Originally published by Inside Climate News CHICAGO — Cheryl Johnson was watching the news during the worst heat wave in her city’s history when she learned that a man she’d known since she was a child had been found dead on the steps of a church downtown. She’ll never forget the moment. Her friend — […]
Extreme Weather
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
A Flood Crisis Is Escalating. Southern Black Communities Face Double The Risk.
One month before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Black residents across southern Louisiana braced for their first tropical disturbance of hurricane season. The storm threatened to bring flash flooding across the coast from Mississippi to the center of Louisiana. Thousands of residents stocked up with drinking water and sandbags in preparation for imminent power […]
Posted inClimate Change, Extreme Weather, Housing
After LA Fires, Black Altadena Faces Foreclosure and Displacement
Six months after California’s Eaton Fire, Black residents of Altadena find themselves at the epicenter of a mounting national crisis as state and federal foreclosure moratoriums expire. A Capital B analysis of public records found that roughly three dozen fire-ravaged properties have been added to pre-foreclosure lists — a public record of homes where owners […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Mental Health, Partner Content
Extreme Heat Is Causing a Black Suicide Crisis in Phoenix. Urban Farms Offer a Lifeline
LIKE THOUSANDS OF OTHER BLACK AMERICANS, Tiffany Hawkins’ grandparents, Earnest and Mattie Lee Johnson, left the Jim Crow South in the 1950s to pick cotton in Arizona’s desert. Many sought opportunities in cities like Chicago and Detroit, but the Johnsons chose Arizona, where their lives and those of their children — including Hawkins’ mother, Arlene […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
FEMA Cuts Hit as 2025 Hurricane Forecast Predicts Brutal Storm Season
As the temperatures rose across Louisiana during Memorial Day weekend, the heat index, a measure of air temperature and humidity, approached triple digits. Bayou State residents seeking relief from the extreme temperatures turned up their fans and air conditioners, pushing an aging electrical grid to the breaking point. And by nightfall, more than 100,000 people […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Why Are Black Neighborhoods Underwater? Science Points to the Wealthy.
In January, a relentless wave of wildfires tore through Los Angeles, reducing a historic Black community to ash and claiming 29 lives. Later that month, a rare winter storm brought heavy snow to the Southeast and the Gulf Coast. Eleven people perished. Then, in March, more than 100 tornadoes ripped through the South in two […]
Posted inExtreme Weather
Sirens Failed. FEMA Didn’t Show Up. Now Black St. Louis Recovers from Deadly Tornadoes Alone.
The sky turned an eerie green over St. Louis on May 16. Rapper and activist Antoine White, better known as T-Dubb-O, recognized the ominous hue immediately. Having family in the heart of Tornado Alley in Tennessee, he knew what was coming. With his wife and son beside him after a school field day lunch in […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
This Climate Program Saved the U.S. $6 for Every $1 Spent. Trump Just Killed It.
As floodwaters surged through the streets of Natchitoches last month, soaking homes and businesses in this rural Louisiana town, residents were left grappling with yet another devastating blow. Over a thousand residents lost power as the muddy waters left behind waterlogged homes and damaged possessions. It was the fifth major flooding event the small majority-Black […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
After a Wildfire Takes Your Home, How Do You Get Your ‘Soul’ Back?
ALTADENA, Calif. — Adonis Jones’ house was gone, but the keys were still in his hand. For weeks after the fire, he carried them out of habit. They jingled in his pocket, and sometimes he twirled them between his fingers. And then, sitting in his car one evening after making the two-hour drive from Los […]
Posted inEducation, Environmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Natural Disasters Are Driving a School Crisis. Black Children Are Hit the Hardest
Adrinda Kelly watched from New York as Hurricane Katrina swallowed her hometown of New Orleans in 2005. Floodwaters rose, neighborhoods disappeared underwater, and she felt a familiar ache deepen. Her family was safe, but devastation quickly compounded a painful realization: Black children were portrayed as disposable, and New Orleans’ education system was almost completely privatized. […]
