Natural Disaster | featured news

Thousands more were ordered to leave as the authorities grew worried about the out-of-control nature of the fire.

Monster tornadoes, historic floods, massive wildfires and widespread drought may all be related to La Nia weather pattern.

The swollen Missouri River is threatening to inundate a small southwest Iowa town where officials are piling massive sandbags on a faltering levee to contain floodwaters that could leave the community under several feet of water....

Stiff winds whipped up a gigantic blaze in the mountains of eastern Arizona on Monday, forcing the evacuation of a third resort town and casting a smoky haze over states as far away as Iowa....

The Puyehue volcano in southern Chile erupted Saturday, sending a huge plume of smoke and ash into the sky and prompting officials to evacuate about 600 people living nearby. There were no reports of injuries. Authorities had put the area around the volcano on alert Saturday morning after a flurry of earthquakes, and the eruption began in the afternoon. The National Emergency Office said it recorded an average of 230 tremors an hour.

Crews on Saturday worked to protect several small Arizona communities from two large wildfires by clearing away brush near homes and planning to set fires aimed at robbing the blazes of their fuel.

Two Arizona wildfires have consumed more than 200,000 acres and prompted evacuations, officials said.

At least two tornadoes struck Springfield, Massachusetts, and other communities in the western part of the state Wednesday, leaving "many injuries" and extensive damage, the state's governor said.

Obama sees the devastation and recovery struggle in Joplin and promises people that 'the country will be there with you every single step of the way.' After walking through chillingly empty vistas of twisted rubble and shards of homes, President Obama drew wild cheers from this conservative town when he pledged to help rebuild from last week's crippling tornado.

The city's refusal to let homeless residents occupy temporary housing provided by FEMA has sparked outrage in this central Alabama town of 2,000, with angry citizens filling a meeting last week and circulating petitions to remove the man many blame for the decision, Mayor Jack Scott.