The Docket | More from Human Stories

Monday, July 6Issue 39

Human StoriesIn Maricopa County last summer, 94% of people who died of heat indoors had air conditioning. In nearly three quarters of those cases, the unit wasn't running. We kept coming back to that while putting this issue together. The AC was there. The person still died. That gap between what the record says and what's happening at the address turned out to be the whole story: buyouts awarded but nowhere near closed, coastlines mapped from a baseline that's off by a foot, coverage that satisfies a lender but won't rebuild the house. The protection exists on paper. Everything in here lives in the room where it doesn't.SUBSCRIBE

Past Articles

July — Issue #41

Two One-Way Doors

The Season

A fourth-generation Arizona farmer plants each season deeper into dependence on Colorado River water whose post-2026 allocation remains genuinely unknown.

Two One-Way Doors

One-Way Doors: A Diptych on Irreversible Climate Decisions

Families standing on cleared LA fire lots face compounding costs in both directions, with no neutral ground between rebuilding and walking away.

The Buyout Limbo

Betty Doll Pays Two Mortgages

A Buncombe County household carries two mortgages while waiting years for FEMA's buyout process to catch up with the decisions the river already forced.