SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing at least four people and cutting off dozens of communities, authorities said Tuesday. At least four people were reported dead and two others missing in Haiti’s southwestern region, where flooding affected more than 3,200 families and destroyed hundreds of homes, according to the country’s Civil Protection Agency. It added that landslides have affected several roads in southwestern Haiti.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring Dominican Republic , at least 30 communities have been cut off by rains, and more than 100 homes are flooded, according to the country’s Emergency Operations Center. Both countries share the island of Hispaniola. Popular Reads Judge rules Trump DOJ 'unlawfully' fired Maurene Comey 1 day ago Trump told DOJ to sue to block Alaska Senate results if Republican narrowly loses Oct 23 Britt McHenry resigns from State Department after basketball game altercation Oct 23 The rains are blamed on a low-pressure system moving through the northern Caribbean. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
The AP report, carried by ABC News, gives a clear, sourced account of deadly flooding and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It puts the rains down only to a low-pressure system and never tells the reader that warming makes heavy rainfall like this more frequent and more severe.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“The rains are blamed on a low-pressure system moving through the northern Caribbean”
Why this matters
The words "blamed on a low-pressure system" give the only explanation the article offers for rains that killed at least four people and cut off dozens of communities.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking this was a routine weather system, with nothing about it made worse by a warming climate.
The context
Human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more intense. The article never mentions climate or warming anywhere, so the reader is not told that floods like this one are becoming more likely.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
The rains are blamed on a low-pressure system moving through the northern Caribbean. Climate change is making extreme rainfall like this more frequent and more intense.