Important Takeaways:
- Thousands more evacuated as Tenerife fire rages on Spain’s Canary Islands
- Canary Islands (AP) — Thousands more residents of Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands have fled their homes as a wildfire that authorities deemed “out of control” raged on for a fourth day.
- The regional government for the Canary Islands said that 4,000 more people were ordered to evacuate on Saturday. Those were in addition to the 4,500 people who on Friday were forced to move out of harm’s way on the Atlantic island that is home to around a million people and is also a popular tourist destination.
- That figure of more than 8,000 evacuees is expected to rise, and perhaps sharply.
- The Canary Islands have been in drought for most of the past few years, just like most of mainland Spain. The islands have recorded below-average rainfall in recent years because of changing weather patterns impacted by climate change.
- The Tenerife fire comes as Spain’s mainland is bracing for another heat wave. Spain’s state weather service issued a warning Saturday that temperatures would be on the rise in the coming days, hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in parts of the mainland.
- Spain had a record-hot 2022 and is setting new heat records this year amid a prolonged drought that has authorities on alert for wildfires.
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Important Takeaways:
- Maui’s wildfire death toll officially 114, but locals running out of body bags reckon it’s closer to 500, with thousands still missing
- Maui Police Chief John Pelletier indicated early last week that rescuers accompanied by scores of cadaver dogs were working their way through the aftermath, over 85% of which had been covered by Sunday, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.
- Locals, whose morgues have reportedly run out of body bags, indicated that the actual number of deaths is the neighborhood of 500.
- Allisen Medina told the Daily Mail, “I know there are at least 480 dead here in Maui, and I don’t understand why they’re [the authorities] not saying that. Maybe it’s to do with DNA or something.”
- The FBI announced Friday it would be opening a DNA matching site to speed up the process.
- “No one has ever seen this that is alive today. Not this size, not this number, not this volume — and we’re not done,” said the Maui police chief.
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Important Takeaways:
- In President Biden’s response to the devastating wildfires in Maui, we can see the reemergence of a familiar habit: to ignore, dance around and/or gaslight the public about a difficult situation — whether it’s self-inflicted or not — and respond to it only when the critiques become so deafening, they drown out all else. And the coup de grâce: to sing his own praises afterwards.
- In June 2021, Biden dismissed consumers’ concerns about the early warning signs of inflation. A few months later, Biden said it was the “difficult challenges and complications caused by COVID-19” that were “driving up costs for American families.” Those challenges and complications were in no small part driven by an ill-advised $1.9 trillion spending jubilee Biden championed and signed at the outset of his presidency.
- Biden’s roadmap for this kind of obfuscation was modeled by his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He called the evacuation an “extraordinary success.”
- Last week, Biden promised the federal government would give Maui “everything it needs.” But then Sunday — whilst enjoying one of his many days at the beach — Biden was apparently too busy to comment on the devastation.
- Don’t be surprised when — not if — he eschews taking responsibility for his callousness in favor of unearned self-congratulations.
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Important Takeaways:
- New video shows Lahaina residents bobbing in choppy ocean after jumping into water to escape Maui fire that killed 55 and counting
- The fire began on Tuesday, spreading quickly and ferociously. The exact cause of it remains unclear but high winds, dry conditions and low humidity exacerbated the flames.
- Fifty-five people have been confirmed dead already and 1,000 remain missing three days on from the blaze.
- In an interview this morning, the Mayor of Maui County said the bodies found so far have all been discovered in the street, outside properties. Search teams have not yet begun pulling bodies from homes and businesses.
- An unknown number of people are also thought to have perished in their cars while trying to escape the hellish flames.
- ‘I think that number could go up. According to those doing the recovery – our police, Coast Guard and National Guard, that was the number they found of people outside of the buildings. We have not yet searched the interior of the buildings. We’re waiting for FEMA to help with that search.
- ‘They are equipped to handle the hazmat conditions of the buildings that have been burned,’ Mayor Richard Bissen told the TODAY show.
- The West side of the island remains without power, water and communications.
- ‘They have no internet, no cell phone. That’s the challenge. We’ve been sending crews out with water…but our focus is on finding any missing persons. We want to give people information.’
- ‘This was an impossible situation. The winds that hit us on that side of the island, the gusts were up to 80mph. Some sustained up to 45 and 60 mph. Everything happened so quickly.
- ‘I can’t comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not but the fires came up so quickly and spread so fast. ‘
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Important Takeaways:
- Raging Portugal wildfires force hundreds of tourists to flee apocalyptic inferno
- Hundreds of terrified tourists have been evacuated from dream holidays in southern Portugal after wildfires continue to rage out of control.
- The huge blaze has destroyed thousands of hectares of land in the area of Odemira, in the Alentejo region, since the disaster started on Saturday. It has now spread south towards the Algarve, prompting the evacuation of 1,400 people which includes tourists staying at four resorts in the holiday destination, as well as 19 small villages.
- Efforts by hundreds of firefighters to control the flames are being hampered by high temperatures which have reached 40C and strong winds. Satellite photos showed huge amounts of smoke billowing from the areas.
- Civil Protection commander Jose Ribeiro said there was still a “lot of work” to do to bring the wildfire under control.
- August is usually the hottest month of the year in Portugal.
- The huge fires in Portugal follows extreme weather in July which caused havoc across the planet, with record temperatures recorded in China, the United States and parts of southern Europe.
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Important Takeaways:
- At least 36 killed on Maui as fires burn through Hawaii and thousands race to escape
- Wildfires fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane killed 36 people and destroyed hundreds of homes and other buildings on the Hawaiian island of Maui, in the deadliest blaze in the U.S. in years.
- Firefighters still battled blazes on the island, as local officials prepared to evacuate thousands of visitors and find shelter for residents in need.
- The flames left some people with mere minutes to act and led some to flee into the ocean.
- It is the deadliest fire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and virtually razed the town of Paradise.
- Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said the island had “been tested like never before in our lifetime.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Explosive wildfire crossed US-Canada border, forcing evacuations
- An out-of-control blaze burning in northern Washington State exploded in size, crossed the Canadian border and set off a cascade of evacuations over the weekend.
- The so-called Eagle Bluff Fire has burned thousands of acres on both sides of the border and forced hundreds to evacuate their homes since it ignited Saturday in Washington’s Okanogan County.
- Evacuations were ordered on Saturday for more than 700 properties in the Canadian town of Osoyoos, British Columbia, after the fire crossed the border. By Monday, that number fell to 192 properties after firefighters made progress fighting the fire, with an additional 2,635 properties in the area under an evacuation alert to be ready to evacuate should conditions change.
- There are no active evacuation orders for the Eagle Pass Fire in the US, but at least three structures had burned in Okanogan County, Washington, and portions of the county were under a Level 2 evacuation notice – “Be Ready to Evacuate” – according to fire officials.
- The fire exploded in size due to dry, warm and breezy conditions and has burned through more than 10,000 acres. At least 3,500 acres have burned in Canada alone. The fire remains completely uncontained in both countries, according to Washington and Canadian fire officials.
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Important Takeaways:
- Massive California wildfires continue to spread due to erratic winds
- A massive wildfire burning out of control in California’s Mojave National Preserve was spreading rapidly amid erratic winds, while firefighters reported progress against another major blaze to the southwest that prompted evacuations.
- The York Fire that erupted Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.
- Wind-driven flames 20 feet high in some spots charred more than 110 square miles of desert scrub, juniper and Joshua tree woodland, according to an incident update. There was zero containment.
- To the southwest, the Bonny Fire was holding steady at about 3.4 square miles in rugged hills of Riverside County. More than 1,300 people were ordered to evacuate their homes Saturday near the community of Aguanga that is home to horse ranches and wineries.
- Gusty winds and the chance of thunderstorms into Monday will heighten the risk of renewed growth, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement.
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Luke 21:25 ““And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves
Important Takeaways:
- Wildfires force thousands to flee, damage scores of homes in Canada’s Nova Scotia
- Wildfires in Canada’s Atlantic coast province of Nova Scotia have forced thousands of residents to evacuate and damaged scores of homes, authorities said Monday.
- The Halifax Regional Municipality said preliminary estimates indicate that about 200 homes or structures have been damaged, based on initial visual inspections by first responders.
- Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency said an estimated 14,000 people were told to flee their homes, most of which are about a 30-minute drive northwest of downtown Halifax.
- “This fire has not been contained; this fire is not under control,” he said. “It did not spread appreciably and that is thanks to weather, the work of the firefighters on the ground and the work of the air units.”
- However, Meldrum stressed that a change in weather conditions forecast for Tuesday could complicate things.
- David Steeves, a forest resources technician with the Department of Natural Resources, said the fire was helped by a lack of rain and a wooded area thick with softwood trees, which provide a volatile fuel source. “It was perfect conditions for a fast, quick, dangerous fire,” Steeves said.
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Luke 21:25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves
Important Takeaways:
- More than 29,000 people are evacuated from communities throughout Alberta as wildfires rage in Canada
- In the past 24 hours alone, 16 new fires have ignited in Alberta, Wildfire Information Unit Lead Christie Tucker said during a Sunday evening news conference.
- Fighters across the province are still battling 98 wildfires, 27 of which were burning “out of control,” according to Alberta officials.
- In a news conference Monday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith asked residents with firefighting experience who can “lend a helping hand” to contact emergency services.
- This type of ferocious wildfire activity isn’t typical this early in the year, and firefighters don’t usually see such a large area burned, Tucker said Sunday morning.
- But bone-dry conditions, abnormally hot weather and high winds have converged to fuel this “really extreme wildfire activity,” Tucker said.
- Wildfires have burned a total of 390,000 hectares in Alberta so far this year, and recent blazes have burned a “huge amount of ground” over the last few days, Tucker said.
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