Weekend of fear looms for Californians in face of wildfires

[George II]

Source: Associated Press

By DAISY NGUYEN and NOAH BERGER
today

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — People living in the scenic forestlands of Northern California found themselves facing a weekend of fear as wildfires threatened to reduce thousands of homes to ashes.

The Dixie Fire that incinerated much of the gold rush-era town of Greenville threatened more than 10,000 buildings in the northern Sierra Nevada. It had engulfed an area larger than the size of New York City.

It was the largest current wildland blaze in the nation and the third-largest in recorded California history, according to the state Department of Fire and Forestry Protection.

Wind-driven flames destroyed dozens of homes and most of Greenville’s downtown on Wednesday and Thursday, and also heavily damaged Canyondam, a hamlet with a population of about three dozen people. The fire reached Chester but crews managed to protect homes and businesses there, officials said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-science-fires-environment-and-nature-california-5015dcf1cd101fc6131d1b33ce88e1df

[TexasTowelie]

1. The number of people that have been displaced because of evacuation orders

is substantial. People are searching for refuge in both California and Nevada.

[NurseJackie]

2. What a nightmare!

[rollin74]

3. this is so sad. That's such a beautiful area

hope the firefighters can get a handle on that terrible fire soon

we're currently choking on all the smoke and ash down here in the Reno area, about 90 miles away

I've never seen air quality as bad as it has been here lately

[nwliberalkiwi]

4. Smoke Everywhere

Most of California is covered in Smoke. Check out Geo West Satellite---click on the color segment.

[not fooled]

5. OK, tell us again

how we can't afford the cost of dealing with global warming?


The 666koch666 toll on the world continues to mount.

[totodeinhere]

6. It looks like the effects of global warming are getting worse by the day and it is happening

faster than even a lot of scientists had thought. We knew that this was going to happen but few predicted it would happen so fast.

And we are to the point now where even if the whole world immediately adopted every strict environmental measure necessary it would take decades if not centuries to undo the damage that our species has done to this planet. And of course the world will not do that.

I am old enough that I will not live to see the worst of it. It's bad enough now but I really fear for what my grandchildren will face.

Where I live here in Nevada right now the air quality from smoke from wildfires is so bad that I even have to think twice about letting my dog out in the back yard to breathe that poison. We are hostages inside our homes with the windows and doors closed and the air purifier running full blast. And I think about all of the animals such as birds and deer who have no shelter from the pollution. Plus many of them are being impacted by the fires themselves. We share this planet with many other species and I am afraid that we will take a lot of them down with us. It is so tragic. And this was so preventable.

/rant

[not fooled]

7. Yep

The sociopaths intent on getting every last dollar out of fossil fuels thought they would all be dead and gone before the effects hit in earnest. Oops, missed it by a generation.

[NickB79]

8. Large areas of the Southwest need to be permanently evacuated

Climate change is rendering large areas of the planet uninhabitable. We need to be proactive and retreat sooner rather than later. Reactive responses will cost us dearly.