© Andres Martinez Casares / Tyrone Siu / Reuters
Severe storms causing flooding topped the list of natural disasters in 2016, each one leaving behind billions of dollars in economic damage, and loss of life. Water-submerged shopping malls, homes, roads and cars became the leitmotif.
Man-made disasters also made news headlines from water pollution to gas and nuclear waste leaks.
Nuclear Leaks
Indian Point, New York
The year began with a groundwater leak at the Indian Point nuclear plant, when three monitoring wells were discovered to contain
"alarming levels of radioactivity," after the operator Entergy Nuclear Operations raised the alarm.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
called it "unacceptable," and said that one of three wells in question had
"radioactivity increasing nearly 65,000 percent." Cuomo has repeatedly called for the shutdown of the plant.
The groundwater wells had no contact with any drinking water supplies, according to the plant's operators who said the spill would dissipate before it reached the Hudson River.
The leak was the latest emergency at Indian Point, which has experienced nine technical problems in the past year or so. Four of them were serious enough to shut down the entire plant.
Comment: Christmas storm forecast to dump heavy snow, blizzards in U.S. West, Plains