Latest Disaster planning and response News

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2020, file photo Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Ky. walks towards the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington. New virus relief will have to wait until after the November election. The architect of the Senate measure, McConnell, isn’t claiming the vote will advance the ball. Once the measure fails, he plans to turn the chamber's full attention to cementing a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court by confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Pandemic relief talks inch ahead but McConnell is resistant

Oct. 21, 2020 12:56 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Negotiations on a huge COVID-19 relief bill have taken a modest step forward, though time is running out and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Donald Trump's most powerful Senate ally, is pressing the White House not to move ahead. McConnell told fellow Republicans that he...

FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2019, file photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, the dive boat Conception is engulfed in flames after a deadly fire broke out aboard the commercial scuba diving vessel off the Southern California Coast. Federal authorities are expected to vote Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020 on what likely sparked a fire aboard a scuba dive boat last year that killed 34 people off the coast of Southern California. The pre-dawn blaze aboard the Conception is one of California's deadliest maritime disasters, prompting both criminal and safety investigations into the Sept. 2, 2019 tragedy that claimed the lives of 33 passengers and one crew member on a Labor Day weekend expedition near an island off Santa Barbara. (Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP, File)

California boat owners faulted for fire that killed 34

Oct. 20, 2020 8:18 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One of the deadliest accidents in recent U.S. maritime history was the fault of owners of a Southern California dive boat whose lack of oversight resulted in a fire that swept through the vessel and killed 34 people in their bunks below deck, federal safety officials ruled Tuesday. The...

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2019, file photo, Elijah Carter 11, left, and Robert Haralson, 12, help shop for their parents in a darkened Olivers Supermarket during a blackout in the Rincon Valley community in Santa Rosa, Calif. When Pacific Gas & Electric set up emergency operations centers to coordinate intentional blackouts intended to prevent wildfires in Northern California, the nation's largest utility forgot one thing, emergency managers who knew the fundamentals of emergency management in California. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP, File)

PG&E lacked basic training before California blackouts

Oct. 18, 2020 2:46 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to large swaths of wildfire-prone Northern California last fall, few of the emergency personnel managing the blackouts for the nation’s largest utility had learned the fundamentals of managing an emergency in their home state. The...

Ray Lopez delivers supplies to Mountain Mike's Pizza in the Montclair district of Oakland, Calif., where power is turned off, on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020. Pacific Gas & Electric has cut power to portions of Northern California hoping to prevent wildfires during hot, windy weather throughout the region. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Trump changes course, approves California relief for 6 fires

Oct. 16, 2020 11:34 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration abruptly reversed course and approved California's application for disaster relief funds to clean up damage from six recent deadly and destructive blazes that have scorched the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday. “Just got off the...

FILE - In this March 28, 2020 file photo, French Minister for Solidarity and Health Olivier Veran speaks during a press conference in Paris. French police searched the homes of the former prime minister, the current and former health ministers and other top officials Thursday in an investigation into the government response to the global coronavirus pandemic. The Health Ministry confirmed the dawn searches, which included the offices of the current health minister Olivier Veran. (Geoffroy van Der Hasselt, Pool via AP)

French police search homes of health minister, ex-PM

Oct. 16, 2020 5:04 PM EDT

PARIS (AP) — French police searched the homes of the health minister, the former prime minister and other top officials Thursday in an investigation into the government's response to the global coronavirus pandemic. The dawn searches, confirmed by the Health Ministry, come as France is fighting against a...

UN aid chief: Funding shortage cuts aid to 4 million Yemenis

Oct. 15, 2020 7:49 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A funding shortage has cut off aid to 4 million Yemenis and experts are increasingly worried that “the window to prevent famine” in the war-torn country is closing quickly, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Thursday. Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council that aid...

In this Oct. 13, 2020, photo, Ricardo Pimentel is greeted by dogs that he rescued at his Tierra de Animales (Land of Animals) shelter in Leona Vicario, Mexico. Pimentel sheltered about 300 dogs at his home during Hurricane Delta, and his story, which has gone viral, led people across the world to donate to the shelter. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)

Man shelters 300 dogs from Hurricane Delta in Mexico home

Oct. 15, 2020 10:04 AM EDT

LEONA VICARIO, Mexico (AP) — As the dangerous Hurricane Delta closed in on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Ricardo Pimentel opened his home — to about 300 dogs. There were plenty of other critters too: Dozens of cats were harbored in his son’s room; his daughter’s room served as a...

Lima scores twice, Earthquakes beat Galaxy 4-0

Oct. 15, 2020 12:44 AM EDT

CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Nick Lima had two goals, Andrés Ríos added a goal and an assist, and the San Jose Earthquakes beat the LA Galaxy 4-0 on Wednesday night. Carlos Fierro flicked an arcing right-footer from the right side to the far post where Ríos tapped it to Lima for the one-touch...

Fierce winds fan Rockies wildfires, new evacuations ordered

Oct. 14, 2020 6:47 PM EDT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Strong winds fanned two Rocky Mountain wildfires Wednesday, prompting new evacuation orders as one spread toward communities outside Rocky Mountain National Park. Cool autumn weather had been helping firefighters in their efforts to quell the Mullen Fire in southeastern Wyoming and...

Buddhist monks walk through a flooded pagoda following recent rains on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. A Cambodian disaster official said Wednesday that more than 10,000 people have been evacuated to safety places after a tropical storm hit the country, causing the flash flood. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

10,000 evacuated in Cambodia due to flooding; rice crop hit

Oct. 14, 2020 4:53 AM EDT

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — More than 10,000 people have been evacuated in Cambodia after a tropical storm triggered flash floods, an official said Wednesday. Seasonal rains made worse by the storm caused flooding in 19 of the country’s 25 provinces, affecting 140,000 people in all, said Khun Sokha,...

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