Police rescue a dog that belongs to David Lowe’s daughter after a tornado destroyed her home
A resident works to clean up after a tornado damaged his home
April Bridges pauses while digging through the remains of a house she was at when it was destroyed by a tornado
Patricia Daugherty searches for her belongings after her home was destroyed by a tornado on April 3, 2012 in Arlington, Texas
April Bridges searches through the remains of a house she at when it was destroyed by a tornado on April 3, 2012 in Arlington, Texas
David Lowe carries his daughter’s dog, Phoebe, after the dog was rescued from the rubble of a destroyed home
A view of the storm
Multiple tornadoes touched down across the Dallas/Fort Worth area causing extensive damage
Residents search for personal belongings after a tornado destroyed their home
As many as ten tornadoes touched down Tuesday around Dallas-Fort Worth, flattening tanker trucks, throwing trailers in the air and damaging many homes. Several hundred homes have been damaged and at least seven people were injured. You can see a slideshow of some of the people and homes affected above.
The folks at Climate Desk, a collaborative project from several major media groups on the climate, has put together a new multimedia story on why gas prices have been going up lately. You can view the presentation above.
Ocean currents may seem like a far away thing for Texans from the Hill Country to the High Plains, but weather patterns in the seas have an important effect on the state’s climate. The record single-year Texas drought, for instance, was mostly due to back-to-back years of La Niña, a weather pattern where the surface temperatures are cooler in the Pacific, which creates drier, warmer weather in the southern U.S. And those surface temperatures are influenced by ocean currents.
But despite the havoc they wreak, ocean currents and temperatures can be a beautiful thing. Artistic, even. As you can see in a new video by NASA, when you put the data behind ocean currents in motion, it becomes a van Gogh-esque vision.
NASA assembled the video, titled ‘Perpetual Ocean,’ from “ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through December 2007,” according to its webpage. “The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience.”
Wastewater from poultry plants contains nitrates which, like fertilizer, are nutrients that can make plants grow
As the poultry industry expanded from it’s original roots in East Texas, communities have also found reasons to be concerned
The industry contends that poultry pollution is not a threat
Environmental groups have been arguing that big, chicken growing operations are indeed point sources of pollution and should be more strictly regulated.
Big poultry plants use millions of gallons of water to clean the chicken carcasses and the plant itself.
Texas is a major player, ranking sixth in the nation for poultry production
Today StateImpact Texas reporter Dave Fehling takes a look at the effects of Texas’ growing poultry industry. Massive farms have brought up concerns about pollution: where all the waste from the chicken plants is going, and what effect its having on Texas waters. Above is a slideshow where you can see some images of “Big Chicken” operations and learn more about their impact on rivers and streams.
Keith Miller set a simple, yet challenging goal for himself a year ago: catch a fish every single day for the entire year. He did it to raise money to help the Junior Hunters and Anglers of America (and, of course, promote fishing) for kids and families. And despite having to endure sickness, drought and extreme weather, Miller achieved that goal on a foggy morning this weekend on the banks of the Brazos River in Waco.
Miller, an associate director of athletics at Baylor University, began his angling odyssey on April, 1 2011. This was the second time Miller completed such a pledge, but it wasn’t easy. He fought through strep throat, a hurt shoulder and twisted ankle, inclement weather and the rigors of a full-time job in order to succeed. And he only used artificial lures to catch the fish. Continue Reading →
It has been dubbed “Big Chicken“: the revolution in how poultry is raised and processed. Chicken that once came from small, family farm operations is now produced by networks of huge chicken-growing complexes and sprawling processing plants.
Texas is a major player, ranking sixth in the nation for poultry production. But with the growth has come concern over how concentrating the operations could increase  pollution: the run-off from tons of manure and the millions of gallons of wastewater released by processing plants into streams and creeks.
A 7,000 gallon truck brings in water about four times a day to Spicewood Beach
It’s been in the works for some time, and today the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) announced that it’s reached an agreement to sell the Spicewood Beach water system along with 19 other retail water and wastewater systems to the Canadian company Corix Infrastructure.
Under an agreement between the LCRA and Corix, starting July 2nd until sometime in December 2013 when the sale is closed, Corix will operate the systems. In a release today, the LCRA notes that the company still “must apply to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for approval required for the sale, transfer or merger of a public utility as well as seek other regulatory approvals and consents for certain contract transfers.” The LCRA also says that it will “retain the rate setting authority over the systems” until the sale is finished.
You can read more about how the LCRA ended up owning the Spicewood Beach water system in the first place (and why some residents have questioned their management of it ever since) in this earlier story.
Pati Jacobs on her cattle ranch outside of Bastrop, Texas
“Four months ago this was just bare dirt. There was nothing,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs says the drought has been “devastating.”
Cows roam at the 235-acre Bastrop Cattle Company ranch.
During the peak of the drought, the cows here grew starkly thin and had no grass to graze on.
“What most people don’t realize, this wasn’t a one-year drought,” Jacobs says.
Jacobs say the drought has likely put many ranchers out of business.
There is no way to overstate the severity of the drought. Last year Texas had its driest year on record, paired with some of the highest temperatures we’ve ever seen. But even as the situation has improved for some thanks to a relatively wet winter, other parts of the state are still in the worst stage of drought.
For ranchers like Pati Jacobs at the Bastrop Cattle Company ranch east of Austin, Texas, the toll of the drought was enormous. Pointing to a stock tank on her 235-acre ranch, she notes that just a few months ago it was completely dry. And the same goes for the grass her cattle like to graze on. “Four months ago this was just bare dirt,” she says. “There was nothing.”
A new web-based app allows you to see the Texas drought like never before.
Just how much damage has the record single-year drought done to Texas? For the first time, you can see an interactive map and several visualizations that show just how severe the drought has been. On our new interactive web app, ‘Dried Out: Confronting the Texas Drought,’ you can see the intensity of the worst single-year drought in Texas’ history; learn more about the hard choices the state has to make; see the drought’s progression and its impact on the state; explore the pros and cons of the policy decisions that need to be made and share your stories.
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