Latest news with #Comfort
Los Angeles Times
9 hours ago
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
Uber tests option to match female riders and drivers
Uber Technologies Inc. is piloting a new ride type in the US that will match female riders and drivers, expanding access to a safety feature it already offers in some international markets. The service will launch in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit over the next few weeks, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Riders will see a new on-demand ride option called 'Women Drivers' alongside the existing UberX, Comfort, UberXL and Black offerings. Customers can reserve such a trip in advance, or set their preference in the app settings to increase the likelihood of being matched with a woman driver. Female drivers, who make up about 1 in 5 of Uber's US driver population, can similarly choose that preference in the settings of their driver app. Drivers' eligibility for the program will be based on the gender listed on their license. For riders, it will be determined by their first name or whether they specified their gender as female on their Uber profile. 'It's about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive,' said Camiel Irving, vice president of operations in the US and Canada. Cities that have a bigger population of women drivers will be the ones that get the feature sooner, she said, but added that the three options are designed to allow different ways of matching without compromising wait times and service availability. The company also sees the option as a way to attract more female drivers to the platform. 'The product is really popular whenever we're able to launch it,' said Irving. 'Our expectation is that it's going to be just as popular in the US both with drivers and with prospective drivers.' The introduction of the feature comes nearly two years after rival Lyft Inc. introduced a similar offering in the US, underscoring a tit-for-tat competition between the two rideshare apps to win over customers with features tailored to certain demographics. Earlier this year, for instance, the two companies rolled out simplified versions of their apps for elderly riders in close succession. In May, Uber also introduced a $2.99 monthly pass aimed at commuters that lets users lock in prices for for favorite routes. The launch came months after Lyft debuted a similar product. However, unlike Lyft's women-matching program, which also includes non-binary users, Uber's product is solely for those with commonly identifiable feminine names or those who identify as female in the app. The company has had 'a couple of conversations' with LGBTQ organizations and concluded this 'is not quite the right way to serve the non-binary population right now,' Irving said in an interview. Uber launched the matching feature for female drivers in Saudi Arabia in 2019 to mark a landmark decision that granted women the right to drive. Since then, it said, it's completed more than 100 million such trips having expanded the feature to drivers in 40 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, India and Mexico. It has also tested the feature for riders in Germany and France. Lung writes for Bloomberg.
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
How a Hurricane Katrina victim is helping the smallest survivors of the Texas floods
Most people don't expect Mimi Hymel to remember Hurricane Katrina. After all, she was only 3 when the Category 5 storm slammed into her Louisiana home in 2005. But nearly 20 years later, as Hymel watched news of the floodwaters inundating Texas Hill Country and saw the harrowing images of destruction from Camp Mystic, she said those memories came back with sharp clarity. She can still recall the moment her family decided they couldn't ride out Katrina and the sinking feeling she felt as her mom placed Hymel and her sister in their car and drove away, leaving their dad behind to work at a nearby hospital. But most of all, Hymel said, she remembers how she struggled to fall asleep for days after they escaped the storm because she didn't have her favorite stuffed animal. 'I just had no idea if my dad was OK or even coming home at all,' she recalled. 'I had a teddy bear named Cuddles that I didn't get to take in the car with me. In a scary time like that, I really wanted it for comfort.' Indeed, the importance of these plush companions was apparent as the floodwaters began seeping through the Chatterbox cabin at Camp Mystic, prompting a 9-year-old to offer her top bunk as a safe place for campers to store their stuffies during the storm. Hymel said the trauma of escaping a natural disaster has a way of changing you. But all these years later, she's found a way of channeling her experience during Katrina into helping today's youngest survivors. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Hymel said there was no shortage of local organizations and kind neighbors who tried to meet her family's immediate needs for food, clothes and shelter. But as a child, she said she struggled to process such dramatic and rapid change. 'When we finally did get back to our house, everything was destroyed,' she recalled. And Cuddles had been lost to the floodwaters. Studies have long shown blankets or stuffed animals can help children adapt to unfamiliar or distressing situations and they become even more important when a child is processing grief. Although the family ultimately resettled in Texas, as she grew older, Hymel said she noticed how some first responders or families would share photos of stuffed animals they recovered after a disaster. 'I was once that child so it's always just emotional seeing those photos,' she said. 'I realized that kids experience disasters a little bit differently, so relief needs to work a little differently for them too.' That realization sparked Hymel to mobilize after catastrophes, coordinating with local businesses to host donation drives for stuffies and then partnering with first responders and other organizations to help distribute the plush toys in the aftermath of a tragedy. After the success of her early donation efforts, Hymel founded Comfort Bears in a Catastrophe. The nonprofit not only provides kids with a new stuffed animal after a crisis, but they also connect families to mental health resources. Each stuffed animal is tagged with a card offering free crisis counseling through the national Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers children and their families help navigating traumatic events. As interest in her work grew, so did the need. From the Miami Surfside condo collapse to the destructive fires in Maui and Los Angeles and countless floods and tornadoes, these days the steady drumbeat of disasters has been relentless, Hymel said. And so far, the nonprofit has donated more than 50,000 stuffed animals to children in need, Hymel said. She has also written a series of children's books called 'Miss Prepared and Captain Ready.' 'It teaches them important skills to know if a disaster were to hit, but it also encourages kids to get involved in their own way,' she said. But nothing, Hymel added, can compare to the joy of seeing a child receive a new stuffed animal and finding a sense of comfort in the midst of a crisis. 'After Hurricane Ian, I was able to donate to the hospital I was actually born in,' Hymel said. 'That was just kind of full circle.' From her home in Houston earlier this month, Annie Gully and her daughter watched as reports of flooding in the Texas Hill Country grew more dire by the hour. A close friend, she later learned, lost her niece, 8-year-old Blakely McCrory, in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic. 'It's just unfathomable to even wrap your head around something like this happening,' she said. 'You kind of have to go through the sadness and then you're like, 'OK, what can we do to help.'' Gully, who owns Tree House Arts and Crafts, a local children's art studio, said over the years she's seen how a child's favorite stuffed animal can become like a family member. So, when her daughter suggested a donation drive for kids, she leaped at the idea. She reached out to Comfort Bears on social media and within hours they had a game plan. Gully's donation drive was covered on the local news and 'that day alone, I think we collected 600' stuffed animals, she said. After three days they received more than 1,100 donations to be distributed throughout the state. 'Children don't really have an outlet to help' after a crisis, Gully said. 'You could tell their parents had explained to them that other kids have lost their lovies and how sad would it be if you lost your(s).' Gully is also selling 'Mystic Strong' artwork, and the proceeds will be donated to charity in honor of McCrory and the other lives lost at Camp Mystic. 'I feel like every time you turn on the news, there's just something worse that you hear about,' Gully said. But, she added, watching her community come together to donate comfort to the smallest victims of the floods in Kerr County has given her a reason to hope. 'No one cares who you are, what you look like or who you voted for,' she said, 'We're all just doing things together to help.'
The Citizen
15-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Citizen
Honda puts price tag on lightly revised, simplified HR-V
Line-up has been reduced to a single derivative, still powered by a normally aspirated petrol engine hooked to a CVT. HR-V has undergone a minor restyling from its launch three years ago. Image: Honda Having cut a silent figure since its local market launch three years ago, Honda has handed the HR-V its first mid-life update consisting not only of revised features, but also a streamlined model range. New outside A line-up now comprising a single model, the Elegance, as per an amalgamation of the previous Comfort and Executive, the HR-V's minor exterior changes involve a new body-coloured grille, slightly restyled LED headlights, a full-width LED strip between the taillight clusters, and new dual-tone 18-inch alloy wheels. ALSO READ: Honda HR-V struggles to impress in crowded compact SUV segment In an expansion though, the HR-V gains two new colour options, Crystal Black Pearl, in place of the previous Coffee Cherry Red Metallic, and Ignite Red Metallic. New are dual-tone 18-inch alloy wheels. Image: Honda Carried over hues are Opal White Pearl, Meteoroid Grey Metallic and Brilliant Sporty Blue Metallic. Cabin changes Inside, the changes are a trifle more substantial in that the centre console has been freshened-up to accommodate a new 15-watt wireless smartphone charger. Interior has received minor changes. Image: Honda Still residing at the base of the dashboard is the type-A USB port, now flanked by a new type-C USB input. Spec Combining aspects from the Comfort and Executive's specification sheets means that, in addition to the items already items, the HR-V Elegance comes with the following as standard: automatic air-conditioning; rain sense wipers; eight-inch infotainment system; push-button start; keyless entry; 4.2-inch TFT instrument cluster display; imitation leather upholstery; wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; folding electric mirrors While the upwards folding Magic Rear Seats remain, items no longer available the Executive previously offered, is the electric driver's seat, the panoramic sunroof, electric tailgate and the eight-speaker sound system now minus two amplifiers. Trademark Magic Rear Seats have been carried over. Image: Honda On the safety side, the HR-V gains Forward Collision Warning and what Honda calls Agile Handle Assist. Still standard is Adaptive Cruise Control, Hill Descent Control, a reverse camera and parking sensors, Collision Mitigation Braking, Lane Keep Assist, Road Departure Mitigation and Auto High Beam Assist. No longer available is the Lanewatch side-view camera. Same powertrain Up front, the HR-V retains the combination of the 89kW/145Nm normally aspirated 1.5-litre petrol engine, mated to a CVT. Claimed fuel consumption is also unchanged at 7.4 L/100 km. Price Now available, pricing starts at R539 000, a credit of R14 600 over when the Executive first launched, but up R70 900 on the Comfort. Included in the HR-V's price tag is a five-year/200 000 km warranty as well as a four-year/60 000 km service plan. ALSO READ: New Honda HR-V shines but needs one major improvement
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
A deadly 1987 flood foreshadowed the Texas disaster. Survivors ask, ‘why didn't we learn?'
The rain was pouring down in Texas in the early morning hours of 17 July 1987. James Moore, a reporter for a local NBC news station, was stationed in Austin when his editors called and told him to grab his camera operator and head to Kerrville, a Hill Country town about 100 miles (160km) away. They'd heard reports of flash flooding on the Guadalupe River. 'We just jumped in the car when it was still dark … we knew there were going to be problems based on how much rain there was,' Moore said. En route, he got another call over the radio that told him to head instead for the small hamlet of Comfort, just 15 miles from Kerrville. 'They said: 'Hey, head up towards Comfort,'' Moore recalled. ''Something's happened.'' At about 7.45am, a caravan of buses had left a children's church camp at the Pot O' Gold Ranch as they tried to evacuate the Guadalupe's surging waters, which eventually rose nearly 30ft (9 meters) during the ferocious, slow-moving rainstorm. According to a report by the National Weather Service, a bus and a van had stalled on an overflowing river crossing. As kids rushed to escape the vehicles, they were hit by a massive wave of water – estimated to be a half mile wide – that swept away 43 people. Thirty-three of them were rescued, but 10 children drowned. Moore arrived at a scene of chaos. Helicopters clattered overhead as people scrambled in a frantic search for the injured and missing. Then he and his camera operator caught sight of something horrifying. 'We unfortunately found one of the bodies of the kids,' Moore said. 'All we saw was the legs under a brush pile and we alerted the authorities.' Nearly 40 years later, it felt like history repeating itself. Last week, in the early morning hours of 4 July, another flash flood hit the Guadalupe. This time, though, the wall of water was sizeably bigger, and came in the middle of the night and during one of the area's busiest holiday weekends. The death toll is now nearly 130 people with more than 160 still missing. The loss of life includes 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a girls' camp several miles upriver from Comfort. For many who lived through the tragedy in Comfort, they see the 1987 flood as a harbinger for what washed through Hill Country on the Fourth of July. '[The 1987 flood] was called the 'big one' back then. This is 100 times over what we experienced,' said Emily Davis. She was a 10-year-old at Camp Capers, another church camp up the road from the Pot O' Gold Ranch, when the 1987 flood hit. 'Why didn't they learn from this? Why wasn't there a better system?' After the Independence Day floods devastated Kerr county last week, Donald Trump described the scene as 'a 100-year catastrophe'. 'This was the thing that happened in seconds,' he added. 'Nobody expected it.' But Hill Country is no stranger to these disasters, and has even earned itself the moniker 'flash flood alley'. Its chalky limestone cliffs, winding waterways and dry rocky landscape have made it ground zero for some of the deadliest flash floods nationwide. Hill Country's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and its ocean moisture have also made it a prime target for drenching thunderstorms. The US Geological Survey calculates that the Guadalupe has experienced noteworthy flash floods almost every decade since the 1930s. In 1998, it recorded a flood that surpassed even 500-year flood projections. Other rivers in Hill Country, including the Pedernales and Blanco, have also seen deadly flash floods. 'What makes Kerr county so beautiful, the reason why people want to go there … is literally the reason why it's so dangerous,' said Tom Di Liberto, a meteorologist who formerly worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) and is now with the non-profit Climate Central. 'The risk is always there.' During the 1987 floods, as in 2025, news reports and video footage captured a harrowing scene: the Guadalupe's surging muddy waters downing 100ft-tall cypress trees, as dead deer and the siding of houses rushed by. Helicopters circling overhead trying to rescue people clinging to the tops of trees, stranded in the middle of the river. Davis said that even though she was just a kid, she remembers the helicopters and army trucks swarming the area. She even took a photo of one of the helicopters above with her Le Clic camera. Camp Capers was up a hill, she said, so the children there were able to shelter in place. But, she said, the mood was tense. 'We were told that 10 didn't make it,' Davis said. 'It just became very haunted and eerie. I wanted nothing to do with that river.' The day was marked by a series of awful events. One 14-year-old girl in the Guadalupe grabbed a rope hanging from a helicopter but was unable to hang on long enough and fell to her death. Another girl caught in the river's waves kept trying to grab a helicopter rope, but lost strength and was swept away. A teenager, John Bankston Jr, worked to save the younger kids when the camp bus stalled, carrying them on his back to dry land. He was in the river when the wall of water hit. Bankston was the only person whose body was never recovered. Moore, the local reporter, said his TV station sent out a helicopter and they helped search for people. 'We were flying up and down the river looking for survivors,' Moore said. 'Later in the day, John Bankston Sr got in the helicopter and we flew him up and down the river for hours looking for his son.' 'I covered a lot of horrific stuff, from the Branch Davidians and earthquakes and hurricanes and Oklahoma City,' said Moore, who is now an author. 'And this one has haunted me, just because of the kids.' That year, the Texas water commission's flood management unit made a dedication to the children who lost their lives in Comfort. 'When something like this occurs, we must all look into ourselves to see if we are doing all we can to prevent such a tragic loss of life,' read the dedication, written by Roy Sedwick, then state coordinator for the unit. Sedwick wrote that he was resolved to promote public awareness and flood warnings in Texas, 'so that future generations will be safe from the ravages of flash floods'. The National Weather Service's storm report from the 1987 flood in Comfort paints more unsettling parallels with last week's tragedy. Up to 11.5in (29cm) of rain fell near the small hamlet of Hunt that day, causing the river to surge 29ft. A massive flood wave emerged and travelled down the Guadalupe to Comfort. During the recent floods in Kerr county, an estimated 12in of rain fell in a matter of hours during another heavy, slow-moving thunderstorm. This time, Hunt was the hardest hit, with the Guadalupe River again rising dozens of feet and setting a record-high crest of at least 37.5ft at its peak, according to the US Geological Survey. Many people along the river were given little to no warning. The National Weather Service issued 22 alerts through the night and into the next day. But in the rural area, where cell service can be spotty, many residents said they didn't get the alerts or they came too late, after the flash flood hit. No alerts were sent by Kerr county's local government officials. Other parts of Hill Country, such as in Comal county and on the Pedernales River, have siren systems. When high flood waters trigger the system, they blare 'air raid' sirens giving notice to evacuate and get to high ground. In Comfort, the 1987 tragedy still casts a shadow over the town. But on 4 July, the hamlet avoided much of the disaster that hit neighboring communities. Comfort recently worked to scrape together enough money to expand its own emergency warning system and installed sirens that are set off during floods. Over the last year, the volunteer fire department sounded the alarm every day at noon, so residents could learn to recognize the long flat tone. So, when the raging Guadalupe waters once again rushed toward Comfort over the holiday weekend, sirens echoed throughout the town. This time, the volunteer fire department confirmed, all residents evacuated in time and there was no loss of life. Kerr county, meanwhile, had been looking at installing a flood siren system for the past decade. But the plan got mired in political infighting and ultimately stalled when the county was presented with a $1m price tag. Earlier this year, state lawmakers introduced a house bill to fund early warning systems across Texas that could have included siren towers along the Guadalupe. And even though the bill overwhelmingly passed in the house, it died in the senate. In the aftermath of the 4 July catastrophe, the state says it will now fund such a system. While it's impossible to say whether such a warning system would have changed the outcome, given the massive expanse of Kerr county, experts say these types of weather events are going to keep happening and intensifying, so communities need to be prepared. 'This is a conversation for the entire country when it comes to areas that are prone to flash floods,' said the meteorologist Di Liberto. 'Are we doing enough as a society to warn people?'
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Breaking down the force of water in the Texas floods
Over just two hours, the Guadalupe River at Comfort, Texas, rose from hip-height to three stories tall, sending water weighing as much as the Empire State building downstream roughly every minute it remained at its crest. The force of floodwater is often more powerful and surprising than people imagine. Comfort offers a good lens to consider the terrible force of a flash flood's wall of water because it's downstream of where the river's rain-engorged branches met. The crest was among the highest ever recorded at the spot — flash flooding that appears so fast it can 'warp our brains,' said James Doss-Gollin, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University. The Texas flood smashed through buildings, carried away cars and ripped sturdy trees out by the roots, dropping the debris in twisted piles when the water finally ebbed. It killed more than 100 people, prompted scores of rescues and left dozens of others missing. The deaths were concentrated upriver in Kerr County, an area that includes Camp Mystic, the devastated girls' camp, where the water hit early and with little notice. Water is capable of such destruction because it is heavy and can move fast. Just one cubic foot of water — imagine a box a bit larger than the size of a basketball — weighs about 62 pounds (28 kilograms). When the river rose to its peak at Comfort, 177,000 cubic feet — or 11 million pounds (5 million kilograms) of water — flowed by every second. 'When you have that little lead time ... that means you can't wait until the water level starts to rise,' Doss-Gollin said. 'You need to take proactive measures to get people to safety.' Water as heavy as a jumbo jet A small amount of water — less than many might think — can sweep away people, cars and homes. Six inches (15.2 centimeters) is enough to knock people off their feet. A couple of feet of fast-moving water can take away an SUV or truck, and even less can move cars. 'Suppose you are in a normal car, a normal sedan, and a semitrailer comes and pushes you at the back of the car. That's the kind of force you're talking about,' said Venkataraman Lakshmi, a University of Virginia professor and president of the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union. And at Comfort, it took just over 15 minutes for so much water to arrive that not only could it float away a large pickup truck, but structures were in danger — water as heavy as a jumbo jet moved by every second. At that point, 'We are past vehicles, homes and things can start being affected,' said Daniel Henz, flood warning program manager at the flood control district of Maricopa County, Arizona, an area that gets dangerous scary flash floods. The water not only pushes objects but floats them, and that can actually be scarier. The feeling of being pushed is felt immediately, letting a person know they are in danger. Upward force may not be felt until it is overwhelming, according to Upmanu Lall, a water expert at Arizona State University and Columbia University. 'The buoyancy happens — it's like a yes, no situation. If the water reaches a certain depth and it has some velocity, you're going to get knocked off (your feet) and floating simultaneously,' he said. The mechanics of a flash flood The landscape created the conditions for what some witnesses described as a fast-moving wall of water. Lots of limestone covered by a thin layer of soil in hilly country meant that when rain fell, it ran quickly downhill with little of it absorbed by the ground, according to S. Jeffress Williams, senior scientist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey. A flash flood generally starts with an initial lead wave and then builds as rain rushes over the landscape and into the river basin. It may rise quickly, but the water still takes some time to converge. The water crumpled cars into piles, twisted steel and knocked trees down as if they were strands of grass. Images captured the chaos and randomness of the water's violence. And then, not as fast as it rose, but still quickly, the river receded. Five hours after its crest at Comfort, it had already dropped 10 feet (3 meters), revealing its damage in retreat. A couple of days after it started to rise, a person could stand with their head above the river again. 'Everything just can happen, very, very quickly,' Henz said. ___ Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit
