If your home mortgage is federally insured - and most are - and you live in a flood-prone area, you may have to buy flood insurance. ...more

July 11, 2008

Plans are moving forward for a regional hurricane shelter and health care clinic in Hudson. ...more

June 25, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY Plans are moving forward for a regional hurricane shelter and health care clinic in Hudson. The county commission at a meeting today in New Port Richey awarded a $7.5 million contract to Spring Engineering and Bandes Construction to design and build the facility off Denton Avenue. The project is being funded with state and federal grants. According to the terms of the agreement, the shelter must comply with the latest federal standards, to withstand winds up to 200 miles per hour and the pressures of an F5 tornado. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has, however, exempted the facility from the more stringent rules, Assistant County Attorney Jane Fagan said, and the cost of construction may decrease in light of the exemption. ...more

June 24, 2008

Water from the swollen Mississippi River surged over more than 10 levees Thursday, flooding huge swaths of Missouri farmland as thousands of volunteers continued to pile up sandbags in a desperate bid to protect their communities. ...more

June 20, 2008

The state of Iowa has suffered Mother Nature's wrath in a way Floridians who suffered through the storms of 2004 and 2005 can relate. After one of the most brutal winters in memory, this spring brought a record number of tornadoes, torrential rain and now a 500-year flood that has left thousands of Iowans homeless. ...more

June 18, 2008

TAMPA - For animal control officers more accustomed to dogs or cats, a pony -- not even a full-grown horse -- is a bit larger than the critters they normally encounter. ...more

June 11, 2008

More than 150 years of history guide every brush stroke by Philip Ward and Linda Croxson as they dab thin lines of paint on walls and ceilings inside one of Mississippi's most famous landmarks. ...more

June 8, 2008

Five days into hurricane season, plans were back on track Thursday for a $7.6 million regional storm shelter and health care clinic in west Pasco, although a second new shelter in Wesley Chapel has been put on hold. ...more

June 6, 2008

The government may house disaster victims in trailers again this hurricane season as a last resort, despite promises never to use them again because of high levels of formaldehyde found in trailers used after the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. ...more

June 3, 2008

NORTH CAROLINA - Each April, weather wizard William Gray emerges from his burrow near the Rocky Mountains to offer his forecast for the six-month hurricane season that starts June 1. And the news media are there, breathlessly awaiting his every word. ...more

June 1, 2008