SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — 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. 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
AP reports deadly flooding and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and sources its figures to each country's civil protection authorities. It explains the rains only as a low-pressure system and never tells the reader that warming is making heavy rainfall like this more frequent and more intense.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“The rains are blamed on a low-pressure system moving through the northern Caribbean.”
Why this matters
AP gives the cause of the deadly rains as a low-pressure system and stops there. This is its only line on why the flooding happened.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking the deaths and destroyed homes came from ordinary weather alone, with nothing to do with a warming climate.
The context
Human-caused warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more severe. The article never mentions climate or warming anywhere, so the reader gets no sign that events like this are being made worse.
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. Warming driven by burning fossil fuels is making heavy rainfall like this more frequent and more intense.