January, prolonging devastating drought
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on February 1st, 2015
Reuters: California has experienced one of the driest Januarys on record, and the lack of rain during a time of year when the weather is usually wet indicates the state is likely headed for a fourth straight year of drought, officials said.
A prolonged drought could portend further economic and environmental setbacks for the nation's most populous state, which has already lost both crops and jobs to the dry weather.
The state's driest January on record was in 1984, when the 30-day average precipitation...
Hot, dry weather in California stokes wildfire fears
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on October 4th, 2014
Reuters: The fall season has brought a wave of hot, dry weather to California, with parts of the state baking this weekend in triple-digit temperatures and officials expressing concern the summer-like heat could spark a massive wildfire. The scorching temperatures came from a high pressure system in the U.S. West and the arrival in Southern California of autumn's first Santa Ana winds, which carry hot air through mountain passes toward the coast, meteorologists said. In Los Angeles, thermometers in parts...
Wildfire rips through 150 homes in Northern California
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on September 16th, 2014
Reuters: Fire crews in California battled on Tuesday to halt the advance of a day-old wildfire that has already destroyed about 150 homes, lapped at rural schools and caused power outages that left an evacuation shelter without electricity, authorities said. The blaze, one of about a dozen major fires raging across the drought-parched state, prompted authorities to order the evacuation of about 1,000 households in and around the Northern California town of Weed, which has a population of about 3,000. "Weed...
Firefighters hold line against southern California wildfire
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on January 18th, 2014
Reuters: Firefighters sought to prevent a wildfire in the foothills near Los Angeles from flaring up on Saturday, as they put out embers from a blaze that has destroyed five homes, officials said.
The so-called Colby Fire, which officials said started from a campfire early on Thursday, has blackened nearly 1,900 acres of drought-parched chaparral and is 30 percent contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Robert Brady.
That was the same level of containment firefighters reported on Friday, but officials...
Colorado rainfall one for the ages, Weather Service says
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on September 19th, 2013
Reuters: The downpour that inundated parts of Colorado this month was a once-in-a-millennium event for those areas, according to an analysis by the National Weather Service.
Colorado residents are coping with widespread destruction from floods unleashed by torrential rains that began on September 9 and lasted for several days. The flooding killed at least eight people, forced thousands from their homes and caused nearly $2 billion in property damage.
Towns at the base of Colorado's so-called Front Range...
Firefighters have California blaze nearly half contained
Posted by Reuters: Alex Dobuzinskis on July 21st, 2013
Reuters: Cooler weather helped firefighters make significant gains on Saturday against a massive wildfire in Southern California, as crews cut containment lines around nearly 50 percent of the blaze.
The so-called Mountain Fire has burned across more than 27,000 acres of dry brush and timber and destroyed seven residences since it broke out on Monday. At least 5,600 residents remain under evacuation orders.
The more than 3,000 firefighters tackling the blaze on Saturday managed to expand containment...