Two weeks ago, the governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency as a result of the major fires burning across their states.
On Saturday, California followed suit, with Governor Jerry Brown declaring a state of emergency because of the threats posed by dozens of wildfires to the northern and central parts of the state: — and the damage wildfires have caused to Amador, Butte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Shasta and Siskiyou counties.
Wildfires have damaged infrastructure and residents’ homes in many of these rural counties, often triggered by dry lightning and fueled by heat, drought, and water-starved, kindling-like forests.
Brown’s proclamation directs all state agencies and residents to follow the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the State Emergency Plan. He mobilized the California National Guard to “support disaster response and relief efforts and coordinate with all relevant state agencies.” Stating that the wildfire emergency is larger than any single local government can reasonably handle, Brown said he secured a federal grant to cover 75 percent of the cost to fight a wildfire that spread south into California from Oregon. Brown also notes that “recent lightning storms and high temperatures have further increased this risk and the spread of additional wildfires” in the proclamation.
Dennis Mathisen, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the LA Times that “we’re seeing fire behavior we wouldn’t normally see until September.”
“With warmer weather conditions, low humidity and some wind, and all you need is a spark, and a series of dry lightning strikes, and that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Mathisen said the fire situation was “exacerbated by the drought situation” that has been affecting the state so badly that it is now the most severe drought that has ever been recorded in the state. Fifty-eight percent of the state is under “exceptional drought.” The U.S. Drought Monitor said that the moisture of the state’s topsoil’s moisture is “nearly depleted,” a key factor in estimates that California’s nation-leading agricultural sector will lose $2.2 billion in 2014. The spread of this drought can be seen in this terrifying gif courtesy of Mother Jones.
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