On the central Texas coast, Lavaca Bay is already poisoned by mercury. Climate change will only make matters worse there—and at 944 other hazardous-waste sites across the country.

After some heavy rainfall and churning tides from Hurricane Beta, South Padre Island became inundated with flood water and severe beach erosion.

CREOLE, La. — Mary Canik returned after Hurricane Laura to find her hometown destroyed again.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Houston, a Gulf Coast city that barely rises above sea level, has long worried about a worst-case weather scenario — a direct hit from a powerful storm that sends a wall of water barreling into the region’s petrochemical facilities, possibly triggering an environmental disaster.

Dorothy Ingram is among dozens of Raceland, Louisiana residents who say they’ve received few details about a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cut through historic Black churches and graveyards in their community, which sits about 40 miles west of New Orleans.

GALVESTON — A wooden platform from a damaged fishing pier washed up on a Galveston beach on Monday, an early warning sign from Tropical Storm Beta, which is slowly approaching the southeast Texas coast.

Unprecedented restoration and rebuild work continues

Hunkered down in a Metairie hotel, 50-year-old Ron Thomas scrolled through his phone, staring at photos of the storm-ravaged home he shares with his fiancee and his 73-year-old mother in northern Lake Charles. 

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey held press conferences in Gulf Shores and Dauphin Island after touring the storm damaged Alabama Gulf Coast, which was battered by Hurricane Sally last week.

A storm-weary Gulf Coast bears down for another day of storms and potential flooding on Monday as Tropical Storm Beta prepares to make landfall along the Texas coastline.

Catastrophe risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) has estimated that the insured cost of onshore property damages resulting from Hurricane Sally will be between $1 billion and $3 billion.

Hurricane Sally is not expected to cause a major insurance loss – compared to events such as the ongoing wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington, or Hurricane Laura, according to AM Best.

At Grand Isle State Park, on a sandy beach popular with sunbathers and anglers, Jace Tunnell pointed to the tide line and its usual scattering of litter: milk jugs, water bottles, candy wrappers, plastic bags.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — From data collection and public access enhancement to coastal hazard and resiliency planning, this program annually seeks coastal project applications.

Tens of thousands of homeowners face financial losses because they were not considered to be in a flood zone and were not required to have insurance

Hurricane Laura was the most documented hurricane to ever make landfall in the U.S.

Flooding, power outages and bridge closures spread throughout coastal Alabama and Northwest Florida Tuesday night as Hurricane Sally battered the region.

The long-awaited project to deepen the Mississippi between the Gulf and New Orleans is finally under way.

Good Morning America Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee researches Mississippi River Delta conservation efforts to mitigate hurricane impacts

A new U.S. Geological Survey coastal change forecast predicts a decrease in impacts due to Hurricane Sally.

The decade-old Panther Island project remains unfinished and without necessary federal funding to complete it.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority will be holding four meetings in the coming months to get the opinions of oyster farmers who lease state lands on the Oyster Lease Acquisition and Compensation Program.

An annual report evaluating the condition of Galveston Bay was released on Wednesday, providing new information on pollution, water quality and other environmental issues.

Hurricane Laura caused $1.6 billion in damage to Louisiana agriculture, according to preliminary estimates from the LSU AgCenter.

GULFPORT, Miss. — Hurricane Sally, a plodding storm with winds of 85 mph, crept toward the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday as forecasters warned of potentially deadly storm surges and flash floods with the heaviest downpours dumping nearly 2 feet of rain.

Fishing has a strong impact on coastal marine food webs, but it’s a hard effect to measure.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Energy companies, ports and refiners on Monday raced to shut down as Hurricane Sally lumbered towards the central U.S. Gulf Coast, the second significant hurricane to shutter oil and gas activity over the last month.

With much of southwest Louisiana still dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Laura, new evacuations have been ordered as Tropical Storm Sally aims for the central Gulf Coast.

Since this year's hurricane season is expected to be especially active, the researchers are examining Hurricane Laura's damage to prevent future erosion.

Cameron County beach accesses and beach parks reopened this past Tuesday, as Texas sees its COVID-19 positivity rate dipping below 10 percent for the first time since late June.

As Audubon Louisiana assesses damage to its coastal sites, including Rainey Sanctuary, people in Louisiana need help to recover from the storm.

Officials say repairs to a natural gas well off the Texas coast that started leaking last week will take longer than expected

Chenier Plain Marsh Enhancement projects have been awarded $1 million by the U.S. government to enhance 3,950 acres of Louisiana coastal marsh.

FORREST COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - The Mississippi Military Department released seven adult-sized gopher tortoises from the Head Start Program into the longleaf pine habitat at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg on Wednesday.

Nearly 180 semi-trailer trucks to deliver resources needed to repair the energy grid following Hurricane Laura.

Since Hurricane Laura swept through southwest Louisiana nearly two weeks ago, there's been very little ship traffic in the region because of restrictions on ship depth, damage to two main public ports and because power and water outages have crippled the region and hampered the restart of industrial facilities.

“They’re very important to us as a buffer to storms. That’s one of the, I think, most important things that those wetlands do,” said wetlands ecologist Bob Thomas.

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) - Is more concrete the answer to Ocean Springs’ eroding beach?

A massive storm surge and rough waves already were pushing inland from the Gulf of Mexico and Hurricane Laura’s earliest gusty winds and dark clouds threatened as a group of storm chasers hit Holly Beach.

Researchers from Florida State University are shedding light on nutrient levels in the Gulf of Mexico with new findings published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research -- Oceans.

Fishing communities on the Texas and Louisiana coasts are reeling from the effects of Hurricane Laura and are still assessing the damage.

SANTA ROSA BEACH – Jonah Allen’s dreams are already socially distanced.

In 2016, Kaenon Constantin and his nephew shot two cranes in Acadia Parish.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude oil output remained down 70%, or 1.29 million barrels per day, according to data released on Sunday by the Department of Interior, as companies continued to return crews to offshore facilities that were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Laura.

The hyper-active season is forecast to continue in the weeks ahead as a pattern of cooler-than-normal sea surface temperatures called La Niña continues to develop along the equator in the Pacific Ocean.

As climate change makes some places unlivable, how can we help the people who live there?

The federally protected marine sanctuary has kept three major reefs safe from encroaching offshore oil drilling and commercial fishing.

NOAA Fisheries has announced revised reporting requirements for federal seafood dealers in portions of both Texas and Louisiana through 5 October in response to the damage caused by Hurricane Laura.

The federal government received 31 reports of oil and chemical spills that are connected to Hurricane Laura, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In the days since Hurricane Laura made landfall on the Louisiana coast, multiple public officials have called for the construction of some type of coastal barrier to stop storm surge from entering Galveston Bay, expressing frustration that nothing has been done to protect our region since Hurricane Ike.

It would have been hell for a sprawling city already in the grips of a pandemic.

VICKSBURG, Miss. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released its Draft Supplement II (Draft SEIS II) to the 1976 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) Project, Mississippi River Mainline Levees (MRL), today, Aug. 28.

Corpus Christi, TX, USA – The Port of Corpus Christi and City of Port Aransas have reached an agreement on the future development of Harbor Island. This agreement amicably resolves all pending litigation between the Parties.

When it comes to balancing food security with protecting ecosystems, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. An ambitious project off Florida’s coast could bring down the price.

The National Hurricane Center estimated that Laura’s maximum sustained winds were 150 miles per hour as it moved ashore in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, around 1 a.m. Thursday.

Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from Hurricane Laura's onslaught of the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coast region today (Aug. 27) are expected to be manageable for the industry, despite the intensity of the storm, analysts have said.

The Department of Marine Resources finally has a budget almost two months after the start of the fiscal year, but the issues that led to the impasse will likely appear in next year’s session.

GALVESTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The devastation of Hurricane Laura has reignited the conversation of coastal protection along our part of the Gulf.

Insurance companies are getting a scope of the damage caused by Hurricane Laura, with an analytics already estimating insured damage in the state at $8 billion to $12 billion a day after the storm slammed into southwest Louisiana and left a trail of destruction northward through the state.

Before Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 4 storm, meteorologists warned that it would hit industrial coastal cities like Port Arthur, Texas, especially hard.

There are concerns, though, about the time it will take to build the network of sea walls, surge gates and other infrastructure

Please see the latest analysis for the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University. We will be following the storm closely and will be releasing follow-up products post-storm.

The one-two punch of tropical storms Marco and Laura along the U.S. Gulf coast eerily echoes Hurricane Katrina’s arrival 15 years ago, on August 29, 2005.

Tuesday, Phil Bedient kept checking noaa.gov for the most up-to-date information on Hurricane Laura, which was gathering strength in the 90-degree Gulf of Mexico.

BAY CITY, MI — State officials have resumed testing the water of Saginaw Bay and the beaches lining it.

Hurricane Laura is forecast to rapidly power up into a “catastrophic” Category 4 hurricane, even stronger than previously expected, as it churns toward Texas and Louisiana, swirling wind and water over much of the Gulf of Mexico.

This week, Laura could bring Louisiana its first landfall from a Category 3 or stronger hurricane in 15 years, since Hurricane Rita throttled parts of the state.

As Tropical Storm Laura powers up the Gulf of Mexico, bringing the risk of “life-threatening storm surge” to the Texas Gulf Coast including Galveston, an ambitious and costly proposal for protecting the area from a massive storm continues to slowly grind its way through the federal approval process.

Offshore companies have started to evacuate workers from production platforms and drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — Coast Guard crews and partner agencies continue pollution and salvage response Sunday for the dredging vessel Waymon L Boyd in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Tallahassee, Fla.— Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the selection of sites in federal waters off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico as one of the first locations designated as Aquaculture Opportunity Areas.

Construction will begin later this year on a $400 million lock in the Houma Navigation Canal that serves as the linchpin to Terrebonne Parish's hurricane-protection system.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A dredging vessel at a Texas port hit a natural gas pipeline Friday, sparking an explosion that sent six people to the hospital and left four others missing, authorities said.

PORT ARANSAS — For generations of Texans, our very first memory of summer at the beach begins with driving aboard a tiny ferry at a place called Harbor Island, last stop on the Texas mainland. Turning off the engine and setting the brake, we have rolled down our windows, filling our noses with moist salt air and our ears with the screeches of seagulls. Kids jump out to stare over the side at the frolicking of the little sand trout. The boat docks in Port Aransas only a few minutes later, which means one thing: sunny vacation on the world’s longest barrier island.

If you’ve visited Destin’s beaches recently, the city wants to hear about it.

Terence O’Rourke has spent a decade warning officials a storm making landfall directly in Galveston Bay could be much worse than even Harvey.