All your questions about the 2025 hurricane season answered

All your questions about the 2025 hurricane season answered

Early forecasts say the 2025 Atlantic hurricane seasonwill bring months of danger for millions of Americans, and the time to prepare starts well before the storms form. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the most dangerous storms can quickly explode in intensity, so understanding forecasts, hurricane dangers and preparedness should be top-of-mind for residents well before storms start forming. There's plenty to learn. (For example, did you know that hurricane hazards extend well beyond the famous "cone of uncertainty"?) Here's a primer on what to know as hurricane danger ramps up in 2025. In the Atlantic Basin, which includes storms that form in the Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America (formerly known as Gulf of Mexico),hurricane seasonlasts from June 1 until Nov. 30. In fact, 97% of all tropical cyclones in the Atlantic form during the season. The peak of the Atlantic season is typically from mid-August until mid-October. In the eastern Pacific Basin, hurricane season starts on May 15and lasts until Nov. 30. Federal forecasters on May 22 predicted a 60%chance of an above average season. (A typical year averages about 14 tropical storms, seven of which spin into hurricanes, based on weather records that date from 1991 to 2020.) Specifically, NOAA is forecasting a range of 13 to 19 total named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher). Of those, 6 to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 5 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). Experts fromColorado State Universitysaid in their initial forecast released in early April that anactive Atlantic hurricane seasonis likely. They predicted as many as 17 storms. Of those 17 storms, researchers said that nine will become hurricanes. A forecast fromAccuWeather, which also came out in April, called for 13-18 named storms, of which 7-10 will be hurricanes. Last year, 18 storms formed, including devastatingHurricanes HeleneandMilton. Florida, by a wide margin. Since accurate hurricane records began in 1851, more than 120 hurricanes have made landfall in the state of Florida. Texas is second, with 66 hits. And according to NOAA, 40% of all U.S. hurricanes have hit Florida. Check with your local government to see if you live in an evacuation zone. Have a plan for where you would go if you need to evacuate and share that plan with friends or loved ones. Plan to travel only as far as you need to. Write a family emergency plan with your family and/or close friends to decide how you would contact each other in an emergency, where you will go and what you will do. Keep copies on your phone, in your emergency supplies and share with family. Put together a basic emergency kit, with water and shelf stable foods for up to a week,flash lights, back up batteries, a first aid kitand moist towelettes. Review your insurance policies to ensure if you have adequate coverage, including flood coverage. Store insurance policies, photos of your home and its contents and other important papers in a safe place, in electronic files and/or share copies with family members. For more suggestions,visit NOAA's hurricane preparations page. According toNOAA, for all United States hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina (2005, $201.3 billion) is the costliest storm on record. Hurricane Harvey (2017, $160.0 billion) ranks second, Hurricane Ian (2022, $119.6 billion) ranks third, Hurricane Maria (2017, $115.2 billion) ranks fourth, and Hurricane Sandy (2012, $88.5 billion) ranks fifth. A rapid strengthening of a hurricane, when wind speeds increase by at least 35 mph in 24 hours. It occurs when a tropical storm or hurricane encounters an extremely conducive environment for strengthening, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. That environment consists of very warm water, low vertical wind shear and high levels of midlevel moisture. Storm surge, the massive amount of water that builds up and comes ashore during a hurricane, is often the deadliest and most destructive threat from these storms. It is characterized by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds moving around the storm, NOAA said. Storm surge has accounted for about half of all the deaths in hurricanes since 1970, according to the National Hurricane Center. It caused most of the 1,800 deaths in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Andrea Barry Chantal Dexter Erin Fernand Gabrielle Humberto Imelda Jerry Karen Lorenzo Melissa Nestor Olga Pablo Rebekah Sebastian Tanya Van Wendy This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:2025 Atlantic hurricane season guide: Forecast, start date and names

byRoger Fisher

in

May 26, 2025

All your questions about the 2025 hurricane season answered

All your questions about the 2025 hurricane season answered Early forecasts say the 2025 Atlantic hurricane seasonwill bring months of dange...

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Coffee grounds can be good for plants — but be careful

Coffee grounds can be good for plants — but be careful

Apopular gardening tip involving coffee groundshas some truth to it, but be careful. Coffee grounds, aren't "magic pixie dust," but in the right circumstance they can help improve your soil according to Linda Brewer, a soil scientist with Oregon State University's Department of Horticulture. "A little is fine, a lot is probably not fine," Brewer said. "As with everything, the dose makes the poison." In small doses, coffee grounds can add carbon and bulk to the soil, but not much else. Despite some internet claims, they're not a substitute forwell-rotted compostorfertilizer. "A good way to use them in the garden is to put no more than half an inch of grounds on the surface – and I would keep them away from the stems of plants," she said. "It's a good carbon source for soil bacteria," she said. "But coffee grounds are very low in nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous, the big three." Too many grounds could be harmful to the very insects that keep soil healthy. "The coffee grounds contain caffeine and caffeine is a chemical, it's exposure to a drug. Too much caffeine can be toxic," Brewer said. The grounds might keep slugs and snails away – good – because they are coated in a mucus membrane that separates them from the outside world and they wouldn't like the caffeine. But it might also drive earthworms away – bad. She visited one home gardener who had gone overboard. She found that as much as 40% of the soil in his raised beds was coffee grounds. It did not go well for the plants. The best way to deal with coffee grounds, Brewer says, is tocompost them along with your kitchen and yard waste. There's a reason gardeners swear by thebenefits of composting. "Just monitor it for water, give it an occasional turn," she said. "That's all you have to do." But if that's too much, and if you find yourself with a surplus of coffee grounds, then by all means give your garden a sprinkle – no more – now and then. "Remember that soil microbes are going to benefit from a diverse diet," she said. "Anything – anything – can be overdone." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:How to use coffee grounds to boost your garden

byRoger Fisher

in

May 26, 2025

Coffee grounds can be good for plants — but be careful

Coffee grounds can be good for plants — but be careful Apopular gardening tip involving coffee groundshas some truth to it, but be careful. ...

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A South Korean mother sues the government and an agency over the adoption of her missing son

A South Korean mother sues the government and an agency over the adoption of her missing son

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A 72-year-old mother has filed a lawsuit against South Korea's government and its largest adoption agency, alleging systematic failures in her forced separation from her toddler son who was sent to Norway without her consent. Choi Young-ja searched desperately for her son for nearly five decades before their emotional reunion in 2023. The damage claim by Choi, whose story was part ofan Associated Press investigationalso documented byFrontline (PBS), comes as South Korea faces growing pressure to address the extensive fraud and abuse that tainted what's seen as history's largest foreign adoption program. In a landmark report in March, South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that thegovernment bears responsibilityfor facilitating an aggressive and loosely regulated foreign adoption program that carelessly or unnecessarily separated thousands of children from their families for multiple generations. It found that the country's past military governments were driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs and empowered private agencies to speed up adoptions, while turning a blind eye to widespread practices that oftenmanipulated children's backgrounds and origins, leading to an explosion in adoptions that peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. Children who had living parents, including those who were simply missing or kidnapped, were often falsely documented as abandoned orphans to increase their chances of being adopted in Western countries, which have taken in around 200,000 Korean children over the past seven decades. Choi's lawsuit follows a similar case filed in October by another woman in her 70s,Han Tae-soon,who also sued the government and Holt Children's Services over the adoption of her daughter who was sent to the United States in 1976, months after she was kidnapped at age 4. Suit claims illegal adoption and cites institutional failures Choi says her son, who was three years old at the time, ran out of their home in Seoul in July 1975 to chase a cloud of insecticide sprayed by a fumigation truck while playing with friends — and never came back. She and her late husband spent years searching for him, scouring police stations in and around Seoul, and regularly bringing posters with his name and photo to Holt, South Korea's largest adoption agency. They were repeatedly told there was no information. After decades of searching in vain, Choi made a final effort by submitting her DNA to a police unit that helps reunite adoptees with birth families. In 2023, she learned that her son had been adopted to Norway in December 1975 — just five months after he went missing — and that the adoption had been processed by Holt, the agency she had visited countless times, under a new name and photo. Enraged, Choi confronted Holt, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press. She has since worked with lawyers to prepare a lawsuit against the agency, the South Korean government, and an orphanage in the city of Suwon where her son stayed while Holt processed his adoption. Her now 52-year-old son, who traveled to South Korea in 2023 to meet her, has declined to comment on the story. The 550 million won ($403,000) civil suit recently filed with the Seoul Central District Court alleges that the government failed in its legal duty to identify Choi's son after he arrived at an orphanage — despite her immediate police report — and to verify his guardianship as he was processed through a state-controlled foreign adoption system. The orphanage and Holt failed to verify the child's status or notify his parents, even though Choi's son was old enough to speak and showed obvious signs of having a family. In particular, Holt falsified records to describe him as an abandoned orphan — even though Choi had visited the agency looking for him while he was in its custody, before the flight to Norway, according to Jeon Min Kyeong, one of Choi's lawyers. South Korea's government and Holt did not immediately respond to AP's request to comment on Choi's case. Korea facing growing pressure to address adoption problems Choi and Han are the first known birth parents to sue the South Korean government and an adoption agency over the allegedly illegal adoptions of their children. In 2019,Adam Crapserbecame the first Korean adoptee to sue the Korean government and an adoption agency — Holt — accusing them of mishandling his adoption to the United States, where he endured an abusive childhood, faced legal troubles, and was eventually deported in 2016. But theSeoul High Courtin January cleared both the government and Holt of all liability, overturning a lower court ruling that had ordered the agency to pay damages for failing to inform his adoptive parents of the need to take additional steps to secure his U.S. citizenship. The truth commission's findings, released in March, could possibly inspire more adoptees or birth parents to seek damages against the government and adoption agencies. However,some adoptees criticized the cautiously worded report, arguing that it should have more forcefully acknowledged the government's complicity and offered more concrete recommendations for reparations for victims of illegal adoption. During the March news conference, the commission's chairperson, Park Sun Young, responded to a plea byYooree Kim, who was sent to a couple in France at age 11 by Holt without her biological parents' consent, by vowing to strengthen the recommendations. However, the commission didn't follow up before the final version of the report was delivered to adoptees last week. The commission's investigation deadline expired Monday, after it confirmed human rights violations in just 56 of the 367 complaints filed by adoptees since 2022. It hadsuspended its adoption investigationin April following internal disputes among progressive- and conservative-leaning commissioners over which cases warranted recognition as problematic. The fate of the remaining 311 cases, either deferred or incompletely reviewed, now hinges on whether lawmakers will establish a new truth commission through legislation during Seoul's next government, which takes office after the presidential election on June 3. The government, which has never acknowledged direct responsibility for past adoption problems, has so far ignored the commission's recommendation to issue an official apology to adoptees.

byRoger Fisher

in

May 26, 2025

A South Korean mother sues the government and an agency over the adoption of her missing son

A South Korean mother sues the government and an agency over the adoption of her missing son SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A 72-year-old mother ...

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2 more victims of private jet crash in San Diego identified by coroner

2 more victims of private jet crash in San Diego identified by coroner

The names of two more people who were killed when the small private jet on which they were passengerscrashedinto a San Diego, California, neighborhood last week were released on Sunday. The San Diego Medical Examiner confirmed that 41-year-old Dominic Christopher Damian and 24-year-old Kendall Fortner were among the six people aboard a Cessna 550 jet that crash and burst into flames early Thursday morning in dense fog near Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport. Everyone aboard the plane died, officials said. Eight people on the ground were injured, including five who were treated for smoke inhalation, officials said. Multiple homes were destroyed and several vehicles were damaged, authorities said. The crash occurred about 3:45 a.m. when the private jet clipped powerlines and crashed in San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighborhood seconds before it was to land at the Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport, according to an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The cause of the crash remains under investigation by the NTSB. On Friday, the Medical Examiner confirmed the identities of three of the people aboard the aircraft who were killed as 42-year-old David Shapiro, 25-year-old Emma Huke, and 36-year-old Celina Kenyon. MORE: Music agency co-founder among dead in San Diego plane crash The identity of the sixth person killed in the cash has not been publicly confirmed by officials. Shapiro was the co-founder of the music talent agency Sound Talent Group, the company said in an earlier statement. The company's statement identified Fortner as a booking associate with the agency but Fortner's identity wasn't officially confirmed by the medical examiner until Sunday. Huke also worked for the talent agency as a booking associate, according to the agency. The plane was flying from Wichita, Kansas, to San Diego when it crashed, officials said. The plane originated in Teterboro, New Jersey, according to FlightRadar24 records. The plane stopped to refuel in Wichita, Kansas, before flying on to San Diego, according to FlightRadar24. San Diego Assistant Fire Chief of Emergency Operations Dan Eddy said at a news conference on Thursday that there was dense fog in the area at the time of the crash. In air traffic control audio transmissions minutes before the crash, the pilot was recorded asking about the weather conditions, according to LiveATC.net. The NTSB said that the airport's weather reporting system as well as runway lightswere both not functioningat the time of the crash. ABC News' Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report. 2 more victims of private jet crash in San Diego identified by coroneroriginally appeared onabcnews.go.com

byRoger Fisher

in

May 26, 2025

2 more victims of private jet crash in San Diego identified by coroner

2 more victims of private jet crash in San Diego identified by coroner The names of two more people who were killed when the small private j...

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WWII bomber crash left 11 dead and ‘non-recoverable.’ Four are finally coming home

WWII bomber crash left 11 dead and 'non-recoverable.' Four are finally coming home

As the World War II bomber Heaven Can Wait was hit by enemy fire off the Pacific island of New Guinea on March 11, 1944, the co-pilot managed a final salute to flyers in an adjacent plane before crashing into the water. All 11 men aboard were killed. Their remains, deep below the vast sea, were designated as non-recoverable. Yet four crew members' remains are beginning to return to their hometowns after a remarkable investigation by family members and a recovery mission involving elite Navy divers who descended 200 feet (61 meters) in a pressurized bell to reach the sea floor. Staff Sgt. Eugene Darrigan, the radio operator was buried military honors and community support on Saturday in his hometown of Wappingers Falls, New York, more than eight decades after leaving behind his wife and baby son. The bombardier, 2nd Lt. Thomas Kelly, was to be buried Monday in Livermore, California, where he grew up in a ranching family. The remains of the pilot, 1st Lt. Herbert Tennyson, and navigator, 2nd Lt. Donald Sheppick, will be interred in the coming months. The ceremonies are happening 12 years after one of Kelly's relatives, Scott Althaus, set out to solve the mystery of where exactly the plane went down. "I'm just so grateful," he told The Associated Press. "It's been an impossible journey — just should never have been able to get to this day. And here we are, 81 years later." The Army Air Forces plane nicknamed Heaven Can Wait was a B-24 with a cartoon pin-up angel painted on its nose and a crew of 11 on its final flight. They were on a mission to bomb Japanese targets when the plane was shot down. Other flyers on the mission were not able to spot survivors. Their wives, parents and siblings were of a generation that tended to be tight-lipped in their grief. But the men were sorely missed. Sheppick, 26, and Tennyson, 24, each left behind pregnant wives who would sometimes write them two or three letters a day. Darrigan, 26, also was married, and had been able to attend his son's baptism while on leave. A photo shows him in uniform, smiling as he holds the boy. Darrigan's wife, Florence, remarried but quietly held on to photos of her late husband, as well as a telegram informing her of his death. Tennyson's wife, Jean, lived until age 96 and never remarried. "She never stopped believing that he was going to come home," said her grandson, Scott Jefferson. As Memorial Day approached twelve years ago, Althaus asked his mother for names of relatives who died in World War II. Althaus, a political science and communications professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, became curious while researching World War II casualties for work. His mother gave him the name of her cousin Thomas Kelly, who was 21 years old when he was reported missing in action. Althaus recalled that as a boy, he visited Kelly's memorial stone, which has a bomber engraved on it. He began reading up on the lost plane. "It was a mystery that I discovered really mattered to my extended family," he said. With help from other relatives, he analyzed historical documents, photos and eyewitness recollections. They weighed sometimes conflicting accounts of where the plane went down. After a four-year investigation, Althaus wrote a report concluding that the bomber likely crashed off of Awar Point in what is now Papua New Guinea The report was shared with Project Recover, a nonprofit committed to finding and repatriating missing American service members and a partner of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA. A team from Project Recover, led by researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, located the debris field in 2017 after searching nearly 10 square miles (27 square kilometers) of seafloor. The DPAA launched its deepest ever underwater recovery mission in 2023. A Navy dive team recovered dog tags, including Darrigan's partially corroded tag with his the name of his wife, Florence, as an emergency contact. Kelly's ring was recovered. The stone was gone, but the word BOMBARDIER was still legible. And they recovered remains that underwent DNA testing. Last September, the military officially accounted for Darrigan, Kelly, Sheppick and Tennyson. With seven men who were on the plane still unaccounted for, a future DPAA mission to the site is possible. More than 200 people honored Darrigan on Saturday in Wappingers Falls, some waving flags from the sidewalk during the procession to the church, others saluting him at a graveside ceremony under cloudy skies. "After 80 years, this great soldier has come home to rest," Darrigan's great niece, Susan Pineiro, told mourners at his graveside. Darrigan's son died in 2020, but his grandson Eric Schindler attended. Darrigan's 85-year-old niece, Virginia Pineiro, solemnly accepted the folded flag. Kelly's remains arrived in the Bay Area on Friday. He was to be buried Monday at his family's cemetery plot, right by the marker with the bomber etched on it. A procession of Veterans of Foreign Wars motorcyclists will pass by Kelly's old home and high school before he is interred. "I think it's very unlikely that Tom Kelly's memory is going to fade soon," said Althaus, now a volunteer with Project Recover. Sheppick will be buried in the months ahead near his parents in a cemetery in Coal Center, Pennsylvania. His niece, Deborah Wineland, said she thinks her late father, Sheppick's younger brother, would have wanted it that way. The son Sheppick never met died of cancer while in high school. Tennyson will be interred on June 27 in Wichita, Kansas. He'll be buried beside his wife, Jean, who died in 2017, just months before the wreckage was located. "I think because she never stopped believing that he was coming back to her, that it's only fitting she be proven right," Jefferson said. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byRoger Fisher

in

May 26, 2025

WWII bomber crash left 11 dead and ‘non-recoverable.’ Four are finally coming home

WWII bomber crash left 11 dead and 'non-recoverable.' Four are finally coming home As the World War II bomber Heaven Can Wait was hi...

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