Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher (she/her) is a reporter on NPR's Science Desk, where she reports on outbreaks, natural disasters, and environmental and health research. Since coming to NPR in 2011, she has covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, embedded with the Afghan army after the American combat mission ended, and reported on floods and hurricanes in the U.S. She's also reported on research about puppies. Before her work on the Science Desk, she was a producer for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered in Los Angeles.
Hersher was part of the NPR team that won a Peabody award for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and produced a story from Liberia that won an Edward R. Murrow award for use of sound. She was a finalist for the 2017 Daniel Schorr prize; a 2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, reporting on sanitation in Haiti; and a 2015 NPR Above the Fray fellow, investigating the causes of the suicide epidemic in Greenland.
Prior to working at NPR, Hersher reported on biomedical research and pharmaceutical news for Nature Medicine.
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Higher utility bills. Rising home insurance costs. Damage from floods, wildfires and hurricanes. Climate change is hitting Americans’ bank accounts, and older adults are particularly at risk. -
Helene is dumping rain across the Southeast, after coming ashore as a powerful Category 4 storm. Abnormally warm water in the Gulf of Mexico helped it rapidly intensify and suck up moisture. -
We asked the NPR audience to share stories of loved ones they've lost to extreme weather, such as hurricanes, wildfires, floods and heat waves. Here's what we heard.
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Climate-driven flooding destroyed Tony Calhoun’s home in 2022. But as the water receded, his despair only grew. Now, his family hopes to bring attention to the mental health toll of extreme weather. -
Storms usually form between the end of August through October, but this August and early September have been oddly quiet. That's changing as conditions in the Atlantic become more conducive to storms.
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High tide floods – when water collects in streets or even seeps into buildings on days without rain – are increasingly common in coastal areas as sea levels rise, a new report warns. -
Scientists knew that climate change would cause the oceans to heat up a lot. But current ocean temperatures are even higher than expected. -
Hurricane Debby is trundling across the Southeast, dropping massive amounts of rain. The storm formed over abnormally warm ocean water.
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Debby came ashore just west of Steinhatchee, along the state's Big Bend region. It arrived with sustained winds of 80 mph, and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of utility customers. -
The financial cards are stacked against many renters who survive hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other major weather disasters. The long-term effects can be devastating. -
Even after storms lose their hurricane status and head far inland, they can still cause dangerous floods. Storms like Beryl pose risks far from the coast, even in Canada. -
Record-shattering ocean temperatures have helped Beryl gain strength as it moves through the Caribbean. It is the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever recorded this early in the year.
