Paradise, November 11
Severe hot and dry “devil winds” kicked up on Sunday in fire ravaged Southern California and more winds were expected in the north, fanning the flames of wild fires that have killed at least 25 persons, officials said. “This is getting bad,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard, with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre in College Park Maryland.
“We’ll get sustained winds of up to 40 mph and gusts between 60 mph and 70 mph,” he said early Sunday of the Santa Ana “devil wind” hitting the Los Angeles area where the Woolsey Fire has been burning since Thursday in the tinder-dry canyon of Ventura County and claimed at least 2 lives.
The air-masses blowing across the western US deserts including Death Valley toward the coast are expected to bring the sustained high winds at least through Tuesday, he said. “It’s nothing but bad news,” said Chenard.
Additional 40 mph winds will blow across the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California near Sacramento where the so-called Camp Fire has claimed at least 23 lives.
Several of the bodies discovered earlier this week were found in or near burned out cars, police have said. The flames descended on Paradise so fast that many people were forced to abandon their vehicles and run for their lives down the sole road through the mountain town.
An additional 35 people have been reported missing and three firefighters have been injured. It was not immediately clear if any of the missing were among those found dead. State officials have blamed climate change and say many of the burn areas have been in federally-managed lands. — Reuters
Most destructive fire in California’s history
- The Camp Fire, in the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Sacramento, is now the most destructive individual wildfire in California’s history. As of Saturday, it already had destroyed nearly 7,000 structures in and around the mountain town of Paradise
- The death toll, which could rise, also makes it one of the deadliest. Only the Griffith Park Fire in 1933 and Tunnel Fire in 1991 have claimed more lives. The fast moving blaze, known as the ‘Camp Fire’, began on Thursday
- Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for more than 52,000 people in the scenic area in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2B0YhnT
via IFTTT https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
No comments: