Drought worsens crop damage, raising world food, fuel worry

Read more

U.S. drought worsens, crop ratings drop sharply * Corn, soybean prices near record, food inflation fears * Heat dome over Corn Belt to continue, forecasters say By Andrew Stern CHICAGO, July 16 (Reuters) – Corn and soybeans in the U.S. Midwest baked in an unrelenting heat wave on Monday with fears rising of big crop losses…

USA’s drought costs exceed $10 billion

Comments (0)|Read more

The nation’s costliest natural disaster of the year — the drought across the South that’s already cost the USA $10 billion — appears to be expanding its reach. The dry conditions have spread now into parts of the Southeast and Midwest, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website that tracks drought across the country. More…

Europe’s Drought Risks Inflation Deluge

Comments (0)|Read more

By ANDREW PEAPLE It will take more than a washed-out holiday weekend to put a smile back on the faces of European farmers—and policy makers. Dry weather in the continent’s northern regions has seriously harmed potential crops, with the U.K. the latest country to declare drought conditions in some parts of the country. England and…

2011 – year of the epic floods

Comments (0)|Read more

There’s no doubt that 2011 will be remembered for its epic flooding. And years from today, when people recall the events of this summer, one characteristic that surely will stand out is how the flooding unfolded with such agonizing slowness. Along the Platte River and Missouri River in Nebraska, people are looking upstream with dread…

Ariz. wildfire spreads across New Mexico border

Comments (0)|Read more

CBS News Two weeks after roaring to life along the Arizona-New Mexico border, firefighters are finally making some progress against the massive blaze, with 6% containment. The massive wildfire in eastern Arizona has already burned more than 600 square miles. About 30 homes and cabins have been destroyed. As many as 10,000 people have been…

Turtles pose problem for Arkansas rice farmers

Comments (0)|Read more

By Suzi Parker – Sun Jun 12, 9:11 pm ET LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) – After facing a spring of harsh weather, rice farmers in Arkansas, the nation’s top rice-producing state, have a new worry — turtles. Recent flooding in southern and eastern Arkansas has displaced turtles from their normal habitat in the canals, swamps and low-lying areas near…

Deadly Fungus Strikes Joplin Tornado Survivors, Volunteers

Comments (0)|Read more

The Greene County (Mo.) Health Department has issued a memo to health care workers who are treating injured victims of May’s deadly Joplin tornado, warning them that a powerful fungus has infected wounds of injured patients. The Springfield News-Leader reports as many as nine cases have been reported in tornado victims across the area in…

Tornado death toll rises, no more survivors found

Comments (0)|Read more

(Reuters) – The death toll from a monster tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125 on Wednesday and tornadoes overnight in nearby states caused at least 15 more deaths. Three days after the deadliest single tornado in the United States in 64 years, rescue teams with dogs sifted through rubble in Joplin without finding…

A Tale of Two Cultures

Comments (0)|Read more

The earthquake in Japan reveals a divide of culture, philosophy, and geology between East and West. Survivors return to the destroyed streets of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture. Rudyard Kipling famously said, “East is East, West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” Yet since Japan’s devastating earthquake, the entire world has been riveted by heartbreaking…

Low-level radiation found in Massachusetts rainwater

Comments (0)|Read more

(Reuters) – Trace amounts of radioactive iodine linked to Japan‘s crippled nuclear power station have turned up in rainwater samples as far away as Massachusetts during the past week, state officials said on Sunday. The low level of radioiodine-131 detected in precipitation at a sample location in Massachusetts is comparable to findings in California, Washington…