WASHINGTON — Another grueling summer disaster season is arriving, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is under intense pressure even as its portfolio balloons, it pleads for more money from Congress and criticism comes on several fronts. The agency manages more than 300 disaster declarations a year, a dramatic increase from the average of 108 disasters it responded to just a decade ago. For 2022, the disaster outlook is daunting.
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wildfires
wildfires
For the past 10 years, Republican-led majorities in the General Assembly have sacked the Department of Environmental Quality budget, apparent punishment for enforcing, even meagerly, state and federal environmental regulations. Yet, for the first time since 2017, the legislature's new proposed budget for DEQ exceeds $100 million.
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Federal hurricane prevention for New Orleans that cost billions worked during Ida, senators agree U.S. senators on Wednesday promoted a federal hurricane system’s performance in New Orleans during Hurricane Ida, but noted that other regions experienced devastation that is likely to worsen as climate change produces more intense and frequent storms.
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The white tail of a doe streaked by like the trail of a falling star. A stand of cattails rose from stagnant marsh, their heads as brown as corndogs. Dragonflies — Common Whitetail Skimmers and Banded Pennants — alit on a sweep of swamp rose-mallows. As a volunteer for an urban heat mapping project, I had drawn the long straw and been assigned to the Beaver Marsh Nature Preserve in north Durham.
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