
As climate risks mount, homeowners far beyond California face soaring insurance bills
CBSN
As disasters linked to climate change become more frequent in the U.S., homeowners across the country are paying the price through skyrocketing insurance costs — and not only in states like Florida and California that are considered most vulnerable to global warming.
The Los Angeles wildfires, which have decimated neighborhoods such as Pacific Palisades and Altadena, are focusing attention on a mounting insurance crisis that is particularly acute in states at greatest risk of wildfires, such as California, Colorado, Texas and Oregon. But the problem is reaching into almost every region of the U.S., including the Midwest, the Northeast and the Mountain states, according to analyses of insurance data.
Research shows that climate change is heightening the conditions that lead to fire-conducive weather, including drying out vegetation and constraining water supplies. Such conditions are in turn prolonging wildfire season as well magnifying the size and intensity of blazes.

The threat of tornadoes moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday, a day after a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that damaged buildings, whipped up dust storms that caused deadly crashes and fanned more than 100 wildfires in several central states. Fatalities were reported in Missouri and Texas.

A Canadian woman who had appeared in an "American Pie" movie was detained for several days by U.S. immigration officials while attempting to cross the border from Mexico to the U.S. to renew her work visa, according to her mother. The woman's father expects his daughter to be able to return to Canada as early as Friday.

When the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970, its mission was to protect the environment and human health. Since then, scientists, health experts and advocates have worked to implement regulations aimed at protecting and cleaning the air we breathe and the water we drink. Many of these regulations, which were aimed at cleaning up the air, also helped reduce carbon emissions, which can contribute to climate change – so it was a win for our bodies and the planet.