The Journal News from White Plains, New York • A9

LOHUD.COM THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2023 9A WEST NYACK Mildred Zyla, 86, suffered heart failure on January 7 but, even after her son Eric applied CPR and paramedics and the staff at Nyack Hospital provided heroic efforts to save her, Mildred died peacefully on January 9 in the presence of her family including her cousin Hilda, who regarded the ever helpful Mildred as an older sister. For all those who knew was regarded as a trusted friend, loyal confidant, and welcoming host. Friends of her children often said that when one came to the Zyla household, they would eat twice: once when arriving and another when leaving. That hospitality was all due to Mildred. Her warmth made everyone she greeted not just a visitor but a welcomed guest.

Mildred was born on the Upper East Side of Manhattan onAugust 3, 1936 toMary andMichael Thomiser, poor immigrants fromAustria, living nearby her close-knit extended family of cousins, aunts, and uncles. caring nature began at a young age when she was spotted by her teachers as someone who would help her fellow students tie their hoods, buckle their boots, and button their jackets.Not only helping also excelled academically and was even skipped two grades. Graduating high school early, Mildred began work at the Bank of New York, eventually working on taxes for the very wealthy of the time such as the Bouvier family (of the former First Lady). In August 1957, she met the love of her life, Erich Zyla, who escaped with only the clothes on his back from Communist East Germany, at the Lorelei Dance Hall on 86th Street.OnNovember 9 of that very same year, they were married. Erich, who had studied civil engineering, became a conscientious worker doing grueling construction work.

Mildred continued to work for a number of years onWall Street but when the couple started a family, she gave up her banking career and decided to concentrate on providing a con- vivial home life for her hardworking husband and child. A few years after their first son was born, they moved to West Nyack, where Mildred lived the remainder of her life. life dreamwas to be amother, eventually raising three sons with dedication and joy. She relished preparing all sorts of food, from breakfast for each of her sons to hearty dishes of complex recipes she had learned from her mother.When her father died fairly young, she brought her mother up from NYC to live with her growing family in West Nyack. As close as best took great care of hermother who lived comfortably there- after till the age of 95.

Furthermore, she welcomed all who visited her home, always filled with an atmosphere of laughter, with generously apportioned homemade food, and treats such as her traditional cookies. Active in her school projects, she also volunteered to do read- ing sessions for young children at the local libraries, served as a election supervisor for many years, and performed many other services. When her youngest son neededmultiple operations, her role as dedicatedmother took on added importance, visiting many hospitals and doctors but never losing her kindness, humor, and generosity. Mildred and Erich, having married after knowing one another for only a few months still held hands while watching TV even at the age of 80 when Erich succumbed to cancer.While true lovemay seem to be amyth tomany, just before he died, Erich composed a short bookmemorializing how he fell in love with Mildred all those years before. A few years later, Mildred was evaluated by doctors as having broken-heart syndrome.

After helping her eldest son recover from an accident, Mildred herself needed some medical care and was known for greeting aides and nurses with warm smiles and many thanks. Mildred, a caring and joyous soul, will be sorely missed by all who knew her, particularly her eldest son Eric; her son Roy, his wife Colleen, and their three children and Kathryn; and her youngest son Gary, his wife Sarah, and their three children andDavid.Hopefully Mildred will be able to reconnect in the afterlife with her beloved Erich, her parents, and her many friends and relatives who all predeceased her. Mildred leaves behind a legacy of kindness that not only added meaning to her life but to all the lives she touched. Mildred Zyla Obituaries DENVER Costly weather disasters kept raining down on America last year, pounding the nation with 18 climate ex- tremes that caused at least $1 billion in damage each, totaling more than $165 billion, federal climate scientists calculated Tuesday. Even though 2022 near record hot for the United States, it was the third wildest year nationally both in number of extremes that cost $1 billion and over- all damage from those weather catas- trophes, the National Oceanic and At- mospheric Administration said in a re- port issued at the American Meteoro- logical conference.

The amount, cost and death toll of billion-dollar weather disasters make up a key measurement, adjusted for in- that NOAA uses to see how bad human-caused climate change is get- ting. They led to at least 474 deaths. Hurricane Ian, the costliest drought in a decade and a pre-Christmas winter storm pushed last damage costs to the highest since 2017. The only more expensive years were 2017 when Hur- ricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria struck and the disastrous 2005 when numer- ous hurricanes, headlined by Katrina, pummeled the Southeast, federal mete- orologists said. The only busier years for billion-dollar disasters were 2020 and 2021.

Ian was the third-costliest U.S. hurri- cane on record with $112.9 billion in damage, followed by $22.2 billion in damage from a western and midwestern drought that halted barge on the Mississippi River, said. The $165 billion total for 2022 even include a total yet for the winter storm three weeks ago, which could push it close to $170 billion, said. change is supercharging many of these extremes that can lead to billion-dollar said NOAA ap- plied climatologist and economist Adam Smith, who calculates the disas- ters, updating them to factor out tion. He said more people are also build- ing in way, along pricey coasts and rivers, and lack of strong construc- tion standards is also an issue.

With a good chunk of development beachside, real estate could be a small lo- calized factor, he said. United States has some of the consistently most diverse and intense weather and climate extremes that see in many parts of the world. And we have a large population vulnerable to these Smith told The Associated Press. really an imbalance right Climate change is a hard to ignore factor in extremes, from deadly heat to droughts and Smith and other said. risk of extreme events is grow- ing and they are every corner of the NOAA chief scientist Sa- rah Kapnick said.

The problem is especially bad when it comes to dangerous heat, said NOAA climate scientist Stephanie Herring, who edits an annual study in the Bulle- tin of the American Meteorological So- ciety that calculates how much of the extreme weather in past years were worsened by climate change. is showing that these ex- treme heat events are also likely to be- come the new Herring said at the weather conference. been a dramatic upswing in the size and number of super costly ex- tremes in the U.S. since about 2016, Smith said. In the past seven years, 121 billion-dollar weather disas- ters have caused more than $1 trillion in damage and killed more than 5,000 people.

Those years dwarf what hap- pened in the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s. For example, in the entire decade of the 1990s there were 55 billion- dollar disasters that cost $313 billion to- tal and claimed 3,062 lives. not just one but many, many dif- ferent types of extremes across much of the Smith said. extremes average for most of the country but nothing the Gleason said. The average temperature was 53.4 degrees, which is 1.4 degrees warm- er than the 20th century average.

The year was 1.5 inches below normal for rain and snow, the 27th driest out of 128 years, Gleason said. NOAA and NASA on Thursday will announce how hot the globe was for 2022, which be a record but likely to be in the top seven or so hottest years. European climate monitoring group Co- pernicus released its calculations Tues- day, saying 2022 was the hottest globally and second hottest in Europe. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions which is what traps heat to cause global warming rose 1.3% in 2022, according to a report released Tuesday by the Rho- dium Group, a think tank.

less than the economy grew. The emissions increase was driven by cars, trucks and industry with electric power generation polluting slightly less. the second straight year, both af- ter lockdowns eased, that American carbon pollution has grown after fairly steady decreases for several years. Associated Press climate and envi- ronmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

were on a bingo card, we almost up the card over the last several In 2022, there were nine billion-dol- lar non-tropical storms, including a de- recho, three hurricanes, two tornado outbreaks, one one winter storm, a megadrought and costly The only general type of weather disaster missing was an icy freeze that causes $1 billion or more in crop damage, Smith said. And last month, Florida came close to it, but missed it by a degree or two and some preventive steps by farmers, he said. That prevented freeze was one of two in 2022 extremes, Smith said. The other was that the season, though still costing well over $1 billion, as severe as past years, except in New Mexico and Texas, he said. For the 11 months of 2022, Cali- fornia was going through its second driest year on record, but drenchings from an atmospheric river that started in December, turned it to only the ninth driest year on record for California, said NOAA climate monitoring chief Karin Gleason.

With a third straight year of a La cooling the eastern which tends to change weather patterns across the globe and moderate global warming, 2022 was only the 18th warm- est year in U.S. records, Gleason said. was a warm year certainly above NOAA: Ian among weather extremes in Damage from disasters totaled more than $165B Seth Borenstein ASSOCIATED PRESS A runs to extinguish flames as the Oak Fire crosses a road in Mariposa County, in July 2022. Last year brought the U.S. 18 climate extremes that caused at least $1 billion in damage each.

NOAH FILE.