Water began to flood the streets of Baja California Sur on Monday hours after residents boarded up homes and set up embankments as Hurricane Polo bore down on the peninsula Monday, threatening high winds, floods and mudslides.
—
Megan Janetsky,
Chicago Tribune,
28 Sep. 2026
How levees work Levees are earthen embankments positioned parallel to a river that effectively raise the height of the banks of the river to prevent overflow when the river swells.
In Colombia’s Ciénaga Grande, roads and dikes disrupted the flow of seawater and freshwater from the 1950s onward, contributing to one of the largest mangrove die-offs on record.
—
ABC News,
ABC News,
22 Oct. 2026
Historical records indicate that dikes were deliberately breached during a military conflict, allowing the swollen Yellow River to inundate the city.
This crane had nearly gone extinct before, driven in part by an explosion of new hydroelectric dams in the early 20th century, whose construction dried out local wetlands.
—
Sara Herschander,
Vox,
22 Oct. 2026
In 2025, Hydro-Quebec, a company that generates electricity from dams across the province of Quebec, secured a deal with local regulators to use Maine as a corridor to supply clean energy to Massachusetts.
—
Stefano Tijerina,
The Conversation,
19 Oct. 2026
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