disasters

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Is a Broke-Ass Sinkhole of Despair

Hamilton Nolan · 02/01/13 10:45AM

In 2011, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania went bankrupt. Municipally bankrupt. The city is broke, tapped, in penury, scraping by on nada. Personal bankruptcy is tragic, and corporate bankruptcy is financially significant, but there is something especially pitiful about municipal bankruptcies. An entire city of thousands, whose leadership has failed them. It's like watching a scrappy but flailing football team losing in a particularly bloody way.

The Most Popular Avalanche in America

Hamilton Nolan · 12/20/12 11:10AM

On February 19 of this year, there was an avalanche in the Tunnel Creek drainage area of Washington's Stevens Pass ski area. Three skiers were killed. Tragic, but not extraordinary: over the past decade, an average of 25 people per year have been killed in the US in avalanches. In 2011, the death count was 34.

The End of Winter, and Other Horrifying New Global Warming Projections

Hamilton Nolan · 11/19/12 02:23PM

It only took a handful of freak killer storms devastating our economic and cultural capitals for Americans to get real about the perils of global warming. You know who is the most interested in figuring out exactly how bad global warming will be? The people with all the money, who have the most to lose. That is a good reason to tremble in fear at this new World Bank forecast.

The MTA Gets Back to Its Core Business of Screwing New Yorkers

Hamilton Nolan · 11/13/12 09:36AM

Let's all give a hand to New York's MTA, for their work after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. Really. They had to get an entire system back on line, despite extensive damage and heavy public pressure, and they did it. Let's just take a moment to acknowledge the hard work of all those workers who got down in dark, flooded tunnels and fixed that whole mess so this city could get moving again. We salute you all. This moment in time represents the most public good will the notoriously poorly managed MTA has had in many years.

We, The Press, Are the Real Refugees

Hamilton Nolan · 08/28/12 10:12AM

All of the news on CNN this morning was about Hurricane Isaac. On NBC, too. And Fox News, for the most part. Yes, the storm has already screwed the Republican convention in so very many ways. But here today, in (sunny!) Tampa, as journalists stream into our media holding pen like so many wayward Katrina refugees, comes the final indignity: this pseudoevent threatens to be completely upstaged by a real event.

14 People Die in a Single Truck Crash

Hamilton Nolan · 07/24/12 09:00AM

A pickup truck—not a van, or a semi truck, or a panel truck, but a pickup truck—ran off the road and crashed into roadside trees in Goliad County, Texas Sunday night. The death toll from this single wreck: 14 people. Fourteen dead people, in one crash.

Parched Nation Wilts in Well-Deserved Drought

Hamilton Nolan · 07/17/12 08:35AM

For centuries, Americans have strutted about boldly as masters of our natural domains. Forest? Clear it. River? Dam it. Lake? Drain it. Endangered species? See if it is tasty when covered in Cheez™. We have comported ourselves as gods, and expected that the rest of the world would bow to our haughty demands. So this summer, as your lawn withers and your faucets run dry and your neighbors arm themselves for the coming Water Wars, rest assured: we deserve this drought.

Scranton Is America's Most Financially Fucked City

Hamilton Nolan · 07/11/12 09:05AM

Sure, it's true, cities and counties from Alabama to California have given up and declared bankruptcy due to this ongoing Recesssion of Doom. Hell, San Bernardino just declared bankruptcy yesterday. But those cities are quitters. They've taken themselves out of contention, the losers. For an American city that is still trying to survive financially, and failing miserably, there is no better example than Scranton, PA—the jewel of Lackawanna County.

Sweden's Democratic Twitter Experiment Implodes Before Our Eyes

Adrian Chen · 06/12/12 09:31AM

The recent New York Times article about how a different random Swede mans Sweden's official Twitter account every week filled us with wonder: Imagine a country where ordinary citizens can be trusted to represent the entire nation on the world stage! So, we loaded up @Sweden this morning to check out this wonderful experiment in democratic public relations and... oh. She's talking about Jews.

Hey, Has Anyone Seen Exploded Yacht Debris?

Louis Peitzman · 06/11/12 10:43PM

Earlier tonight, there were reports of a yacht explosion off the coast of Sandy Hook, New Jersey: 21 passengers, 9 of them badly burned, had apparently escaped into life boats.

Geiger Counter-Wielding Fukushima Hipsters Make Monitoring Nuclear Fallout Cool

Adrian Chen · 04/30/12 03:41PM

It's been more than a year since the Japanese tusnami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the clean-up continues. But a bit of background radiation has not stopped a crew of Japanese hipsters from doing their hip business in the area. They've formed the "Gamma Watch Squadron," the world's coolest nuclear watchdogs.