This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. It is part one of a four-part series. Jose Gonzalez* wore no mask, despite the toxic chemicals he worked with in the oil field.

Extreme cold warnings were issued for an 11-state swath of the U.S. stretching from the Canadian border to Oklahoma and central Texas ... killed when a large tree fell on a home early Sunday ...

Members of the Southeast Michigan Dive Team pull people to safety after a water main break in Detroit caused massive flooding ... a campsite near the Texas Motorplex was killed after his travel ...

Harsh cold descended on the nation's midsection Monday as a polar vortex gripped the Rockies and Northern Plains on the heels of weekend storms that pummeled the Eastern U.S. with floods ...

Extreme cold warnings were issued for an 11-state swath of the U.S. stretching from the Canadian border to Oklahoma and central Texas ... killed when a large tree fell on a home early Sunday ...