|
|
|
|
|
California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. yesterday declared this week as "Wildfire Awareness Week" in recognition of last week's devastating fires northwest of Los Angeles. His proclamation noted, "In an average year, wildfires burn 900,000 acres of California's timber and grasslands." Rains that moved into the area on Monday helped extinguish the fires that started last Thursday along US Route 101 near Camarillo Springs and Thousand Oaks, endangering some 4,000 homes. A firefighting helicopter makes a drop on a wildfire on May 3 in Thousand Oaks, Calif. A huge Southern California wildfire burned through coastal wilderness to the beach on Friday then stormed back through canyons toward inland neighborhoods when winds reversed direction. A man on a rooftop looks at approaching flames as the Springs Fire continues to grow on May 3 near Camarillo, Calif. The wildfire has spread to more than 18,000 acres on day two and is 20 percent contained. Firefighter Justin Romero of the New Mexico based Silver City Hotshots uses a drip torch to build a backfire up the mountain off Potrero Road to control the Springs Fire near Newbury Park, Calif., on May 3. A fierce, wind-driven wildfire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening 4,000 homes and a military base as residents were evacuated ahead of the flames and a university campus was closed. |
|
|
view Wildfires in California as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
Damage left behind by Hurricane Sandy's landfall last October can still be seen along the US East Coast, especially the hard hit beachfront areas in New Jersey, as many communities work to move forward. Dubbed "The Superstorm" and reaching 1,000 miles wide at times, Sandy caused some $50 billion in damage and killed 159 people. Flags decorate a fence on April 25 in Brick, N.J., around the burned remains of more than 60 small bungalows at Camp Osborn which were destroyed last October during Hurricane Sandy. Six months after Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful, recovery. A construction crew works to build a boardwalk to replace the previous one that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, in Seaside Heights, N.J., on April 26. A section of the boardwalk is expected to open to the public on May 1 and authorities hope the entire thing will be completed in time for the opening of the summer vacation season at the end of May. The new boardwalk will stretch one mile and require three thousand wooden piles to be driven into the sand. An oceanfront home is being raised to protect from flooding in Ortley Beach, N.J., on April 25. Six months after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Jersey shore and New York City and pounded coastal areas of New England, the region is dealing with a slow and frustrating, yet often hopeful, recovery. |
|
|
|
view Hurricane Sandy: 6 months later as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
The search for survivors continues in one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history. Fifty survivors were found today; the death toll stands at 304. Terrified workers notified the police, government officials and a powerful garment industry group about cracks in the walls, discovered just days before the collapse. The owner of the eight-story Rana Plaza assured 3,000 workers that the structure was safe and they returned to their jobs. The death toll nears 300 with more workers trapped under the massive concrete and wire. A small collection of the hundreds of images made over the last three days, follows. A Bangladeshi woman weeps holding a picture of her missing husband as she waits at the site of a building that collapsed April 24, in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 26, 2013. A rescue worker comforts a survivor, who was trapped inside the rubble of the collapsed Rana Plaza building. Bangladeshi volunteers, rescue workers, family and friends gather at the scene after an eight-story building collapsed in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, on April 25, 2013. Survivors cried out to rescuers from the rubble of a block of garment factories. |
|
|
|
view 304 Dead in Building Collapse, Bangladesh as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
A powerful earthquake hit the Sichuan province of China near Ya'an city over the weekend reportedly killing some 200 people. Thousands of rescue workers have been deployed to help feed, treat, and house the displaced residents and help clear roads blocked by landslides in the remote area. The quake comes just short of five years after a massive quake in the same region killed some 70,000 people. Rescuers save an injured woman after an earthquake hit Baosheng Township in Lushan County, Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on April 20. Rescuers poured into a remote corner of southwestern China on Sunday. A woman whose relatives were killed in Saturday's earthquake cries while sitting on a pile of rubble in Lingguan township in Baoxing county of southwest China's Sichuan province on April 22. The earthquake in Sichuan province killed some 200 people, injured more than 11,000 and left nearly two dozen missing, mostly in the rural communities around Ya'an city, along the same fault line where a devastating quake to the north killed more than 70,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring areas five years ago in one of China's worst natural disasters. People running during aftershocks to avoid falling rocks on their way to the city of Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan province, on April 21. Clogged roads, debris and landslides impeded rescuers as they battled to find survivors of a powerful earthquake in mountainous southwest China that has left some 200 dead. |
|
|
|
view China earthquake: Sichuan province 2013 as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
Guns. That single word evokes a strong reaction, no matter what side of the debate you fall on. Certainly, the massacre of innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a national tipping point, but one that seems only to have brought back into the public consciousness, a long-simmering debate. A debate for which there is no resolution at the moment. Congress is still proposing and voting, states are taking independent action. Individuals rally and protest and fight, expressing their beliefs. This post is a collection of images - supporters of gun control, those against; victims and families of victims, gun enthusiasts. A member of the Vancouver Gun Club takes aim while trap shooting at their facility in Richmond, British Columbia Feb. 10, 2013. Formed in 1924, the shotgun-only club has a regular membership of about 400 and sells an estimated 1100 day passes each year. Canada has very strict laws controlling the use of handguns and violent crime is relatively rare. A 9 mm bullet in a box on the counter at Duke's Sport Shop in New Castle, Pa., April 5, 2013. Gun enthusiasts fearful of new weapon controls and alarmed by rumors of government hoarding are buying bullets practically by the bushel, making it hard for stores nationwide to keep shelves stocked. A sign depicts an assault weapon during a rally at the Connecticut State Capital to promote gun control legislation, February 14, 2013 in Hartford, Connecticut. |
|
|
|
view Guns as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
While investigators work to discover who placed the bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, people in Boston and around the world are paying tribute to the victims. Mourners have come together for candlelight vigils, running groups have staged memorial runs, and individuals have spent time in prayer or reflection. Collected here are images of some of these memorials, from Boston to Belgrade to Beijing. Local residents attend a candlelight vigil in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, on April 16, 2013 where eight-year-old Boston Marathon explosion victim Martin Richard lived. A Little League baseball player, Martin lived in a blue Victorian house in working-class Dorchester - a Boston neighborhood dotted with "Kids at Play" traffic signs and budding trees - with his parents Bill and Denise, sister Jane, 7, and brother Henry, 10. Martin's mother and sister were seriously injured. Members of the New York Yankees and the umpires bow their heads during a moment of silence for those killed in a bomb blast at the Boston Marathon on April 15, before their MLB Interleague game with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Yankee Stadium in New York. A building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is lit up in red, white and blue as a tribute to those who were killed or injured in the explosions at the Boston Marathon in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
|
|
|
view Memorials and Tributes for Boston as presented by: The Atlantic |
|
|
|
With thousands of runners still on the course at the Boston Marathon, two explosions rocked Boylston Street just yards from the finish line. The blasts ripped through crowded spectator viewing stands. The death toll as we publish stands at three and is expected to rise, with over 140 others injured and transported to local hospitals. No arrests have been made. Please follow Boston.com for further updates. The scene at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon when one of the two bombs exploded. Police officers run with their guns drawn as they hear the second explosion down the street. A child is comforted after explosions went off at the Boston Marathon. |
|
|
|
view Terror at the Boston Marathon as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|
San Pedro Sula, Honduras, has been given the unfortunate title of the most dangerous city in the world. The data was compiled by Citizen Council for Public Security, Justice, and Peace, a Mexican think tank focusing on crime statistics from the Western Hemisphere. The city tops the list for the second year in a row. Photographers Jorge Cabrera of Reuters and Esteban Felix of Associated Press spent time with with local police and in emergency rooms documenting the violence at the end of March 2013. They captured arresting scenes of death, fear, pain, and grief. San Pedro Sula has a homicide rate of 169 per 100,000 people. Laws allow civilians to own up to five personal guns. Arms trafficking has flooded the country with nearly 70 percent illegal firearms; 83.4 percent of homicides are by firearms, compared to 60 percent in the United States.Police tape cordons off a crime scene near the body of a victim in the city of San Pedro Sula on March 22, 2013. Unknown assailants killed three men and one woman in a working class neighborhood, local media reported. A woman cries near the body of Justiniano Lara, unseen, after he was killed by unidentified assailants in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. A man sits in the emergency room of a local hospital after being treated for a gun shot wound and several cuts with a machete in San Pedro. |
|
|
|
view Most Dangerous City: San Pedro Sula, Honduras as presented by: Boston Big Picture |
|
|
|