Devastation as deadly California blaze tallies grim stats
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, PAUL ELIAS and ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press
PARADISE, Calif. — As wildfires raged at both ends of California, officials released another grim statistic: six more dead in a swath of Northern California wiped out by fire, raising the death toll there to 29. It matched California's record for deaths in a single fire and brought the statewide total to 31.
Another 228 remain unaccounted for as crews stepped up the search for bodies and missing people. Two people were killed in a wildfire in Southern California.
Ten search teams were working in Paradise — a town of 27,000 that was largely incinerated last week — and in surrounding communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Authorities called in a DNA lab and teams of anthropologists to help identify victims. ...
(Moonbeam) Brown, who has declared a state emergency, said California is requesting aid from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has blamed "poor" forest management for the fires. Brown said federal and state governments must do more forest management but that climate change is the greater source of the problem.
"And those who deny that are definitely contributing to the tragedies that we're now witnessing, and will continue to witness in the coming years," he said. ...
MoreWhat does that even mean? Yes, it's climate change, if what you actually mean is weather. California is in a longterm drought. It has nothing to do with people driving SUVs or power plans burning coal, though. Why is my area experiencing record amounts of rain? Still "climate change" (all man-made, of course), I suppose.
I'd gladly trade California about 10" of rain for some temperatures that
aren't 15 degrees
below normal.
