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Kansas highway pileup that killed 8 was caused by an impenetrable dust storm like one out of the 1930s ‘Dust Bowl’
A gust of wind sweeps over bare soil, kicking up enough dirt and dust to cut visibility to nearly zero, and for drivers, the dust storm seems to come out of nowhere.
Such conditions resulted in a pileup on Interstate 70 last week in western Kansas involving dozens of cars and trucks that left eight people dead. Blinding dust also prompted New Mexico’s transportation department to close Interstate 25 from the Colorado border southwest to Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Hazy or dust-darkened skies have recalled the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s, when millions of tons of blowing soil buried farms and coated towns across the Great Plains. Lesser storms occur every year, particularly in the western U.S., particularly when farmland hasn’t been planted yet in the spring. Some scientists worry that many motorists don’t take them seriously enough.
“We have a very low level of public awareness of a dust storm and what damage it can cause,” said Daniel Tong, an associate professor of atmospheric chemistry at George Mason University who is among the authors of a 2023 paper on dust storm deaths.
Dust storms have a history of causing fatalities
The High Plains Museum in Goodland displays a photo of a tractor buried in blown soil in the 1930s, a reminder of the consequences of a severe drought across the Great Plains that came after farming had destroyed native grasses.
The fatalities Friday near Goodland were the first in the area in a dust storm since 2014, said Jeremy Martin, the Weather Service meteorologist in charge there.
But they came less than a month after an 11-car pileup on I-25 left three people dead, with heavy dust cited as a factor, according to Albuquerque TV’s KRQE. Similarly, a dust storm on I-55 between St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois, in 2023 led to a fatal pileup involving dozens of vehicles.
In 1991, 17 people died in an accident involving more than 100 vehicles on I-5 in California’s San Joaquin Valley, blamed on blowing dust.
Tong and four co-authors concluded in their paper published in 2023 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that there were 232 deaths from “windblown dust events” from 2007 through 2017, far higher than the number recorded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association data.
In January, he and four colleagues concluded that the economic damaged caused by wind erosion and dust is four times higher than previously calculated and more than $154 billion a year.
A cold front carries dust through western Kansas
Martin said a cold front moved through the area of the pileup after it had been warm and dry for six hours. Winds that reached 70 miles per hour (113 kph) kicked up dust that then became trapped in the cold front.
“That’s when you get that classic wall of dust,” he said.
As blowing dust cut visibility on the road to almost zero, drivers slowed down, causing collisions, authorities said.
A preliminary investigation found that 71 vehicles were involved, said Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April McCollum. Aerial photos showed at least 10 were semis.
“It was hard to even keep your eyes open outside because there was so much dust in the air,” said Jeremy Martin, the National Weather Service meteorologist in charge in Goodland. “It kind of stung to even breathe out in it.”
Similar conditions in eastern Colorado prompted the Colorado State Patrol to warn drivers: “Zero visibility due to high winds and blowing dirt.”
“You couldn’t see,” said Jerry Burkhart, the fire and emergency services chief in Lamar, Colorado. “The best thing to do is get way off the road in a parking lot or something like that.”
A lack of visibility is not the only problem
Martin said it’s hard to tell how thick dust is from a distance, so motorists often don’t know they won’t able to see until they’re in it.
Weather Service forecasters also said some of the advice for motorists in a dust storm is counter-intuitive. Michael Anand, a NWS meteorologist in Albuquerque, said motorists should pull off the road as safely as possible, turn off all lights and never use their high beams.
“You don’t want people behind you to think you’re going in the road,” Martin said. “That light from your tail light might be the only thing they can see. They’re thinking the road suddenly curves.”
High winds make cars harder to control, and a dust storm coats the road with fine particles that slow breaking, and drivers panic, Tong said.
He said dust storms are frequent and widespread enough across the U.S. that states should test prospective drivers on what to do in a dust storm on license exams.
“That could be, actually, a very easy way to educate drivers,” he said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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Most of the so-called memecoins that are flooding the $2.6 trillion cryptocurrency space will probably end up “worthless,” according to Cathie Wood.
The combination of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence is creating “millions” of meme cryptocurrencies that “are not going to be worth very much,” the ARK Investment Managment LLC founder and CEO told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, adding that her private funds are not putting money into these coins.
Memecoins are a type of digital asset often inspired by jokes, current events or trends in popular culture. In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said memecoins are not considered securities so they will remain unregulated.
“If I have one message for those listening who are buying memecoins: buyer beware,” said Wood. “There’s nothing like losing money for people to learn, and they’ll learn that the SEC and regulators are not taking responsibility for these memecoins.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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The Pentagon is slashing up to 60,000 civilian jobs amid Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting push, prompting national security fears
Roughly 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs will be cut in the Defense Department, but fewer than 21,000 workers who took a voluntary resignation plan are leaving in the coming months, a senior defense official told reporters Tuesday.
To reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the department aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave.
A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide personnel details, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure the cuts don’t hurt military readiness.
The cuts are part of the broader effort by the Department of Government Efficiency Service, including billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies.
Acknowledging that “some” military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands.
The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave. The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-by-case basis to ensure cuts don’t affect critical national security jobs.
Plans to cut probationary workers — which the Pentagon said targeted about 5,400 of the roughly 54,000 in the department — are already on hold due to court challenges.
The official added that Hegseth is confident the staffing cuts can be done without negatively affecting military readiness.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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Proposed Trump policy could force thousands of citizens applying for social security benefits to verify their identities in person
Trump’s Social Security Administration proposed a major change that could force thousands of people every week to show up at a shrinking list of field offices before they can receive benefits.
In an effort to combat fraud, the SSA has suggested that citizens applying for social security or disability benefits over the phone would also need to, for the first time, verify their identities using an online program called “internet ID proofing,” according to an internal memo viewed by the Washington Post.
If they can’t verify their identity online, they will have to file paperwork at their nearest field office, according to the memo sent last week by Acting Deputy Commissioner for Operations Doris Diaz to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek.
The memo acknowledged the potential change could force an estimated 75,000 to 85,000 people per week to seek out field offices to confirm their identities and could lead to “increased challenges for vulnerable populations,” “longer wait times and processing time,” and “increased demand for office appointments,” the memo read, according to the Post.
The change would disproportionately affect older populations who may not be internet savvy, and those with disabilities. Claimants seeking a field office will also have fewer to choose from, as more than 40 of 1,200 are estimated to close, the New York Times reported, citing advocacy group Social Security Works. The list of offices slated to close is based on an unreliable list released by DOGE, according to Social Security Works. Elon Musk’s DOGE has also said it will cut 7,000 of the SSA’s 57,000 employees.
The White House and the Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.
The SSA previously considered scrapping telephone service for claims, the Post reported, but backtracked after a report by the outlet. Regardless, the SSA said claimants looking to change their bank account information will now need to do so either online or in-person and could no longer do so over the phone.
Almost every transaction at a field office requires an appointment that already takes months to realize, according to the Post.
The White House has repeatedly said it will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicare benefits, and has said any changes are to cut back on fraud. A July 2024 report from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general estimated that between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2022, the SSA sent out $8.6 trillion in disbursements. Fewer than 1% of the disbursements, or $71.8 billion worth were improper payments, according to the report.
Acting Social Security Commissioner Dudek said for phone calls, the agency is “exploring ways to implement AI — in a safe, governed manner in accordance with” guidance from the Office of Management and Budget “to streamline and improve call resolution,” according to a Tuesday memo obtained by NBC News.
Dudek mentioned in the memo that the agency has been frequently mentioned in the media, which has been stressing out employees.
“Over the past month, this agency has seen an unprecedented level of media coverage, some of it true and deserved, while some has not been factual and painted the agency in a very negative light,” he wrote. “I know this has been stressful for you and has caused disruption in your life. Personally, I have made some mistakes, which makes me human like you. I promise you this, I will continue to make mistakes, but I will learn from them. My decisions will always be with the best intentions for this agency, the people we serve, and you.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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