Skip to content
Carmen K. Sisson
Skip to content
  • Published Favorites
  • Recent Bylines
  • Content Marketing
  • Photography
  • About
  • Clients
  • Email Me
Home Posts tagged "Disaster News Network"

Tag: Disaster News Network

Tennessee fly ash spill survivors worry about toxins

Kingston plant spill

For Tennessee firefighter Chris Copeland, responding to disasters is a way of life, but three days before Christmas, his world was shaken to its foundation when the rescuer found himself in a new role — survivor. Just after midnight Dec. 22, while Copeland lay sleeping, an earthen dike gave way on the north side of Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tenn. Within seconds, 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash — a by-product of coal combustion — oozed into the Emory River, gaining speed until the glossy, debris-laden sludge roared through the Swan Pond area, leaving three homes destroyed and 42 damaged. Copeland says the sound was deafening; he thought it was a tornado.

Continue reading

Carmen Sisson January 4, 2009 August 17, 2014Recent Bylines coal ash, disaster, Disaster News Network, environment, Kingston, Tennessee 0

Loan fund builds hope in New Orleans

Katrina

There are jobs, but there aren’t enough. There is housing, but there is not enough. Yet there is growing optimism as well. There is progress, albeit slow, and there is a brighter future on the horizon, albeit distant. And there are volunteers here — people of all faiths, people from all walks of life — bonded by a common determination to bring this battered city, along with the entire Gulf Coast, back to life.

Continue reading

Carmen Sisson December 22, 2008 October 14, 2018Recent Bylines Disaster News Network, faith-based, Gulf Coast, housing, hurricane, Hurricane Katrina, interfaith, Jewish, Louisiana, New Orleans, religion 1

Strong storms batter South; tornadoes confirmed in Denison and Collinsville

Kelly Taylor-Forgar, emergency services director of the Central Louisiana chapter of the Red Cross hopes she never again experiences what she went through Monday night. Red Cross volunteers reported 42 families affected and four homes destroyed in La Salle and Rapides parishes. Meanwhile, their colleagues found themselves in need of assistance as well when high winds slammed trees into their office and tore away part of the roof. Taylor-Forgar, who was in the building at the time, said even though she grew up in Texas and spends her days assisting families touched by natural disasters, it was frightening to witness a storm in progress.

Continue reading

Carmen Sisson December 10, 2008 August 24, 2014Recent Bylines Collinsville, Denison, disaster, Disaster News Network, Louisiana, storms, Texas, tornado, weather 0

Florida’s Tropical Storm Fay survivors still waiting for recovery

Lorraine Finch stares nervously at the blue tarpaulin covering her 85-year-old mother’s roof. It’s not raining today in southeastern Florida, but as winter sets in, nighttime temperatures are dropping into the low 20s, and the worn plastic does little to shield the home from the elements. It took less than a week in August for Tropical Storm Fay to take 36 lives and leave $180 million damage throughout the state, but recovery is moving far more slowly, frustrating both residents and the organizations trying to help.

Continue reading

Carmen Sisson December 1, 2008 August 24, 2014Recent Bylines disaster, Disaster News Network, Florida, Micco, tropical storm, Tropical Storm Fay, weather 0

California wildfire survivors focus on recovery

One by one, the names were called, amid a backdrop of noise and confusion Monday afternoon in the Sylmar High School gymnasium, where survivors sought shelter following four weekend wildfires, which blackened more than 42,000 acres in southwestern California. It was a seemingly endless roster, tinged with both hope and despair as families waited to learn which van would take them on a 10-minute tour of Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Los Angeles County — the white vans, for residents whose homes were left standing; or the black vans, for those who had lost everything. The black vans stayed busy.

Continue reading

Carmen Sisson November 19, 2008 August 24, 2014Recent Bylines California, disaster, Disaster News Network, faith-based charities, fire, Sayre, Sylmar, wildfire 0

Faith-based teams take a holistic view on disaster response

The rental trailer wasn’t in great condition before the muddy rivers spilled their banks in Columbus, Ind., but it provided a home for the family of five. The parents worked in the fields and their baby played happily on the kitchen floor in the evenings, surrounded by the chatter of the two elder siblings doing homework and the smells of supper being prepared. Then summer came, and with it came flooding rains — 11 inches within seven hours. Levees broke. Dams failed. Much of the Midwest was left underwater, with places in Indiana seeing the worst flooding the state had experienced in more than a century.

Continue reading

Carmen Sisson October 29, 2008 August 25, 2014Recent Bylines disaster, Disaster News Network, disaster response, faith-based, flood, Indiana 0
12
  • Twitter LinkedIn GooglePlus Flickr Instagram
  • Recent Posts

    • For historic Mississippi church, a day of Thanksgiving
    • Mexico Beach fights despair with hope after Hurricane Michael
    • Mexico Beach residents still struggling after Hurricane Michael
    • After tornado, Alabamians lean on one another
    • Senate runoff brings Mississippi’s painful past to the fore
    • In Florida, resilience battles uncertain ability to rebuild
    • Back to school in Texas a year after Hurricane Harvey
    • Raising men, helping others with free lawn care
    • Alabama first grader becomes bestselling author
    • Teens’ march to honor King became a deeper journey
  • Tags

    African-American Alabama children Christian Science Monitor Civil Rights Columbus content marketing disaster Disaster News Network disaster response economy education fire flood Florida football Houston hurricane Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Katrina inspiration Louisiana Mack Trucks Memphis military Mississippi New Orleans offbeat politics racism Randall-Reilly religion Selma South Southern Baptist Disaster Relief sports Tennessee Texas The Commercial Dispatch TIME tornado truckers trucking industry volunteerism weather
  • Archives

  • Find Me Elsewhere

    • Cloudybright
    • Goodreads
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Photoshelter
    • Twitter
All images and text Copyright 2000-2023 Carmen K. Sisson/Cloudybright.
Twitter LinkedIn GooglePlus Flickr Instagram
Powered by Tempera & WordPress.