Hurricane Florence is getting ready to hit the east coast of the US as an "extremely dangerous major hurricane," the National Hurricane Center says. Florence is expected to bring storm surges up to 13 feet high, heavy rainfall, flash flooding, and possibly even tornadoes. People are evacuating from coastal areas of the Carolinas and Virginia, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has warned that the power could be out for weeks, Buzzfeed News reports. In such emergency situations, it's smart to have a Go Bag ready with basic necessities.

FEMA recommends stockpiling enough emergency supplies to last you, your loved ones, and your pets …

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Two explosions occurred today at a chemical plant in Crosby, TX, as the region continues to deal with the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Arkema, the French company that owns the plant, said in a statement that it was notified of the explosions at around 2AM CDT Thursday morning, and that black smoke was seen emanating from the facility. The company had previously ordered all workers to leave the plant amid fears of an incident, and officials had earlier established an evacuation zone within a 1.5-mile radius of the building.

Heavy rains and flooding shut down the plant's primary power source as well as two backup generators, raisi …

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In addition to the catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey, Houston residents have one more thing to worry about: floating colonies of fire ants.

Fire ants have waxy bodies that allow them to repel water. Should a colony find itself waterlogged, ants will protect their queen by forming a mass around her, as well as eggs, larvae, and pupae (ants that are in between larvae and adults). As the ants float, they rotate, so that the underwater ants will get to the top and vice versa. This behavior is totally normal, Molly Keck, an entomologist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, tells The Verge. "We usually call fire ants flood water spe …

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Tropical Storm Harvey has set a record for rainfall in the continental US, according to the National Weather Service. The storm has poured 51.88 inches of rain into Cedar Bayou, Texas.

The previous record for rainfall in the continental US was 48 inches, also in Texas, during cyclone Amelia in 1978. However, the all-time record of 52 inches happened near Hawaii in 1950 - and it's still possible for the storm to exceed the all-time record.

Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Friday, but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. Hurricane classification is based on wind speed; while hurricane-force winds can cause damage, …

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As southeast Texas has been hit by heavy rains and record-setting flooding, fake photos of an underwater Houston airport and of a shark swimming down a highway have gone viral. There are also old images of former President Barack Obama serving hot meals to evacuees, and viral posts sharing the wrong National Guard number to call if people find themselves in emergency situations. (The Washington Post is keeping a useful tally of all hoaxes.) But after seeing all these hoaxes, it's worth wondering: why do hoaxes go viral during natural disasters?

Fake information is circulated on social media all the time. During emergencies, though, more peo …

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