Disasters

As Christmas approaches former tobacco country in rural Prince George's County, Maryland, a food bank helps poor people living in trailers, discarded campers, and even tents. It's not just food, blankets, and clothing that they need. They need kerosene, propane, heating oil, and firewood. They do not qualify for federal low-income fuel assistance. They do not have plumbing or electricity. It is 23 degress outside and they are 23 miles from the White House.

"Snow and freezing temperatures grounded flights and disrupted road and rail links across northern Europe on Monday, stranding travelers and closing schools."

"Owners who cannot afford to feed or stable their horses have been abandoning them at the Dunsink tip, which is on the outskirts of the Irish capital."

A cammo-clad daughter of Plaquemines Parish, Albertine Kimble guides her airboat through coastal marshes forgetten by BP's PR blitz to find the oil. She has neither forgotten nor forgiven.

"At least 28 people have been killed and many others injured in an oil pipeline explosion in central Mexico, officials say."

"This was the year the Earth struck back. Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined."

"Louisiana's $360 million plan to build sand berms to capture oil from the BP Macondo well was not effective and was approved in large part because of political pressure from Louisiana elected officials and President Barack Obama, according to a new report from the National Oil Spill Commission."

"Independent federal experts investigating the blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig are finding major parallels between this year's disaster and a 2005 blast that killed 15 workers at a BP PLC refinery in Texas -- indicating the industry has failed to overhaul safety rules, they said [Wednesday]."

"The Justice Department on Wednesday is expected to seek to join civil lawsuits stemming from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the first major federal legal action in the disaster, according to people familiar with the matter."