World

Houston keeps buckling under storms like Beryl. The fixes aren't coming fast enough

Published

1 year ago

July 11, 2024

Houston keeps buckling under storms like Beryl. The fixes aren't coming fast enough

HOUSTON (AP) — Sharon Carr is frustrated. Like many others who lost power after Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Texas coast earlier this week, she went to a cooling center in Houston to get relief from summer heat while the city’s utility company warned that restoring everyone’s electricity could take longer than they might hope.

“There’s too much wind, we don’t have power. It’s raining a long time, we don’t have power,” said Carr, who also went without electricity for a week in May when a destructive storm known as a derecho swept through the area.

Carr, who works for the city’s transportation and drainage department, thinks more could be done to keep the lights on — or at least restore them more quickly — if Houston and other urban areas prone to severe weather would stop focusing on immediate problems and look at the bigger picture, including climate change.

“This shouldn’t keep happening,” she said. “If it’s broke, let’s fix it.”

Hurricane Beryl is the latest in a long line of devastating storms to paralyze Houston, underscoring the city’s inability to sufficiently fortify itself against weather events brought on by climate change. Past storms such as Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Harvey in 2017 made clear that the city needed to remove trees, bolster its flood-plain protections and bury more power lines underground, but those efforts fell short or were completely overwhelmed by recent storms that have inundated the city and knocked out power to millions.

With climate change heating up ocean water, fueling storms that are more powerful and intensify much faster, experts say cities need to rethink how they prepare and respond to such events.

“It’s a totally different game that we’re playing today,” said Michelle Meyer, director of the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. The old playbook, she said, “doesn’t work anymore.”

If we rebuild it, it will flood again

Where and how developers build is one obvious issue, said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Barack Obama. He said that became evident to him 20 years ago while working in Florida, where four successive hurricanes were not enough to stop beachfront development.

“You’ve got to ask yourself, how many times do we need to rebuild something before we either build it back differently or we don’t build back in that same spot?” he said.

Fugate thinks taxpayers are increasingly shouldering the burden, supporting expensive insurance programs for at-risk areas when instead, developers could stop building in storm-prone areas and residents could move out of the floodplains.

“It is the hardest system to implement because people resist,” said Jim Blackburn, co-director of the severe storm center at Rice University. “People really like where they live, as a general proposition.”

Buyouts instead of insurance payments are one way to get people to move, but Fugate notes such programs often take too long to kick in after a storm hits. By the time such funds are ready, persuading someone to take a buyout is “almost impossible,” he said.

Problems with known solutions

In many cases, officials know what actions are needed to mitigate severe weather disasters, but find them hard to implement.
For instance, the city of Houston commissioned a report documenting how falling trees caused power outages after 2008’s Hurricane Ike. But no one wanted to cut down the trees that still stood. Today, utility officials note, they install underground electric lines for every new construction project.
Updating the city’s electrical infrastructure could also go a long way toward preventing power outages, Meyer said, noting that North Carolina did so after Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
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“They were really forward-thinking, like, ‘OK we’re not going to be in this situation again,’” she said.
CenterPoint Energy, which provides Houston’s power, has partially installed an “intelligent grid” system that automatically reroutes power to unaffected lines during an outage. A document on the utility’s website noted that 996 of the devices had been installed as of 2019 — less than half of the grid at the time. It’s not clear if more progress has been made since then. The company did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

A changing reality

With more storms like Beryl expected under climate change conditions, cities have to plan for the worst — and the worst is getting nastier.

“It’s all about learning to live with water,” Blackburn said.

After Hurricane Harvey — the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade when it slammed into the Texas coast in August 2017 — Houston passed a $2.5 billion bond measure to finance flood damage reduction projects in Harris County, which includes the city. The action resulted in “a lot of improvements,” Blackburn said, but was based on old flood projections.

In addition, a task force Republican Gov. Greg Abbott created in 2018 made dozens of recommendations in a nearly 200-page report, including investigating ways to harden utilities and creating an inventory of mitigation and resiliency projects that are needed across the state.

But with weather becoming more and more unpredictable, even cities that make improvements can be caught unprepared if they don’t plan with the future in mind. The “diabolical” component of climate change, Blackburn said, is that the goalposts keep moving: Just as cities adjust to a heightened risk, the risk escalates again.

Scientists are more equipped than ever before to make decisions about evacuations, development and other measures using computer systems that can predict the damage a certain storm will inflict, noted Shane Hubbard, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin.

And yet, he added, all the computing power in the world can’t match the unpredictability of climate change. Warming oceans are driving rapidly intensifying weather events that defy models and quickly change conditions on the ground.

“That’s the thing I’m most concerned about” in the future, Hubbard said.

Complicating matters in Texas is that some leaders still don’t acknowledge climate change. The report issued by the governor’s task force in 2018 noted that powerful natural disasters in Texas would become more frequent because of a changing climate. But it made no mention of “climate change,” “global warming” or of curbing greenhouse gases in Texas, the nation’s oil-refining epicenter that leads the U.S. in carbon emissions. Texas is a state where politicians, at least publicly, are deeply skeptical about climate change.

Cities must be willing to face the scientific facts before their planning can truly improve, Blackburn says.

Asked whether coastal cities in general are prepared for climate change, Meyer said simply, “No.”

She said prevention and mitigation measures must evolve to the point that a Category 1 hurricane “will be no problem moving forward.”

A city like Houston “should not be touched by a Cat 1,” she said.

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Walling reported from Chicago. Associated Press/Report for America writer Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report. Follow Walling on X: @MelinaWalling.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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World

Britain says Russian spy ship is on edge of UK waters; defense secretary issues warning to Putin

Published

36 minutes ago

November 20, 2025

Press Room

Britain says Russian spy ship is on edge of UK waters; defense secretary issues warning to Putin

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A Russian spy ship was on the edge of United Kingdom waters, British defense officials said.

John Healey, the U.K.’s defense secretary, said it was the second time the ship, the Yantar, had been deployed to U.K. waters, SKY News reported.

“This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables,” he said during a news conference. “We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF planes to monitor and track this vessel’s every move, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.”

US SCRAMBLES FIGHTER JETS TO TRACK 4TH RUSSIAN SPY PLANE NEAR ALASKA IN LESS THAN WEEK

British Defense Secretary John Healey, appearing in front of a screen displaying an image of the Russian military ship Yantar, delivers a speech in the Downing Street briefing room in central London Wednesday. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Healey warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “We see you, we know what you’re doing and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”

The U.K. plans to build a number of factories to make munitions and military explosives. The first one is expected to break ground next year.

NATO SCRAMBLES WARPLANES AS RUSSIA HITS NEAR ROMANIAN BORDER IN UKRAINE

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 18, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Healey issued his warning after a report by the Commons Defence Committee, which said the U.K. “lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories” and urged the government to launch a “coordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face,” the news outlet reported.

The Yantar isn’t just part of a naval operation but part of Moscow’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, which primarily works in surveillance in peacetime and sabotage during conflicts.

“That is why we’ve been determined. Whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it, and we say to Putin, ‘We are ready, and we do that alongside allies,’” said Healey.

World

Unclear numbers: What we know about Italian military aid to Ukraine

Published

2 hours ago

November 20, 2025

Press Room

Unclear numbers: What we know about Italian military aid to Ukraine

Arms sales by Italian companies to Ukraine have reached a total of just over €643 million since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

That’s a figure outlined in the Annual Report on Authorised Transit, Import and Export of Armaments which was submitted to parliament in spring. The document is a legal requirement, essential to ensure transparency on what for some is a particularly delicate economic activity.

According to the report, export authorisations to Ukraine grew significantly between 2022 and 2023, from just €3.8 million covering four authorisations to more than €417 million for 15 authorisations.

That value then dropped to just over €222 million in 2024 for just seven authorisations.

The report doesn’t specifiy which companies applied to export arms to Ukraine, nor is it known whether the transactions were actually carried out, although it is assumed that a large part of these sales actually went through.

Therefore, the report doesn’t help shine a light on which Italian manufacturers exported armaments to Ukraine.

However, it is known that the main players in the sector in Italy are RWM, Rehinmetall Italia and Leonardo. Euronews tried to contact Leonardo, asking if it was possible to find out if and what armaments had been sold to Ukraine, but there was no immediate answer.

Which kinda of weapons have been sold by Italian companies?

What is indicated in the report, however, is the type of armaments that have been exported.

In 2023, the €417 million of exports to Ukraine covered seven different categories: weapon systems above 12.7mm calibre, ammunition, fire direction equipment, land vehicles, toxic, chemical, biological, tear gas, radioactive materials, explosives and military fuels and finally electronic equipment.

As far as 2024 is concerned, the list is restricted to the first four categories.

However, these are not the only Italian arms that have reached Ukrainian territory. Those in the report to parliament are in fact only sales by Italian companies to Ukraine.

They do not, therefore, include military aid that has been granted as part of the aid packages prepared by the European Union, the next of which, the twelfth, is scheduled for early December.

‘Little transparency on the part of Italy’

“On this part, which is not covered by the report law 185/90, there has been little transparency on the part of Italy. Unlike what other European nations have decided,our country has in fact preferred not to provide any information about what has actually been supplied by our armed forces,” said Francesco Vignarca, spokesperson and activist of the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament.

The information available is generally coming from the battlefield, based on what was actually seen at the Russian-Ukrainian front.

“It is difficult to estimate quantities and figures because many of these sales are secret,” said Eleaonora Tafuro Ambrosetti of the Ispi Institute for International Policy Studies.

“Between 2023 and 2024,” she adds, “Italy would have supplied Ukraine with Samp-T air defence batteries.”

Information kept secret so as not to give Russia an advantage

In comments to Euroenews, the press office of the Italian Defence Ministry confirmed that the “content” of Italian supplies as part of the packages to Kyiv is deliberately kept secret.

“Both Minister (Guido) Crosetto and his predecessor chose the same line, designed not to provide a technical advantage to Russia regarding what is on the battlefield. Only Copasir (the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) is aware of this, but it too is required to maintain secrecy,” the ministry said.

It is even more difficult to quantify the value of what has been granted from the Italian armed forces’ arsenal.

“The mechanism envisaged by the European Union worked like this: each country that granted arms received a payment back from the EU itself, through the European Peace Facility fund. After a short time, however, it was clarified by Brussels that these funds would not be such as to allow the stocks to be replenished,” Francesco Vignarca of the Italian Network for Peace and Disarmament said.

This means that if a country sent more or less outdated equipment and vehicles to Ukraine and then wanted to buy new ones, it had to pay the difference between what it received from the EU and the purchase price.

This was stated by Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in a hearing before the joint Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees of the House and Senate. Even on this, however, no official figures were provided.

Italy contributed to the European Peace Facility

The Milex Observatory on Italian Military Expenditure indicated that “the only case ‘in the clear’ is that of artillery munitions.”

This accounts for €14.5 million that Article 33 of the Labour Decree of 2023 allocated to Agenzia Industrie Difesato “reinforce (munition) production to continue to respond to supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces without depleting national reserves.”

For the rest, as noted on several occasions by the Senate Budget Service and the Court of Auditors, there is little clarity as to how the disposals to Kyiv affect defence planning on the acquisition of armaments and related ammunitions.

Then there is the fact that Italy has granted €1.4 billion to the European Peace Facility**,** out of the total of €11.1 billion it has collected so far for Ukraine.

In the absence of precise data on how much the same fund has granted to Italy for the weapon systems it has sent, it is in short difficult to understand what the real cost of military support for Ukraine has been.

An estimate published in March 2023 by Milex, based on accessible sources, put the outlay for stockpile replenishment alone at around €1 billion.

World

Zelenskiy meets Turkish president as word emerges of new US peace push

Published

18 hours ago

November 19, 2025

Press Room

Zelenskiy meets Turkish president as word emerges of new US peace push

ANKARA/KYIV, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks with Turkey’s president on Wednesday and was due to meet U.S. Army officials in Kyiv on Thursday, as word emerged that Washington was discussing possible peace conditions with Russia.

A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters that Kyiv had received “signals” about a set of U.S. proposals to end the war that Washington has discussed with Russia. Ukraine has had no role in preparing the proposals, the source said.

Signs of a renewed U.S.-led push to end the war triggered the biggest jump in Ukraine’s government bond prices in months on Wednesday.

No face-to-face talks have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since a meeting in Istanbul in July and Russian forces have pressed on with Moscow’s nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine, killing 25 people in strikes overnight.

Efforts to revive peace negotiations appear to be gaining momentum although Moscow has shown no sign of changing its terms for ending the war.

UKRAINE’S TOP PRIORITY IS ENDING WAR

Zelenskiy met President Tayyip Erdogan after visits to Greece, France and Spain that went ahead despite a political crisis in Ukraine over a corruption scandal in which parliament dismissed the energy and justice ministers on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy has remained focused on the war effort and said on Tuesday he was preparing to “reinvigorate negotiations” and discuss with Erdogan how to bring a “just peace” to Ukraine.

“Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine’s top priority,” he said on Tuesday.

Item 1 of 4 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (not seen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, November 17, 2025. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool

[1/4]Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron (not seen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, November 17, 2025. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Russian forces control about 19% of Ukrainian territory and are grinding forwards, while carrying out frequent attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

Turkey, a NATO member that has remained close to both sides, hosted an initial round of peace talks in the early weeks of the war in 2022, the only such talks until this year when U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new bid to end the fighting.

The Kremlin said Russian representatives would not be involved in the talks but that President Vladimir Putin was open to conversations with the United States and Turkey about the results of the discussions.

Axios reported on Tuesday that Washington has been secretly working on a roadmap to end the war in consultation with Russia.

Asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday: “So far there are no innovations on this that can be reported to you.”

PUTIN’S CONDITIONS

Putin has long demanded Kyiv renounce plans to join the U.S.-led NATO military alliance and withdraw its troops from four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia. Moscow has given no indication that it has dropped any of those demands and Ukraine says it will not accept them.

A U.S. delegation led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Kyiv on a “fact-finding mission”, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv said. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George is also in the delegation and he and Driscoll will meet Zelenskiy on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

A Turkish source said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff could also visit Turkey, but there was no announcement of such a visit from U.S. officials. Another source, at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, said Turkish officials would meet only Zelenskiy, and Witkoff was not expected to be part of the Ankara meetings.

Reporting by Hüseyin Hayatsever in Ankara and Anastasia Malenko in Kyiv, and Moscow and Istanbul newsrooms, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Peter Graff

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