Thousands in the dark as Hurricane Francine strikes Louisiana, raising flood fears

MORGAN CITY, La. (AP) — Hurricane Francine slammed into the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening as a dangerous Category 2 storm that knocked out electricity to more than a quarter-million customers and threatened widespread flooding as it sent a potentially deadly storm surge rushing inland along...

Warm oceans strengthened Hurricane Francine and could power more Fall storms

Warm water in the Gulf of Mexico helped quickly strengthen Hurricane Francine, creating danger for Louisiana residents rushing to buy supplies and secure their homes ahead of the storm's landfall Wednesday. Warm ocean water is essential for forming and strengthening hurricanes. Heat...

Conservationists try to protect ecologically rich Alabama delta from development, climate change

MOBILE-TENSAW DELTA, Ala. (AP) — Thousands of American lotuses carpet the water's surface, faces turned toward the morning sun. Bright yellow warblers flit among cypress trees along a creek bank. A paddlefish jumps as a motorboat rounds a bend. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta — a lush,...

Takeaways from AP's story on Alabama's ecologically important Mobile-Tensaw Delta and its watershed

Alabama’s Mobile-Tensaw Delta is a more-than 400-square-mile (1,036-square-kilometer) expanse of cypress swamps, oxbow lakes, marshland, hardwood stands and rivers unusually rich in plant and animal diversity. It's also a critical conduit between the rest of Alabama and the Gulf of...

Same storm, different names: How Invest 97L could graduate to Hurricane Debby

It's an area of low atmospheric pressure, thunderstorms and wind sloshing out of the Caribbean Sea across Cuba, into the Gulf of Mexico and toward Florida. But by the time it dissipates, weather forecasters may have called it by five different names. First it was Invest 97L, then it...

Tropical depression strengthens into Tropical Storm Debby as it moves through Gulf of Mexico toward Florida

Clashes arise over the economic effects of Louisiana's $3 billion-dollar coastal restoration project

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Proponents of a nearly $3 billion project to restore part of southeast Louisiana's rapidly vanishing coastline released a study Tuesday touting the expected economic benefits of its construction, even as the project faces pushback and litigation from communities who fear the...

The gods must be angry: Mexico 'cancels' statue of Greek god Poseidon after dispute with local deity

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The gods must be angry — or just laughing at the hubris of humanity. Authorities in Mexico have slapped a “closure” order on a 10-foot-tall (3-meter) aquatic statue of the Greek god of the sea Poseidon that was erected in May in the Gulf of Mexico just off...

Group sues federal government, claims it ignores harms of idle offshore oil and gas infrastructure

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An environmental group is suing the federal government to force the U.S. Department of Interior to reassess the long-term environmental effects of delays in shutting down inactive oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. The lawsuit, filed in federal...

Survival story as Hurricane Beryl razes smallest inhabited island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

MAYREAU, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (AP) — Mayreu is one of the smallest inhabited islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It's so small that it's barely visible — a dot on the map of the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl nearly erased it from the map. Beryl pummeled everything...