Living on the Florida Emerald Coast, people view a hurricane as a common thing. So it is not unusual for a family to have several full gas cans and bottled water stored in their houses all summer.

Though unwilling to evacuate from a hurricane, on September 15,my family was forced to leave our home for my grandfather's house several miles away. We spent the early part of that evening watching the hurricane draw closer on the Weather Channel. Around nine o'clock, a loud sound shook the house, turned over the roof and carried it off. Soon came an indoor rainstorm.

Realizing the damage, my grandfather began to be afraid. The storm had started, but he still ran out into the heavy rain and wind to see how much of the roof was left. We got him back inside. I had never seen him so scared. Mom finally asked him to lie down in his room.

The leak had progressed rapidly. It soon became a race against time to protect what was saved. Some people may think it necessary to save material things, but I hoped to save those items with emotional value, such as the photos. I still feared the storm, but I more feared the influence it brought.

The next morning, it started to clear up. Thankfully, my family weathered the storm, though the same could not be said for the house. Only the wooden beams remained, but inside many of his things were safe. My mom and I had worked tirelessly through the night.

It was late, but we were still unwilling to go to bed. We discussed the rebuilding of the house. Under the beautiful sky, we suggested looking after my grandfather more often in the future. After this disaster, I realized the truth that the hurricane itself was not so terrible if we loved each other.

Jeannette Frescas was not concerned about the Thomas Fire until the fire reached her neighborhood in Ventura, California. “At midnight, I woke up with a flashlight in my face,“ Frescas told CNN.“I looked out of my window and there were flames, a hundred feet, all around us.”

Like many residents, Frescas was caught off guard by the fire that had roared across Southern California for 13 days. She’s one of tens of thousands of residents who got into cars and fled as winds drove the third-largest fire in modern state history through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

“What was once a paradise (天堂) was like a war zone (地带),” Frescas said of her apartment, which was destroyed by the fire. “It’s the scariest thing I’ve been through in my entire life.” Ventura resident Patricia Rye woke up to her son-in-law pounding on her door. She didn’t get a chance to pack any valuables. “I didn’t have time to take anything,” Rye said. “My wallet, or any of my personal things.”

The fire was so terrible that more than 8,400 firefighters were working around the clock to save lives and contain (控制) it. Twelve thousand people were evacuated (撤离) in Santa Barbara County, with animals at the local zoo threatened as well. Santa Barbara Zoo closed and many animals were placed into cages in case of possible evacuations. The zoo had kept most animals indoors, away from smoke.

Meanwhile, residents who had evacuated their homes in Ventura County-where the fire began-were allowed to return on Saturday. Jim Holden considered himself lucky that firefighters saved his home and items. “They put a water screen between my house and the house next door that was burning in an attempt to save it,“ he said. “They broke in and they saved my family photos and my computer, and things that they thought would be important to me.”

Over the past few months huge groups of locusts(蝗虫), one of which occupied an area more than three times the size of New York City, have eaten up crops across the Home of Africa and the Middle East, leaving an estimated 20 million people at risk of famine(饥荒). The first generation's eggs are starting to hatch, and now even bigger swarms(虫群) are forming threatening. Countries from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Yemen, Iran, Pakistan and India, “representing a threat to food security and livelihoods,” says the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO).

Desert locusts' populations explode when weather conditions are right. That explosion can create huge swarms that can travel great distance-more than 90 miles in a day-in search of food. Warm weather and unusually heavy rains in the Horn of Africa at the end of 2019 provided the moist(湿润的) soil necessary for hatching eggs. From there, the insects spread rapidly, resulting in one of the worst outbreaks the region has seen in more than 70 years.

A typical swarm numbering 4 billion to 8 billion locusts, can consume in one day the same   amount of food as 35 million people. Some swarms have been so thick in parts of Kenya that they have prevented planes from taking off. Governments have used widespread aerial spraying of pesticides when available; in poorer regions, where aircraft are unavailable, soldiers battle the swarms with handheld spray pump.

The FAO has appealed for $138 million to support affected communities, If the locusts are not stopped before the next generation hatches, the impact could be terrible: the FAO guesses that an additional 25 million people across the region could lose their crops. Scientists in Kenya hope a new computer-assisted tracking program that combines satellite data with weather-mapping software will help predict the swarms next destination, buying-regional authorities enough time to prepare a response. Buy coronavirus- related travel restriction have delayed relief efforts as well as response mechanisms. The locusts have no such travel limitations.