ReportWire

Tag: Wildfires

  • More villages evacuated as a large wildfire in northern Greece rages for the second day

    More villages evacuated as a large wildfire in northern Greece rages for the second day

    [ad_1]

    THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greek authorities evacuated another five villages near the northeastern border with Turkey on Sunday where a large summer wildfire that has already destroyed several homes over the weekend drew dangerously close.

    There were no reports of serious injuries to firefighters or residents from the forest blaze near the town of Alexandroupolis, that forced the evacuation of another eight villages Saturday.

    Strong winds whipped on the flames, and civil protection authorities warned of an “extreme” fire risk Monday in the region around the capital, Athens, and other parts of southern Greece.

    Some 200 firefighters, assisted by 16 water-dropping aircraft, volunteers and police, were battling the blaze near Alexandroupolis.

    Local authorities said about half a dozen outlying houses and outbuildings were badly damaged in two of the evacuated villages, as well as a church. Sections of a major highway were closed for a second day as smoke reduced visibility, while Alexandroupolis residents were advised to keep their windows shut.

    Greece’s minister for civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said Sunday that firefighters, police, army personnel and volunteers were “waging an intense battle” in the Alexandroupolis area, and called for extreme public vigilance throughout the country Monday.

    “No outdoors work that could trigger a fire will be permitted,” he said. “We must all protect our country.”

    Across the border in Turkey, the governor of Erdine province declared Sunday that the border crossing at Ipsala had been closed until further notice due to the fires.

    Greece suffers destructive wildfires every summer, which officials said have been exacerbated by climate change. European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.

    The deadliest Greek wildfire on record killed 104 people in 2018, in a seaside resort near Athens that residents had not been warned to evacuate. Since then, authorities have been erring on the side of caution, issuing swift mass evacuation orders whenever inhabited areas are under threat.

    Last month a large wildfire on the resort island of Rhodes forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists. Days later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia. Another three wildfire-related deaths have been recorded this summer.

    ___

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • California’s big bloom aids seed collectors as climate change and wildfires threaten desert species

    California’s big bloom aids seed collectors as climate change and wildfires threaten desert species

    [ad_1]

    JOSHUA TREE, Calif. — Flowers that haven’t been seen in years bloomed across Southern California this spring after massive winter downpours, creating not only colorful landscapes but a boon for conservationists eager to gather desert seeds as an insurance policy against a hotter and drier future.

    In the Mojave Desert, seeds from parish goldeneye and brittlebush are scooped up by staff and volunteers working to build out seed banks in the hope these can be used in restoration projects as climate change pressures desert landscapes. Already this summer, the York Fire burned across the Mojave National Preserve, charring thousands of acres in the fragile ecosystem including famed Joshua trees.

    “This definitely highlights the importance of proactive seed banking as a fire management tool and how challenging it can be to keep up with the fire threats,” said Cody Hanford, joint executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust.

    Wildfires across the West can be deadly and wreak havoc on local communities, with residents forced to evacuate and homes turned to ash. But they also can destroy large tracts of land and wildlife habitat in places such as the Mojave Desert, where they are becoming more commonplace due in part to the spread of invasive grasses prone to burning quickly, fueling flames, experts said.

    Seeds long have been banked throughout the United States in a wide range of habitats. Initially, they were collected as a way to preserve rare and exotic plant species, but efforts now also focus on gathering from commonly-found plants that are increasingly in demand as climate change elevates the risk of wildfires and the growth of invasive species that can crowd out native vegetation.

    Hanford said it’s too soon to know what restoration might be needed in the Mojave National Preserve, where firefighters have largely contained the blaze. But fires like these encourage the land trust, which buys desert land for conservation, to expand its seed collection efforts, sending staff and volunteers out to gather seeds, clean and jar them for storage.

    The process is manual and time-consuming. In Joshua Tree, California, volunteers head out on hiking trails when flowers are blooming to chart where plants are located and return to collect seeds when they are ready to harvest, said Madena Asbell, the land trust’s director of plant conservation programs.

    The seeds are placed in paper bags or buckets, taken back and cleaned by hand or using an air-blowing device that removes chaff so they can be stored by the thousands in neatly labeled jars in refrigerators.

    Asbell said her organization is ramping up collection thanks to grant funding and just as the rainy winter led plants like paper bag bush to bloom for the first time in years.

    “2019 was the last wet year we had,” she said.

    Seed banking efforts are underway across the country through a program aimed at putting seeds into long-term storage and using them for projects aimed at bolstering restoration. Funding for the federal Bureau of Land Management’s program has increased in recent years, though demand for seeds to restore lands burned by wildfire or wildlife habitat far outstrips the supply, experts said.

    In California, there are more than 4,000 seed collections through this program, representing more than 1,300 species of plants. That covers about a fifth of the state’s known plant species, according to the agency.

    “We have so much land to restore and not enough seeds to restore it all,” said Katie Heineman, vice president of science & conservation at the Center for Plant Conservation.

    This year, however, presents a golden opportunity for seed banking in California due to winter storms that drenched the state, covered the mountains in snow and replenished rivers. The Chicago Botanic Garden, for example, has three times as many seed collectors in Western states this year as last, officials said.

    More collections also are being made by Bureau of Land Management crews in the Mojave Desert region, the agency said.

    One of the challenges in collecting seeds in this area is that it’s so vast, and restoration is best achieved with plants from the same general location. Seeds previously collected by the land trust therefore won’t necessarily be a fit for future restoration efforts after the York Fire, Hanford said.

    While the need for restoration isn’t unique to the West, the scale is much greater because of the size of the region’s wildfires, said Kayri Havens, chief scientist at Chicago Botanic Garden.

    “As our climate changes, places we thought in the past we wouldn’t have to restore, we’re finding out we have to restore,” Havens said. “The Mojave Desert now burns. It was not a place that had wildfire problems 30 years ago.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Maui water is unsafe even with filters, one of the lessons learned from fires in California

    Maui water is unsafe even with filters, one of the lessons learned from fires in California

    [ad_1]

    The language is stark: People in torched areas of Maui should not try to filter their own drinking water because there is no “way to make it safe,” Maui County posted on its Instagram account this week.

    The message reached Anne Rillero and her husband Arnie in Kula, who were eating yet another meal of frozen pizza. The couple feels incredibly lucky they and their home survived the fires that raced across Maui in recent days, wiping most of Lahaina off the map. The number of confirmed fatalities was raised on Friday to 114 people.

    When a neighborhood organization alerted them not to drink their water and to air out the house even if they run the tap, the couple decided to eat off paper plates to avoid exposure. No washing dishes.

    “It’s alarming that it may be in the water system for awhile,” said Rillero, a retired conservation communication specialist who has lived on the island for 22 years.

    Brita filters, devices connected to refrigerators or sinks and even robust, whole-home systems are unlikely to address the “extreme contamination” that can happen after a fire.

    “They will remove some of it, but levels that will be acutely and immediately toxic will get through,” said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University researcher and expert in water contamination after wildfires in urban areas.

    The Maui fires damaged hundreds of drinking water pipes, resulting in a loss of pressure that can allow toxic chemicals along with metals and bacteria into water lines.

    “You can pull in contaminated or dirty water from the outside, even when those lines are underground,” said David Cwiertny, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Iowa.

    Hundreds of families could be in the same situation as the Rilleros in the Lahaina and Upper Kula areas, where people have been told to minimize any contact with county water including showers. In Lahaina alone, aerial imagery and damage assessment data generated by Vexcel Data show 460 buildings apparently undamaged by the fires. These are places where people are returning.

    For now, the county has told people to use bottled water for all their needs or to fill jugs at tankers called water buffalos, which have been brought in near the burns.

    The state health department’s environmental health division told Maui County, which operates water delivery systems for most residents, to test for 23 chemicals. Those are just the ones for which the federal government has set limits for drinking water.

    These warnings reflect new science and are intended to avoid the whiplash of conflicting information received by people impacted by the 2018 Camp Fire in California, who received messages from four different agencies.

    Until a few years ago, wildfire was only known to contaminate drinking water at the source, such as when ash runs into a river or reservoir. California’s Tubbs Fire in 2017 and the Camp Fire “are the first known wildfires where widespread drinking water chemical contamination was discovered in the water distribution network,” according to a recent study published by several researchers including Whelton with the American Water Works Association.

    After the Camp Fire destroyed Paradise, California, officials didn’t initially understand that smoke and chemicals had leached into the water through broken and melted water pipes. So they did what was standard after other fires: they told people to boil water before use.

    Concerned about benzene contamination, the Paradise Irrigation District water utility then changed the order and told people to avoid the water, district Assistant District Manager Mickey Rich said.

    Four days later, the California State Water Resources Control Board announced people could drink it as long as it didn’t smell. Two and a half weeks later, that agency announced there was benzene in the water.

    Two months after that, a third agency, a county health department, told the public the water was unsafe and not to attempt to treat it on their own.

    “There were a lot of unknowns,” Rich said. “When the scientists came six months into the recovery, they really answered a lot of questions that we wish we would have had at the beginning.”

    New contaminants also have been discovered recently. The chemicals that Hawaii’s state government told Maui County to test for are called volatile because they tend to become airborne, like gasoline that turns to vapor when it drips from the pump onto your car.

    But Whelton’s new research on the Marshall Fire in Boulder County Colorado, shows a group of heavier compounds, called “semi-volatile,” can contaminate damaged water lines as well, even when benzene and other better-known chemicals are not there.

    “We found SVOCs leaching from damaged water meters into drinking water,” Whelton said. “You can’t use VOCs to predict whether SVOCs are present.”

    For people on Maui who get their water from private wells, now would be a good time to get it tested, said Steve Wilson, a groundwater hydrologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

    If fire burns near a well, it can damage the cap, which keeps out debris. Plastic in the lining can even melt, releasing hazardous fumes into the well.

    “In the case of a fire, it may look fine, but it’s hard to know,” Wilson said. “It might have affected something on the inside.”

    Experts caution complete restoration of safe water will take a long time.

    “I would implore anybody not to make a decision about lifting the water safety order until you have repeated validation that there is no contamination that poses a health risk,” Whelton said.

    ___

    Christopher Keller contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Mary Katherine Wildeman from Hartford, Connecticut.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 1 dead, 185 structures destroyed in eastern Washington wildfire

    1 dead, 185 structures destroyed in eastern Washington wildfire

    [ad_1]

    MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. — A wind-driven wildfire in eastern Washington state has destroyed at least 185 structures, closed a major highway and left one person dead, authorities said Saturday.

    The blaze began shortly after midday Friday on the west side of Medical Lake, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Spokane, and then expanded, Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Isabelle Hoygaard said.

    It grew to nearly 15 square miles (38 square kilometers) by Saturday morning, with zero containment. That remained the case Saturday evening. Officials didn’t expect to have new size estimates until Sunday morning, she said.

    The burned structures were a mix of homes and outbuildings.

    Evacuations were ordered for the town as winds blew the flames southward, Hoygaard said. The evacuations were extended Saturday evening southeast to the town of Tyler, she said.

    Among those evacuated were the parents of Spokane City Councilman Zack Zappone.

    “They were driving into Spokane when they got alerts on their phone that there were … evacuations at their house,” Zappone told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday. “They went back to get their dogs. My stepmom said it was a giant cloud of smoke and darkness. Embers were falling from the sky. She was having trouble breathing.”

    The fire swept through the neighborhood soon after they left, destroying his parents’ home and his uncle’s home, just two houses away. Zappone said his parents had lived there since 2003 and had just paid it off last year.

    “It’s shocking,” Zappone said. “I’m just in disbelief.”

    The blaze burned through the south side of the town and then jumped Interstate 90 on Friday night, forcing its closure, Hoygaard said. The major east-west thoroughfare remained closed in both directions Saturday evening.

    “The fire is burning on both sides of the highway,” the Washington state Department of Transportation said on its webpage.

    There was one confirmed fatality associated with the fire, Hoygaard said. Further details were not immediately released.

    Staff, patients and residents at Eastern State Hospital, one of the state’s two psychiatric facilities, and those living at the Lakeland Village Residential Habilitation Center, both in Medical Lake, were sheltering in place Saturday, said Norah West, a spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services.

    Evacuees from the town were given shelter at a high school overnight.

    The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

    “My thoughts are with the … residents who have been ordered to evacuate as the Gray Fire grows,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on X, formally known as Twitter. “I’m also praying for the safety of the first responders working to contain the fire. May you all remain safe and out of harm’s way.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Canadian firefighters wage epic battle to save communities after mass evacuations

    Canadian firefighters wage epic battle to save communities after mass evacuations

    [ad_1]

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Firefighters battling wildfires in western Canada received help from reinforcements and milder weather Saturday, after the nation’s worst fire season on record destroyed structures, fouled the air with thick smoke and prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents.

    Flames were being held at bay 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, and weary firefighters had a reprieve around Kelowna in British Columbia. But the firefighters were nowhere close to declaring victory, especially with drier and windier weather forecast for the coming days.

    “We’re by no means out of the woods yet,” Mike Westwick, wildfire information officer for Yellowknife, told The Associated Press. “We still have a serious situation. It’s not safe to return.”

    Yellowknife has been a virtual ghost town since a majority of the city’s 20,000 residents started to flee following an evacuation order issued Wednesday evening, officials said. Long caravans of cars choked the main highway for days and those who couldn’t take to the road lined up for emergency flights out of the city. The last 39 hospital patients were flown out Friday night on a Canadian Forces plane, officials said.

    On Saturday, officials said the only road leading out of Yellowknife was safe, for the time being. About 2,600 people remained, including emergency teams, firefighters, utility workers and police officers, along with some residents who refused to leave.

    Charlotte Morritt was among those who left on Thursday, reaching that decision because of the unbearable smoke that she feared would be unhealthy for her 4-month-old son.

    Morritt, a journalist with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and her son took an evacuation flight some 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) west to safety in Whitehorse, Yukon, while her partner stayed behind to monitor their property, and help create firebreaks and fight fires.

    “We knew it was only a matter of time,” said Morritt, who had been following media updates and satellite images of the approaching wildfires.

    Air tankers dropped water and fire retardant to keep the flames from Yellowknife. A 10-kilometer (6-mile) fire line was dug, and firefighters deployed 20 kilometers (12 miles) of hose and a plethora of pumps.

    Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year that have caused choking smoke in parts of the U.S. All told, there have been more than 5,700 fires, which have burned more than 137,000 square kilometers (53,000 square miles) from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

    All of British Columbia was under a state of emergency Saturday. About 35,000 people have been ordered to evacuate wildfire zones across the province and another 30,000 people were under an evacuation alert, meaning they should be prepared to leave, Premier David Eby announced.

    Eby told reporters Saturday that the situation was “grim” and warned that the “situation changes very quickly.”

    He said he was restricting non-essential travel to fire-affected areas to free up accommodations such as hotels, motels and campgrounds for displaced residents and firefighters.

    Ian Stewart and his wife made the “anxiety producing” decision Friday to evacuate Kelowna, B.C., with their 4-year-old border collie and drive 335 kilometers (210 miles) to Clearwater, B.C.

    “The smoke was really oppressive and there were big chunks of ash falling everywhere,” he said Saturday. They packed a couple of suitcases, passports, laptop computers and dog food, and drove in bumper-to-bumper traffic to escape.

    A change in the weather pattern carried smoke and haze from British Columbia into the Seattle area on Saturday, said Dustin Guy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

    The Puget Sound region was just recovering from record heat when a wind shift began streaming smoke into the region from Canada and eastern Washington state. The agency warned that air quality could reach unhealthy levels Saturday night through Monday, Guy said.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who met Friday with some of the Yellowknife evacuees who traveled south to Edmonton, Alberta, on Saturday shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter: “We’ve got your back.”

    Trudeau praised firefighters, police, military personnel, the Red Cross and others who responded to the fires and other natural disasters this summer.

    “Terrible loss, increased extreme weather events. And all through it, we’ve seen Canadians step up,” he told reporters in Edmonton.

    ___

    Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press journalists Andrea Thomas in Chicago and Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Large wildfire ravages forest in northern Greece as 8 villages are evacuated

    Large wildfire ravages forest in northern Greece as 8 villages are evacuated

    [ad_1]

    Greek authorities have evacuated eight villages near the northeastern border with Turkey due to a large summer wildfire burning out of control and whipped on by high winds

    ByThe Associated Press

    August 19, 2023, 11:08 AM

    ATHENS, Greece — Greek authorities on Saturday evacuated eight villages near the northeastern border with Turkey, where a large summer wildfire was burning out of control, whipped on by high winds.

    The fire service said more than 130 firefighters, assisted by 14 water-dropping planes and three helicopters, were struggling to contain the blaze and reinforcements were being sent from other parts of the country. The forest fire broke out early Saturday near the village of Melia, east of the town of Alexandroupolis.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries to firefighters or residents, but authorities said some houses suffered damages in two of the evacuated villages.

    Earlier, a section of a major highway in the area was closed down due to heavy smoke drifting across it.

    Residents of Alexandroupolis were also advised to keep their windows closed due to smoke blown over the town from the fire.

    Another smaller wildfire was burning outside Thessaloniki, in the north, the second-largest city in Greece. Earlier, firefighters brought under control a blaze on the western island of Cephalonia.

    The fire service has issued a high wildfire alert for the weekend.

    Last month, deadly wildfires caused havoc in central Greece, and forced the evacuation of some 20,000 tourists on the resort island of Rhodes. Shortly later, two air force pilots were killed when their water-dropping plane crashed while diving low to tackle a blaze on the island of Evia.

    European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Mick Fleetwood On Planning Benefit Concert After Maui Wildfires: ‘Music Heals’

    Mick Fleetwood On Planning Benefit Concert After Maui Wildfires: ‘Music Heals’

    [ad_1]

    By Mona Khalifeh, ETOnline.com.
    Published:
    Last updated:

    Mick Fleetwood is planning a benefit concert to help those impacted by the recent wildfires in Maui.

    ET’s Kevin Frazier spoke to the Fleetwood Mac drummer, who lives on the Hawaiian island, about the benefit concert and the healing power of music.

    “I’ve already got a lovely sort of catalog of people that are concerned. I will remain mute on who they are, but I will either become part of something that we can do on a grand scale, which is great,” Fleetwood said of the concert, currently in the works. “Anything is great, and playing in Honolulu, about 2 weeks from now, and that concert’s becoming — Henry Kapono who lives in Oahu, was celebrating the 50th anniversary of his career — well, I’m going to be doing that show, supporting.”

    “So, all of this is unfolding is something I feel I can be a part, or really be spearheading,” the famed drummer continued. “And it’s not now, but music heals, and music does its version of what I’m doing now.”

    For Fleetwood, the tragedy hits home even harder, with Maui the place the 76-year-old musician calls home, and a place where he once owned a restaurant. The Front St. property was one of the many establishments lost in the blaze.

    “I happen to live here. This is my home. I’m not passing through. People think, ‘Oh, how many times do you come here and see your restaurant?” I say, ‘No, no, no. I live here. This is the only home I have,’” he stressed. “And so all of that is something — not to jump too far ahead, but the intention would be absolutely to be part of, or to be right shaking the flag, to rally around and put on a great incredibly beautiful show. Which I know can be done.”

    The wildfires were first reported on Aug. 8. Fires began to ravage Maui as a result of drought conditions and hurricane weather.  At least 99 people have been confirmed dead, making it the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century. The entire town of Lahaina has been left in ruins.

    “Well, the enormity is still of what happened, which is absolutely beyond belief, is that in a very, very short space of time over those hills, I can hardly look around, in Lahaina town, and that area around Lahaina town, disappeared within minutes with a wildfire which has been credited as being one of the most vicious if not the most catastrophic wildfires in the country,” Fleetwood said of the devastation the wildfires have caused. “And that you can’t comprehend, but I can tell you, we in Hawaii have a word which is Ohana, which is family, and that’s the reason people come, and I believe, come to these lovely islands where there’s a sense of that, it still exists. So, that home, that Ohana was destroyed within minutes, and we’re still finding out how catastrophic it still continues to be.”

    He continued, “Having something happen, and be completely in shock and for those drastic amounts of time, no one knew what was going on and no one had a clue where anyone was. All the communications broke down, and so the family, the community that survived as in real time there, amazingly you more than myself maybe, but I’ve certainly heard of such heroic deeds, which is a testament not only to what happened here, but you most often hear that the human condition comes through in these awful situations all over this planet, and of course in our own United States of America you see people coming and doing things that are beyond belief extraordinary to help.”

    In addition to putting on a benefit concert, Fleetwood’s foundation will direct any donated funds to organizations to help survivors, with the directed funds to Maui Food Bank, Hawaii Community Foundation – Maui Strong Fund, and Maui Humane Society — all of which are helping the island and its residents rebuild after the wildfires.

    “I have a foundation here now, The Mick Fleetwood foundation — Mick Fleetwood Foundation.Org will lead you to several really, really bona fide organizations that are right here feet, on the ground already doing it, and we are adding to that dialogue through the foundation, the mickfleetwoodfoundation.org will lead you to that,” Fleetwood explained. “The fact is, there is a whole load of wonderful places you could go. That’s me doing something I have a comfort with, really knowing what we are already affiliated with, are people that really know what they are doing.”

    As for what people need, Fleetwood, who came back to the island on a plane filled with supplies, said at the present time, the people of Maui need food and water.

    What’s more almost as meaningful as raising money, he added, is keeping the attention on what’s going on in Maui as the island works to rebuild, something Fleetwood said music helps to do.

    “Apart from raising the money, what I think is really, really important, me sitting here doing what I’m doing, and also the manifest of music coming to the fore… but what we can do has been proven to really rally, and keep the attention, keep the attention incrementally as this goes on, is something that I think music is really a powerful medium [for], and the people, whoever they might be, participating in that, is almost an endless way of, ‘Don’t forget, don’t forget and don’t forget.’”

    To learn more about how you can help, check out http://www.mickfleetwoodfoundation.org.

    MORE FROM ET:

    Dwayne Johnson Is ‘Heartbroken’ Over Maui Wildfires: ‘Stay Strong’

    Jason Momoa Is ‘Devastated and Heartbroken’ Over Tragic Maui Wildfires

    Paris Hilton Seen Vacationing in Maui Amid Deadly Wildfire, Offers Aid

    [ad_2]

    Brent Furdyk

    Source link

  • Residents of east Washington community flee amid fast-moving wildfire

    Residents of east Washington community flee amid fast-moving wildfire

    [ad_1]

    A fast-moving wildfire has prompted the evacuation of residents in and around the eastern Washington community of Medical Lake

    SPOKANE, Wash. — A fast-moving wildfire prompted the evacuation Friday of residents in and around the eastern Washington community of Medical Lake.

    The so-called Gray Fire began around noon and was burning in grass, timber and wheat, according to the state fire marshal’s office, which said the fire was threatening homes, a hospital, a highway and the community of Medical Lake.

    Level 3, or “go now,” evacuations were issued for the community of about 4,800 people.

    The Washington State Department of Natural Resources said Friday evening on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the fire had jumped Interstate 90 and caused a stretch of that route to be closed near the community of Four Lakes.

    The National Weather Service had warned of “critical fire conditions,” citing dry conditions and the potential for gusty winds that could cause new or existing fires to spread rapidly. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

    Medical Lake is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Spokane.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Thousands scramble to evacuate capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 ‘unprecedented’ wildfires blanket region | CNN

    Thousands scramble to evacuate capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 ‘unprecedented’ wildfires blanket region | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Thousands of residents are rushing to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as more than 200 fires burn, leaving many to face dangerous road conditions or stand in line for hours for desperately needed emergency flights. Evacuations were also under way in British Columbia.

    The Northwest Territories capital Yellowknife – home to about 20,000 – and several other Northwest Territories communities have been ordered to evacuate as crews battle 236 active wildfires, and a massive fire creeps toward the city and a major highway.

    The infernos in the Northwest Territories are among more than 1,000 fires burning across Canada as the country endures its worst fire season on record. Smoke from the fires has drifted into the US, bringing harmful pollution and worsening air quality.

    A little rain was possible but strong northwest and west-northwest winds could push the fire to the outskirts of Yellowknife by the weekend, according to a Facebook post from a government fire-monitoring account.

    At a Friday news briefing, Canadian leaders pledged no one would be left behind during the unprecedented evacuation from Yellowknife and getting residents out safely would continue through the weekend.

    “We’ll continue to focus on helping the most vulnerable and will be there for as long as it takes,” Defense Minister Bill Blair said.

    While most were encouraged to leave via the only road out of the community, as many as 5,000 residents had requested flights out of the city.

    Smoke continues to shroud Yellowknife, as it has for weeks, but an unpredictable wind and a raging fire, now about 10 miles from Yellowknife, forced officials to order a complete evacuation.

    However, federal officials said they were confident they could continue to protect the majority of the community from fire damage and are working on building fire breaks by clearing trees and applying fire retardant.

    In West Kelowna, officials confirmed several structures were lost in the fire, including many homes. However, officials said there were no reports of loss of life despite descriptions of harrowing rescues.

    The Canadian Armed Forces are assisting with firefighting and airlifting efforts in the Northwest Territories. The Royal Canadian Air Force has deployed several planes and helicopters to support regional emergency crews.

    The first CAF aircraft, a CC-130 J Hercules, conducted an evacuation flight Thursday and transported 79 passengers to Edmonton, the CAF said. Additional flights are scheduled for Friday.

    Incoming and outgoing commercial flights at airports in the Northwest Territories have been canceled because of the wildfires. Commercial flights in and out of Yellowknife Airport will stop after the last flight departs on Friday evening, according to an update on the government website.

    Evacuation flights will still be able to operate out of the airport as well as medical evacuations, firefighting and military-related flights, the government site said.

    More than 1,000 people were flown out of Yellowknife on emergency flights Thursday, and close to an additional 2,000 seats were available Friday, territory officials said in an online update. Many hoping to fly out Thursday stood for hours in a winding, slow-moving line only to be told they would need to try again on Friday, CNN partner CBC reports.

    People line up in Yellowknife to register for an evactuation flight on August 17.

    “We understand that this is deeply frustrating for those who have been in line for several hours and who will need to line up again tomorrow,” the territory update said. It added people who are immunocompromised, have mobility issues or have other high-risk conditions were moved up in the line.

    Officials are encouraging people to leave by car, if possible, and carpool to reduce traffic and assist those without vehicles.

    “Evacuation flights should be used as a last resort for those who do not have the option to evacuate by road,” territory officials said.

    But some driving out of the area have faced thick smoke and roadways flanked with flames. Yellowknife resident Ruoy Pineda told CNN he and his family struggled to navigate through the heavy haze after the evacuation order was announced Wednesday.

    “We were not actually fully prepared,” Pineda said. “On the road, we were all scared of what we saw ahead of us, but we keep reminding ourselves it is better to be out than stranded.”

    Pineda described the dangerous road conditions as he and others tried to flee the capital.

    “On the road you could see the fire and we were struggling because of the smoke,” he said. “The visibility on the road was very bad. We couldn’t even see if someone was ahead of us.”

    He and his family were still on the road Thursday morning and were headed to seek shelter in Edmonton, about 900 miles to the south.

    “We are very exhausted right now. We’ve barely slept and are very worried about our house in Yellowknife and if we’ll still have a home,” Pineda said.

    People line up outside a school to be evacuated in Yellowknife.

    Fires in Canada have burned more than six times more land this year when compared to the 10-year annual average, according to data from the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System.

    There have been more fires in Canada this year than compared to the 10-year average, with a 128% difference. Yet the fires appear to be spreading much wider than before, and so far this year, more than 13 million hectares have been burned – an area larger than Pennsylvania.

    The data, current as of August 9, show the 10-year average of area burned to date sits at just over 2 million hectares.

    British Columbia evacuates thousands

    Approximately 4,500 people are under evacuation orders in British Columbia due to threats from wildfires, Canadian officials said in a press conference Friday.

    “People who choose to ignore evacuation orders put themselves and emergency personnel at risk,” said Bowinn Ma, the province’s Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.

    Another 23,500 people in British Columbia are under evacuation alerts, which means they must be prepared to evacuate immediately if an order is issued, Ma said.

    Some fires have reached over 400 feet tall and are moving “faster than we can effectively put firefighting resources on them,” said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for BC Wildfire Service.

    “There is very little that response tactics can do with these winds and that type of fire behavior,” Chapman said.

    The McDougall Creek fire near West Kelowna has experienced “significant growth” in the past 12 hours and currently spans more than 6,000 hectares, he said.

    Kelowna International Airport closed to commercial flights to allow space for fire fighting activity to take place, according to a news release from the airport.

    British Columbia has more than 360 active fires – more than any other Canadian province, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The forecast winds and lightning may cause fires to move and grow quickly, officials have warned. Chapman said that lightning has been the primary cause of new fires.

    Nearly 60 evacuation orders were in effect across the province Thursday, the British Columbia Wildfire Service said.

    Among the displaced are residents of at least 4,800 properties who were ordered to evacuate in the province’s West Kelowna area on Wednesday and Thursday as the McDougall Creek fire advanced, local emergency officials announced.

    A state of emergency has been declared in Kelowna, as crews are combating spot fires coming from across the Central Okanagan Lake, stemming from the McDougall Creek fire, according to a news release Friday.

    Video taken by resident Todd Ramsay shows a lake rimmed by large hills engulfed in a wall of fire.

    “Absolutely devastating,” Ramsay said of the devastation in a Facebook post. “The fire jumped the lake and was right behind our house.”

    Ramsay said he was eventually able to evacuate to safety.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Canada wildfire evacuees can’t get news media on Facebook and Instagram. Some find workarounds

    Canada wildfire evacuees can’t get news media on Facebook and Instagram. Some find workarounds

    [ad_1]

    Before fleeing about 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) south of Yellowknife by car, Agnes Grandejambe looked to social media to find out almost everything she needed to know about escaping the encroaching wildfires.

    Some from official government accounts. Mostly from friends and family, including an offer of help from her First Nation band.

    But not from news media sites.

    That’s because Canadian news outlets — including the only one she trusts — have been blocked on Facebook and Instagram as a result of a dispute with the national government.

    “People were posting how close the fires were. And we knew the highway kept opening and closing, so we said, ‘OK, we’ll just go,’” said the 65-year-old who is a longtime resident of the capital city of Canada’s Northwest Territories.

    Her preferred media site, Yellowknife-based Cabin Radio, has been doing its best to get around the ban with help from the station’s audience members who have been taking news from the Cabin Radio website — filled with the latest details — then snapping a screenshot and sharing that image on Facebook and Instagram so that their friends, family and others are more likely to see the information.

    “Our audience did an incredible job of undermining that ban on our behalf,” said Ollie Williams, editor of Cabin Radio, speaking by phone after relocating west of Yellowknife to Fort Simpson. “They found workarounds and they got our coverage out to each other, regardless of Meta trying to keep that from happening.”

    For their part, reporters have been gathering news and talking to first responders from their cars while themselves having to evacuate. Williams has been using a device for satellite internet service. And the station’s general manager is sharing news with his team while volunteering as a bus driver carrying evacuees to the airport.

    Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced earlier this month it would keep its promise to block news content in Canada on its platforms — everything from local outlets like Cabin Radio to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — in response to a new law that requires tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.

    Meta stood by its decision Friday, pointing out in a statement issued about the wildfires that people in Canada can continue to use the apps “to connect with their communities and access reputable information, including content from official government agencies, emergency services and non-governmental organizations.”

    A government minister on Friday called on Meta to lift the ban on news media.

    “What Meta is doing is totally unacceptable,” said Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez on a call with reporters. “I warned them during conversations in the past of the risk of blocking news.”

    “I’m asking to go back on their decision and allow people to have access to news and information in Canada,” he said.

    Meta has been alone in its action. Google’s owner Alphabet has also said it plans to remove news links in protest of the new law, although it hasn’t yet followed through. The Online News Act, passed in late June after lengthy debate, doesn’t take effect until later this year.

    “Meta has preemptively installed a ban that is now having dangerous consequences,” Williams said. The editor said he doesn’t put all of the blame on Meta for its arguments with the Canadian government, but local outlets like his had no say in that dispute and how it’s governed.

    “More importantly, nobody asked our audience,” Williams said. “So the people being affected by this and the people producing the coverage, trying to help, had no voice at any part in that process. The outcome is a stupid and dangerous ban.”

    Samuel Woolley, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media, warns that Meta’s blocking of news runs the risk of misinformation taking the place of trusted and vetted content during a natural disaster, at a risk of people’s lives.

    For years, platforms like Facebook pushed journalists to rely on the platform while profiting from news sharing, he said. But now they are trying to recreate themselves as news-free platforms to get away from some of the responsibility of compensating journalists or being treated as a media entity.

    Woolley adds that the loss of reliable news won’t be felt equally. Marginalized communities, people of color and low-income families — who may rely on social media for information when they can’t afford a newspaper subscription, for example — will be impacted the most.

    It was Wednesday when Grandejambe decided to leave Yellowknife, packing two vehicles along with four of her adult children and her teenage grandson. She was offered assistance and advice from fellow members of the Behdzi Ahda First Nation, based in the Artic community of Colville Lake where she was born.

    An official evacuation order came soon after. But it hasn’t always been clear where to go and what to do.

    On Friday, she spoke by phone from a motel in Edmonton, Alberta, after a long journey that included an hours-long wait for gas near Fort Providence — a problem that’s been thoroughly covered by Cabin Radio.

    Her family was still working to get registered at Edmonton’s Expo convention center that has opened up to evacuees from the Northwest Territories. While annoyed by the difficulty of getting good information and what she felt was poor planning by government authorities ahead of the evacuation order, Grandejambe said she was happy her family was safe.

    “They’re good. Just calm, cool,” she said. “They’ve been taught since they were small, don’t stress over something that’s not in our control.”

    —-

    AP writers Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia and Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Federal investigators deploy to Maui to assist with fire probe

    Federal investigators deploy to Maui to assist with fire probe

    [ad_1]

    Washington — In the wake of the devastating wildfires that spread across Maui last week, claiming more than 100 lives, the Justice Department deployed federal emergency response teams to Hawaii to support the local response in determining the cause of the fires. 

    Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms were dispatched on Friday, the agency announced. The five-investigator team includes an ATF Fire Research Laboratory electrical engineer and an Arson and Explosives Group supervisor. 

    screenshot-2023-08-18-at-4-32-57-pm.png
    Federal investigators deployed to help the Maui Police Department’s forces in the aftermath of the Hawaii wildfire.

    ATF Instagram


    Announcing the deployment, ATF Seattle Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jonathan McPherson said in a statement, “We hope the deployment of National Response Team resources will allow the residents of Maui, and the state and nation as a whole, to know that we will do everything in our power to support our local counterparts in determining the origin and cause of the wildfires there, and hopefully bring some healing to the community.”

    Although the ATF is mainly a law enforcement entity, fire investigators in the bureau often help local entities determine how wildfires started. And they’re not limited to responding to matters in which criminality is suspected. 

    In addition to the ATF investigators, 15 deputies from the U.S. Marshals Service were deployed to the island to assist with local law enforcement, a U.S. official told CBS News Friday. 

    screenshot-2023-08-18-at-4-38-21-pm.png
    Fifteen U.S. Marshals have deployed to Maui to assist with aftermath of wildfires that claimed over 100 lives.

    ATF, via X, formerly Twitter


    The Justice Department’s response to the Maui blaze also includes agents from the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, according to an ATF social media post. The two components did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    Under the authority of a Justice Department mechanism called Emergency Support Function #13, federal agencies respond to natural and other disasters to assist with local safety and security. The policy dictates that the first line of response during disasters like the Maui fires lies with state and local authorities, but federal components assist “in situations requiring extensive public safety and security and where State, tribal, and local government resources are overwhelmed or are inadequate.”

    Other federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security also conduct extensive emergency response functions. 

    More than 110 people have died as a result of the Lahaina fire — the deadliest wildfire in more than a century according to officials — and the search for victims continues. On Thursday, the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency resigned after his agency’s response to the blaze came under public scrutiny. 

    The cause of the fires has not been determined, and investigators are examining whether power lines may have sparked the wildfires. 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • City empties as thousands flee wildfire closing in on capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories

    City empties as thousands flee wildfire closing in on capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories

    [ad_1]

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Firefighters worked to keep open the only route out of the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as a wildfire moved closer to the city of 20,000 and residents rushed to beat a noon Friday deadline to evacuate.

    Airtankers flew missions overnight to keep the highway out of Yellowknife open, and authorities were guiding a long caravan of motorists through fire zones, officials said. Meanwhile, a network of fire guards, sprinklers and water cannons was being established to try to protect the city from the fire, which had moved to within 15 kilometers (9 miles).

    Northwest winds combined with minimal rain were complicating efforts to slow the fire, which could reach the city limits by the weekend, emergency officials said. There was a chance of limited rain on Friday, but officials said it likely wouldn’t be enough to stop the fire.

    “We’re heading into a critical couple of days,” Shane Thompson, a government minister for the Territories, told a news conference.

    Hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of Yellowknife, homes were burning in West Kelowna, British Columbia. Residents had already been ordered to evacuate 2,400 properties, while another 4,800 properties were on evacuation alert after a wildfire grew “exponentially worse” than expected overnight, the fire chief said.

    Some first responders became trapped rescuing people who failed to evacuate, said Jason Brolund, chief of the West Kelowna fire department, but there was no known loss of life.

    Brolund said residents face another “scary night.”

    The BC Wildfire Service said the fire grew six times larger overnight and is stretches over 68 square kilometers (26 square miles).

    In Yellowknife, gas stations that still had fuel were open Friday morning, though the city was virtually empty, with one grocery store, a pharmacy and a bar still open, the Canadian Press reported. “It’s kind of like having a pint at the end of the world,” said Kieron Testart, who went door-to-door in the nearby communities of Dettah and NDilo to check on people.

    Thousands of people have fled the fire, one of hundreds of wildfires raging in the territories, driving hundreds of kilometers (miles) to safety or waiting in long lines for emergency flights, as the worst fire season on record in Canada showed no signs of easing.

    Ten planes left Yellowknife with 1,500 passengers on Thursday, said Jennifer Young, director of corporate affairs for the Northwest Territories’ Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. The city of Calgary said in a statement that another 26 flights are expected to arrive Friday from the Territories, carrying about 2,300 more people.

    Federal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez said Friday that all commercial airlines have added more flights, and that the government was contracting private aircraft to supplement military flights.

    Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty said the fire didn’t advance as much as expected on Thursday, but “it is still coming,” and heavy smoke that is expected to move in increases the urgency of evacuating while it’s still possible.

    Alice Liske left Yellowknife by road with her six kids earlier this week because the air quality was so bad. She worried about how so many people would flee the city in such a short time.

    “Not only that,” she said, “but when we go back, what will be there for us?”

    Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year — contributing to choking smoke in parts of the U.S. — with more than 5,700 fires burning more than 137,000 square kilometers (53,000 square miles) from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

    As of Friday morning, more than 1,000 wildfires were burning across the country, over half of them out of control.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with his incident response group Thursday. He asked ministers to work to ensure communication services remained available and said there would be no tolerance for price gouging on flights or essential goods.

    The evacuation order issued Wednesday night applied to Yellowknife and the neighboring First Nations communities of Ndilo and Dettah. Indigenous communities have been hit hard by the wildfires, which threaten important cultural activities such as hunting, fishing and gathering native plants.

    About 6,800 people in eight other communities in the territory have already been forced to evacuate their homes, including the small community of Enterprise, which was largely destroyed. Officials said everyone made it out alive.

    A woman whose family evacuated the town of Hay River on Sunday told CBC that their vehicle began to melt as they drove through embers, the front window cracked and the vehicle filled with smoke that made it difficult to see the road ahead.

    “I was obviously scared the tire was going to break, our car was going to catch on fire and then it went from just embers to full smoke,” said Lisa Mundy, who was traveling with her husband and their 6-year-old and 18-month-old children. She said they called 911 after they drove into the ditch a couple of times.

    She said her son kept saying: “I don’t want to die, mommy.”

    ___

    Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Emergency services chief on Maui resigns. He faced criticism for not activating sirens during fire

    Emergency services chief on Maui resigns. He faced criticism for not activating sirens during fire

    [ad_1]

    LAHAINA, Hawaii — Outdoor alert sirens on Maui stayed silent as a ferocious fire devastated the seaside community of Lahaina last week. The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency said he had no regrets about not deploying the system as a warning to people on the island.

    A day after making that statement, Administrator Herman Andaya resigned Thursday. Andaya had said he feared blaring the sirens during the blaze could have caused people to go “mauka,” using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian.

    “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire,” Andaya explained.

    But the decision not use the sirens, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route clogged with vehicles that were overrun by flames, has brought intense criticism from many residents following the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century. At least 111 people were killed.

    Mayor Richard Bissen accepted Andaya’s resignation effective immediately, the County of Maui announced on Facebook. Andaya cited unspecified health reasons for leaving his post, with no further details provided.

    “Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said in the statement.

    The lack of sirens has emerged as a potential misstep. The Associated Press reported it was part of a series of communication issues that added to the chaos. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world.

    The siren system was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island, and its website says they may be used to alert for fires.

    Andaya was to take part in a meeting of Maui’s fire and public safety commission on Thursday morning, but it was canceled. On Wednesday he vigorously defended his qualifications for the job, which he had held since 2017. He said he was not appointed but had been vetted, took a civil service exam and was interviewed by seasoned emergency managers.

    Andaya said he had previously been deputy director of the Maui County Department of Housing and Human Concerns and chief of staff for former Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa for 11 years. During that time, he said, he often reported to “emergency operations centers” and participated in numerous trainings.

    “So to say that I’m not qualified I think is incorrect,” he said.

    Arakawa, who noted Andaya was scrutinized for the job by the county’s personnel service, said he was disappointed by the resignation “because now we’re out one person who is really qualified.”

    “He was trying to be strong and trying to do the job,” Arakawa said about the wildfire response. “He was very, very heartbroken about all the things that happened.”

    Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said earlier Thursday that an outside organization will conduct “an impartial, independent” review of the government’s response and officials intend “to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness.” The investigation will likely take months, she added.

    Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, is among many residents who say they weren’t given earlier warning to get out.

    He pointed to an announcement by Bissen on Aug. 8 saying the fire had been contained. That lulled people into a sense of safety and left him distrusting officials, Dagupion said.

    At the Wednesday news conference, Gov. Josh Green and Bissen bristled when asked about such criticism.

    “The people who were trying to put out these fires lived in those homes — 25 of our firefighters lost their homes,” Bissen said. “You think they were doing a halfway job?”

    Displaced residents are steadily filling hotels that are prepared to house them and provide services until at least next spring.

    Authorities hope to empty crowded, uncomfortable group shelters by early next week, said Brad Kieserman, vice president for disaster operations with the American Red Cross. Hotels also are available for eligible evacuees who have spent the last eight days sleeping in cars or camping in parking lots, he said.

    Contracts with the hotels will last for at least seven months but could easily be extended, he said. Service providers at the properties will offer meals, counseling, financial assistance and other disaster aid.

    Green has said at least 1,000 hotel rooms will be set aside. In addition, AirBnB said its nonprofit wing will provide properties for 1,000 people.

    The governor also has vowed to protect local landowners from being “victimized” by opportunistic buyers. Green said Wednesday he instructed the state attorney general to work toward a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina, even as he acknowledged that would likely face legal challenges.

    Since the flames consumed much of Lahaina more than a week ago, locals have feared a rebuilt town could become even more oriented toward wealthy visitors.

    The cause of the wildfires is under investigation. But Hawaii is increasingly at risk from disasters, with wildfire rising fastest, according to an AP analysis of FEMA records.

    The search for the missing moved beyond Lahaina to other communities that were destroyed. Searchers had covered about 45% of the burned territory as of Thursday, the governor said.

    Corrine Hussey Nobriga, whose home was spared, said it was hard to lay blame for a tragedy that took everyone by surprise, even if some of her neighbors raised questions about the absence of sirens and inadequate evacuation routes. The fire moved quickly through her neighborhood, not far from where crews were sifting through ash and debris looking for human remains.

    “One minute we saw the fire over there,” she said, pointing toward faraway hills, “and the next minute it’s consuming all these houses.”

    ___

    Kelleher reported from Honolulu and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Michael Casey in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.; and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed to this report.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • In Hawaii, concerns over ‘climate gentrification’ rise after devastating Maui fires

    In Hawaii, concerns over ‘climate gentrification’ rise after devastating Maui fires

    [ad_1]

    Kim Cuevas-Reyes, a 38-year-old cellphone store owner, snuck into Lahaina last Friday to see the remnants of her home with her own eyes. She took backroads and walked. What she saw stunned her.

    “When you step into the house, it’s like an inch or two of ash. There is nothing,” she said, adding that she hopes to stay and rebuild her home and destroyed business and is in touch with the insurance company.

    More than 3,000 buildings in Lahaina were damaged by fire, smoke or both. Insured property losses alone already total some $3.2 billion, according to Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling firm.

    With a housing crisis that has priced out many Native Hawaiians as well as families that have been there for decades, concerns are rising that the state could become the latest example of “climate gentrification,” when it becomes harder for local people to afford housing in safer areas after a climate-amped disaster.

    It’s a term Jesse Keenan, an associate professor of sustainable real estate and urban planning at Tulane University School of Architecture, first started lecturing about in 2013 after he noticed changes in housing markets following extreme weather events.

    Jennifer Gray Thompson is CEO of After the Fire USA, a wildfire recovery and resiliency organization in the western U.S., and worked for Sonoma County during the destructive Tubbs Fire in October 2017. Thompson said Maui is one of the “scariest opportunities for gentrification” that she’s seen because of “the very high land values and the intense level of trauma and the people who are unscrupulous who will come in to try to take advantage of that.”

    Thompson predicted potential developers and investors will research who has mortgages and said Maui residents should expect cold calls. “You won’t be able to go to a grocery store without a flyer attached to your car,” she said.

    Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Wednesday his state attorney general will draft a moratorium on the sale of damaged properties in Lahaina, to protect local landowners from being “victimized” by opportunistic buyers as Maui rebuilds.

    Thompson said she supports that “wholeheartedly.” But she acknowledged some people won’t be able to afford to rebuild and will want to sell their land.

    While one extreme weather event cannot be entirely blamed on climate change, experts say storms, fires and floods, which are becoming more damaging in a warming world, help make Hawaii one of the riskiest states in the country. Earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes, which are not related to climate change, also add to this risk.

    According to an analysis of Federal Emergency Management Agency records by The Associated Press, there were as many federally declared disaster wildfires this month as in the 50 years between 1953 and 2003. Additionally, burned area in Hawaii increased more than fivefold since the 1980s, according to figures from the University of Hawaii Manoa.

    Justin Tyndall, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, explained that Hawaii is the most expensive state to rent or own a home in the U.S. “by a considerable margin” with a median price single family home on Maui exceeding $1 million. “Even in the condominium market on Maui, the median price is close to $900,000, so there’s really no affordable options throughout all out of the state,” he explained.

    Until now, when homeowners in Hawaii have considered climate change, Tyndall said, it’s been coastal erosion, sea level rise and hurricanes, mainly. “Wildfire was something that was on people’s radars. … But obviously the extensive damage, most people didn’t predict,” he said. Fire needs to be taken more seriously now, he said.

    Maui has stringent affordable housing requirements for new multifamily construction, Tyndall said. But the practical effect has been that very little housing gets built. So new supply is low, both for affordable housing and rentals at market rate, “which just makes housing more expensive for everyone,” he said.

    Tyndall said the Native Hawaiian community has been hit the hardest by the housing crisis and there has been a “huge exodus” due to this lack of affordable housing.

    On Wednesday, the Indigenous-led NDN Collective issued a statement supporting community-led rebuilding for Lahaina, “in ways that center the values, ancestral connections to land and water, and Indigenous knowledge systems of the kānaka ʻōiwi, Native Hawaiian people.”

    After using the term in lectures, Keenan went on to popularize the concept of climate gentrification as a lecturer at Harvard University in 2018 and published a study that focused on Miami, where Black communities have historically lived at higher elevations because the wealthy wanted to live close to the beach. Now that seas are rising and higher ground is becoming more valuable, that’s leading to disruption and displacement, Keenan said.

    As with any gentrification, some people do see benefits.

    “If you own a home, it’s great — the value of your home goes up. But if you’re a renter or a small business, your rent may go up to the extent that you become displaced over time,” Keenan said.

    With wildfires, areas that don’t burn become more desirable, changing cost of living considerably. The 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, was an example of this as people moved down into the Central Valley to Chico where there is far less risk of wildfire, Keenan added.

    “It led to massive displacement; rental costs increased significantly, a really huge shift. Everything from the school district to their transit system,” he said.

    Other examples are New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and various cities in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, where many people could not afford to come back.

    “The rebuilding of these spaces look very different from the types of communities that were living there before and what made them unique and special to begin with,” said Santina Contreras, assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.

    With respect to Maui, Contreras said there are many reasons to be concerned about climate gentrification, given the island’s natural beauty, history of development, high tourism demand and opportunity to build new hotels.

    Not everyone finds the concept useful, though.

    Katharine Mach, professor at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, cautioned against immediately labelling a situation climate gentrification, because that makes it difficult to tease out the other factors such as decades of discrimination, racism and land use changes.

    Climate change is overlaid on top of inequities in how we manage flooding or rebuild after fire, she said. “You can call that climate gentrification, but you could also say it’s inequity in how we manage disasters in the United States.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Evacuation of far northern Canadian city of Yellowknife ordered as wildfires approach

    Evacuation of far northern Canadian city of Yellowknife ordered as wildfires approach

    [ad_1]

    Air evacuations were to begin Thursday to move residents in the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories out of the path of wildfires that neared the city of 20,000 people.

    People in the four areas of Yellowknife at highest risk should leave as soon as possible and residents in other areas have until noon Friday to leave, the Northwest Territories government said on Thursday. Only those who don’t have the option of leaving by road should register for the flights out, officials added. People who are immunocompromised or have a condition that puts them at higher risk were encouraged to sign up.

    “I want to be clear that the city is not in immediate danger and there’s a safe window for residents to leave the city by road and by air,” Shane Thompson, a government minister for the Territories, told a news conference.

    Yellowknife residents leave the city on Highway 3, the only highway in or out of the community, after an evacuation order was given due to the proximity of wildfires in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, on August 16, 2023.
    Yellowknife residents leave the city on Highway 3, the only highway in or out of the community, after an evacuation order was given due to the proximity of wildfires in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, on August 16, 2023.

    Reuters/Pat Kane


    Canadian officials had ordered the evacuation of Yellowknife and several smaller communities on Wednesday as a massive wildfire threatened the nearby town of Hay River. The provincial government had also already declared a state of emergency earlier this week due to the approaching fires, the Reuters news agency reported.  

    The fire was burning about 10 miles outside the city. The evacuation order issued Wednesday night applies to the city of Yellowknife and the neighboring First Nations communities of Ndilo and Dettah.

    “Without rain, it is possible it will reach the city outskirts by the weekend,” Thompson said.

    If smoke limits visibility, those leaving Yellowknife by highway will be escorted through the active fire zone.

    More than 200 wildfires have already burned a widespread area of the Northwest Territories. There were 1,067 active wildfires burning across Canada as of Wednesday.

    Eight communities totaling nearly 6,800 people, or 15% of the Northwest Territories’ population, have already evacuated, Mike Westwick, the region’s fire information officer, said earlier in the day.

    Many highways have been closed and the territory has had what officials called the largest airlift in its history. Canadian Forces personnel are helping firefighters and have flown evacuees out on Hercules aircraft.

    Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year. More than 8,108 square miles have burned.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Hawaii governor vows to block land grabs as fire-ravaged Maui rebuilds

    Hawaii governor vows to block land grabs as fire-ravaged Maui rebuilds

    [ad_1]

    LAHAINA, Hawaii — Hawaii’s governor vowed “to keep the land in local people’s hands” when Maui rebuilds from a deadly wildfire that incinerated a historic island community, as local schools began reopening.

    Gov. Josh Green said Wednesday that he had instructed the state attorney general to work toward a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina. He acknowledged the move will likely face legal challenges.

    “My intention from start to finish is to make sure that no one is victimized from a land grab,” Green said at a news conference. “People are right now traumatized. Please do not approach them with an offer to buy their land. Do not approach their families saying they’ll be much better off if they make a deal. Because we’re not going to allow it.”

    Also Wednesday, the number of dead reached 111, and Maui police said nine victims had been identified, and the families of five had been notified. A mobile morgue unit with additional coroners arrived Tuesday to help process and identify remains.

    The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century, is under investigation. Hawaii is increasingly at risk from disasters, with wildfire rising fastest, according to an Associated Press analysis of FEMA records.

    Since flames consumed much of Lahaina about a week ago, locals have feared that a rebuilt town could be even more oriented toward wealthy visitors, Lahaina native Richy Palalay said Saturday at a shelter for evacuees.

    Hotels and condos “that we can’t afford to live in — that’s what we’re afraid of,” he said.

    Many in Lahaina were struggling to afford life in Hawaii before the fire. Statewide, a typical starter home costs over $1 million, while the average renter pays 42% of their income for housing, according to a Forbes Housing analysis, the highest ratio in the country by a wide margin.

    The 2020 census found more native Hawaiians living on the mainland than the islands for the first time in history, driven in part by a search for cheaper housing.

    Green pledged to announce details of the moratorium by Friday. He added that he also wants to see a long-term moratorium on sales of land that won’t “benefit local people.”

    Green made affordable housing a priority when he entered office in January, appointing a czar for the issue and seeking $1 billion for housing programs. Since the fires, he’s also suggested acquiring land in Lahaina for the state to build workforce housing as well as a memorial.

    Meanwhile, signs of recovery emerged as public schools across Maui reopened, welcoming displaced students from Lahaina, and traffic resumed on a major road.

    Sacred Hearts School in Lahaina was destroyed, and Principal Tonata Lolesio said lessons would resume in the coming weeks at another Catholic school. She said it was important for students to be with their friends, teachers and books, and not constantly thinking about the tragedy.

    “I’m hoping to at least try to get some normalcy or get them in a room where they can continue to learn or just be in another environment where they can take their minds off of that,” she said.

    At least three surviving schools in Lahaina were still being assessed after sustaining wind damage, Hawaii Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi said.

    “There’s still a lot of work to do, but overall the campuses and classrooms are in good condition structurally, which is encouraging,” Hayashi said in a video update. “We know the recovery effort is still in the early stages, and we continue to grieve the many lives lost.”

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened its first disaster recovery center on Maui, “an important first step” toward helping residents get information about assistance, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said Wednesday. They also can go there for updates on aid applications.

    Criswell said she would accompany President Joe Biden on Monday when he visits to survey the damage and “bring hope.”

    At Wednesday’s news conference, the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency defended not sounding sirens during the fire. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world, created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island.

    “We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” said agency administrator Herman Andaya, using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.” There are no sirens in the mountains, where the fire was spreading downhill, he said.

    Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, said he’s angry that residents weren’t given earlier warning to get out and that officials prematurely suggested danger had passed.

    He pointed to an announcement by Maui Mayor Richard Bissen on Aug. 8 saying the fire had been contained, that he said lulled people into a sense of safety and left him distrusting officials.

    At the news conference, Green and Bissen bristled when asked about such criticism.

    “I can’t answer why people don’t trust people,” Bissen said. “The people who were trying to put out these fires lived in those homes — 25 of our firefighters lost their homes. You think they were doing a halfway job?”

    ___

    Kelleher reported from Honolulu and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists Haven Daley in Kalapua, Hawaii; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C.; and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed.

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • California town of Paradise deploys warning sirens as 5-year anniversary of deadly fire approaches

    California town of Paradise deploys warning sirens as 5-year anniversary of deadly fire approaches

    [ad_1]

    PARADISE, Calif. — California residents driven from their homes by one of the deadliest wildfires in recent history had one request before they would rebuild in the small mountain town of Paradise: warning sirens to bolster town emergency systems that failed some people before the fast-moving inferno that killed 85.

    Town officials started testing the new sirens this summer after installation began in spring and as the five-year anniversary of the wildfire that wiped out much of the community approaches this November. There will eventually be 21 sirens erected throughout town that will emit one minute of loud, Hi-Lo warning sounds followed by evacuation instructions.

    “If you’re going to come back to town, if you’re going to be part of Paradise again, what would make you feel secure and happy and wanting to come back? What do you need?” Paradise Mayor Greg Bolin recalled asking residents after the fire. “Number one on that list was a warning system.”

    Tests of the sirens began in July and are run on the first Saturday of every month. Twelve sirens were ready for testing in early August, at locations ranging from Town Hall to police headquarters to remote intersections. The town’s protocol says the sirens and messaging will sound for 10 minutes, followed by intervals of five minutes of silence and five minutes of warnings “until the emergency has subsided.”

    Reliable, audible warning systems are becoming more critical during wildfires of increasing speed and ferocity, especially as power lines and cell towers fail, knocking out communications critical to keeping people informed. After 2017 fires that ripped through California’s wine country, killing dozens, residents complained they got little to no warning from officials, who used phone calls and other alert systems but did not deploy a widespread cellphone alert. Many residents of Paradise had the same complaint.

    Even when siren systems are in place, officials must make the choice to activate them.

    Officials in Hawaii failed to activate sirens last week, raising questions about whether everything was done to alert the public in a state that devised an elaborate emergency warning system for potential dangers that include war, volcanoes, hurricanes and wildfires. On Maui, a fast-moving wildfire has killed more than 100.

    As in Paradise, some people tried to flee Lahaina but perished in their cars after getting stuck in traffic gridlock.

    In Paradise, the Camp Fire broke out in the early morning of Nov. 8, 2018, amid dry, gusty weather. It tore through the town of 28,000 people, incinerating roughly 19,000 homes, businesses and other buildings. An investigation determined Pacific Gas & Electric’s aging equipment started the blaze and the utility pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter.

    Many residents said they received no warning on their cellphones or landlines as the fire quickly spread their way. They jumped in their vehicles to escape only after seeing smoke and flames, or after relatives or neighbors knocked on their doors.

    “If that fire would have happened just a few hours earlier than what it did, we would have had hundreds of people die from that because they’d have been in bed,” Bolin said.

    The new sirens, similar to a tsunami warning system, are being incorporated into the city’s emergency services, which include mass cell notifications, an emergency call center for people to call, and an AM radio station to broadcast public safety information.

    Paradise’s siren system can be controlled manually, over the internet, or by satellite. The towers’ power is hard-wired underground, but each siren also has a solar panel that can store two weeks worth of power.

    “We’ve got back-up after back-up on these,” Bolin said.

    University of California forest expert Yana Valachovic said the redundancy in emergency services is needed to address different scenarios.

    “We cannot guarantee that we’ll have power and cellphone communication capacities so, every community needs a full toolbox of resources,” she said.

    Authorities also need to consider designating temporary refuge areas and practice evacuating their communities at different times of the day, she added.

    As part of rebuilding Paradise, crews have removed thousands of trees, cleared defensible space around homes to slow down fires, buried power cables underground, and widened evacuation routes to handle more traffic, Bolin said.

    Like Paradise, communities across California are coming up with systems to notify people in case of an emergency, from sirens to police patrol cars and other emergency vehicles to cellphone notification systems. In May, officials in Santa Rosa, where the wine country fires broke out, tested a new cellphone alert system. In March, Beverly Hills began installing 12 outdoor sirens. Sonoma County has installed a sophisticated fire camera system to detect blazes early.

    The California Office of Emergency Services in 2019 issued alert and warning guidelines for counties. It warns sirens can have limited effectiveness because people inside well-insulated homes and buildings may not hear them well.

    “If a public siren is used for alert and warning, it should include an extensive public outreach campaign to train residents and visitors on what the siren means and the intended protective action,” it says.

    Jen Goodlin, a Paradise native and director of Rebuild Paradise who moved back after the fire to help with the reconstruction, said she supports the sirens because many in the community don’t have easy access to the internet or media.

    Having the sirens “is a way to help them escape sooner. It makes me feel safer,” Goodlin said.

    ___

    Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Families search for loved ones in Maui wildfires

    Families search for loved ones in Maui wildfires

    [ad_1]

    Families search for loved ones in Maui wildfires – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    The wildfires in Hawaii have destroyed much of the historic town of Lahaina. CBS News correspondent Lilia Luciano reports on families searching for their loved ones.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Maui wildfires areas include $1.3 billion in residential reconstruction values, according to a preliminary estimate | CNN Business

    Maui wildfires areas include $1.3 billion in residential reconstruction values, according to a preliminary estimate | CNN Business

    [ad_1]


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The early estimate of the areas encompassed by the devastating Maui wildfires includes about $1.3 billion of residencies, according to a recent preliminary estimate from CoreLogic.

    That figure tallies the “combined reconstruction value,” or how much it would cost to rebuild the structures in those preliminary areas. That doesn’t mean every building within those preliminary boundaries will need reconstruction, nor does it include the contents of those residences.

    In preliminary perimeters drawn by CoreLogic, the company found 2,808 Lahaina homes that have a reconstruction cost value of $1.1 billion. Pulehu has 275 homes with about $147 million in costs, and Pukalani has a reconstruction cost value of $4.2 million for its five homes.

    Wildfires have raged across the Hawaiian island of Maui, killing at least 80 people. Officials expect the death toll to rise and say it could take years to fully recover. The catastrophic firestorm also destroyed countless businesses on the island, which the estimate from CoreLogic didn’t include.

    According to a damage assessment from the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and FEMA on Saturday, Maui County experienced $5.52 billion in “capital exposure,” which is the estimated cost to rebuild following damage by the Lahaina Fire. Maui County has a population of about 165,000.

    FEMA issued a statement later Saturday saying the figure is not accurate and that it is still too early to determine the cost of rebuilding.

    “The $5.5 (billion) figure being reported by some media outlets, and cited to the Pacific Disaster Center, is not a dollar amount from FEMA and does not reflect any damage estimations from our agency,” a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement.

    The statement said the figure was listed as “capital exposed,” which FEMA said is not a measure of building costs. The federal agency said it has not yet done any cost estimates.

    “We are still in active response and initial recovery phases, and it is too early to do so. Once all life saving and life sustaining needs are met, we will begin to assess the damage and formulate preliminary estimates,” the statement read.

    CNN has reached out to the Pacific Disaster Center for clarification.

    More than 2,200 structures were damaged or destroyed and 2,170 acres have burned as a result of the Lahaina Fire, according to the PDC and FEMA.

    The structure of the Lahaina properties, combined with the hurricane-force winds and deadly gusts, allowed the firestorm to decimate many of the area’s buildings.

    “Many of the residential properties in Lahaina appear to have wood siding, and a number of them have elevated porches with a lattice underneath,” Thomas Jeffery, CoreLogic principal wildfire scientist, said in the findings. “Both are characteristics that make the residence very vulnerable to either ember or direct flame ignition.”

    However, the full extent of the damage is still unknown. It will take “some time” to figure that out, CoreLogic emphasized. CoreLogic created preliminary wildfire perimeters for its study that could change, it said.

    Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated CoreLogic’s estimate. It is for reconstruction costs of the total homes within the wildfire areas.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • As Hawaiians Cope With Disaster, These Tourists Remain On Their Bulls**t

    As Hawaiians Cope With Disaster, These Tourists Remain On Their Bulls**t

    [ad_1]

    The Maui wildfires have been some of the deadliest in U.S. history: As of Wednesday, at least 106 people have been confirmed dead, per CNN. That hasn’t stopped some tourists on the island from acting like nothing has happened at all — and their behavior exposes a horrible pattern among some American and European tourists who completely disregard communities of color in the places they visit.

    Lahaina, the region in Maui where much of the devastation has occurred, is a sacred cultural place for Native Hawaiians; in the early 19th century, it was the royal residence of King Kamehameha, who unified all the Hawaiian islands. According to some reports, tourists were swimming at nearby beaches just days after the fires tore through Lahaina.

    “That says a lot about where their hearts and minds are throughout all of this,” a resident told the BBC. “You don’t see our people swimming, snorkeling, surfing. Nobody is having fun in tragedy.”

    An aerial view of Lahaina, Maui, on Aug. 11, days after a wind-fueled wildfire devastated the area.

    Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Image

    An aerial view of burned areas in Maui, Hawaii, on Aug. 9 in this screenshot taken from a social media video.
    An aerial view of burned areas in Maui, Hawaii, on Aug. 9 in this screenshot taken from a social media video.

    What’s happening in Maui now reflects the historical disregard that many tourists have for “vacation destinations” where people of color live. Places like Maui are just playgrounds to them, as opposed to places where real people live, work and love.

    Hawaiians have actually been asking tourists not to come to their islands for a while, citing concerns about overcrowding, environmental degradation and even water supply issues. Despite locals’ pleas, tourism in Hawaii actually increased this year.

    While Hawaiians go through one of the most traumatic events in their recent history, some visitors to the island seem to remain untouched, unaware and unbothered. One local councilwoman told of tourists showing up to neighborhoods in affected areas looking to check in for their reservations.

    An FBI agent watches on Aug. 14 as two additional refrigerated storage containers arrive adjacent to the Maui Police Forensic Facility in Wailuku, Hawaii, where human remains are stored in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires.
    An FBI agent watches on Aug. 14 as two additional refrigerated storage containers arrive adjacent to the Maui Police Forensic Facility in Wailuku, Hawaii, where human remains are stored in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires.

    PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

    If you’re a person of color, this behavior is probably not surprising to you at all, since certain Americans seem to live in an impenetrable bubble where they don’t even seem to register the suffering of people who don’t look or live like them. Puerto Ricans have, at some points, also asked mainland Americans not to visit their island, citing rude behavior and infrastructure concerns. Could they use the extra tourism money? Yes. But apparently, some tourists clearly don’t know how to conduct themselves in someone else’s house.

    Whether it’s Thai beaches being trashed or tourists swimming in Maui days after deadly wildfires, it’s time to come to terms with the truth of how some Americans treat people of color in other parts of the world. If it wasn’t clear before, I think it should be abundantly clear now: Hawaii was never our playground.

    [ad_2]

    Source link