A higher frequency of natural disasters in the U.S. is putting a strain on first responders who are already grappling with lower staff numbers, AP reports.
The big picture: While the population of career firefighters has increased in recent years, approximately two-thirds of the United States' 30,000 fire departments are made up of volunteers. Per the National Volunteer Fire Council, the number of volunteer firefighters has dropped from 814,850 to 682,600 over the past 4 years.
Texas authorities linked a 5th death to the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda Saturday, as receding floodwaters revealed the extent of the damage from one of the United States' wettest tropical cyclones on record, AP reports.
The impact: From Houston to across the Louisiana border, hundreds of buildings were damaged by the former tropical storm, according to AP. More than 40 inches of rain fell in southeast Texas over 4 days before floodwaters began receding Friday, per the National Weather Service. Several flood-impacted roads remained closed Saturday, Texas authorities said.
Scientists from 19 countries, including the U.S., embarked on a 1-year, $155-million expedition on Friday to study how warming effects from climate change impact the Arctic region "now and into the future," the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: "We won’t succeed in accurately forecasting climate developments if we don’t have reliable prognoses for the Arctic," scientist and expedition head Markus Rex said in an interview on the polar expedition's website.
Axios contacted editors at 120 U.S. college student newspapers and asked them, “What matters most to students today?”
What they’re saying: Race, diversity and inclusion were by far the most discussed issues among student editors across public and private universities, community colleges, liberal arts schools, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and religious universities in all 50 states.
On the left, on Aug. 2018, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg holds a climate strike with a sign reading "School strike for the climate" outside the Swedish parliament. Only a few other students joined her.
Driving the news: At right, Greta Thunberg, now 16, speaks to a huge crowd in Manhattan on Friday as millions of young people flooded streets around the world to demand political leaders take urgent steps to stop climate change. New York City announced its 1.1 million students were allowed to skip school to participate.
