A mandatory evacuation order was announced for parts of Siskiyou County on Saturday, according to
the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. Residents within the evacuation zone are being asked to “please leave immediately.” About 60 people were evacuated from the Pacific Crest Trail on Saturday due to the McKinney Fire, the Jackson County Sheriff’s office in Oregon
said on its verified Facebook page, noting the hikers were rescued from the “California side of the Red Buttes Wilderness.” The Pacific Crest Trail runs from the Mexican border through California, Oregon, and Washington to Canada, according to the forest service.
A red flag warning, which indicates dangerous fire conditions, is in effect in the area through Sunday night,
according to the National Weather Service. “Abundant lightning” is expected through Monday, as well as scattered thunderstorms, which “could contribute to fire spread” but could also bring “locally significant wetting rainfall” in some areas, the weather service said. Firefighters were forced to shift their tactics “from an offensive perimeter control effort” to more of a defensive posture to assist with evacuations Saturday morning, an InciWeb report notes.
Two other fires burning in Siskiyou County — the China 2 and Evans fires — merged and together burned more than 300 acres, prompting evacuation warnings for more than 200 residents, according to the governor’s office. The state of emergency is meant to unlock state resources and allow firefighters from other states to help crews battling the fires in California, according to the governor’s office.
With Monsoon Season bringing wide ranging thunderstorm conditions including high winds and lightning strikes from California to Nevada and northern Arizona, up into Idaho, Oregon and Montana, more fires are expected to break out as a result.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the death toll rose over the weekend and more rain is expected throughout the week. Rescue workers searching for missing people in the flood-stricken state have been hampered by the devastation left behind — unable to access areas left isolated after floodwater washed away bridges and inundated communities. And now they’re racing to beat yet another obstacle with temperatures set to soar later in the week, leaving rescue crews and displaced people facing oppressive heat as more than 12,000 customers remain without power.
The death toll rose Monday morning to 30, Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference in Frankfort, saying the flooding in his state was “certainly the deadliest” he’s seen in his lifetime.
The governor told NBC’s “Meet the Press” he believes recovery crews are “going to be finding bodies for weeks, many of them swept hundreds of yards, maybe a quarter-mile plus from where they were last.”
The flooding — which swelled onto roads, destroyed bridges and swept away entire homes — displaced thousands of Kentuckians, according to the governor. It also knocked out vital power, water and roadway infrastructure, some of which has yet to be restored. In Perry County, as many as 50 bridges are damaged and inaccessible, according to county Judge Executive Scott Alexander.
Overnight Monday into Tuesday morning, the area could see a line of heavier rain and the chance for severe thunderstorms with a threat of damaging winds and more flash flooding. Temperatures are then expected to rise, hitting the mid-80s and near 90 on Wednesday and Thursday, per the weather service, but it will feel much hotter because of the humidity. The heat indices — the temperature it feels like when heat is combined with humidity — are expected to peak around 100 degrees in some places.
Though the recovery effort was still in the search-and-rescue phase over the weekend, Beshear said in a news conference Saturday that he believes the losses will be “in the tens if not the hundreds of millions of dollars.” “This is one of the most devastating, deadly floods that we have seen in our history,” Beshear said told NBC on Sunday. “It wiped out areas where people didn’t have that much to begin with.”
And it wasn’t just personal possessions washed away by the floodwaters. A building housing archival film and other materials in Whitesburg, was impacted, with water submerging an irreplaceable collection of historic film, videotape and audio records that documented Appalachia.
The extensive loss Kentuckians are suffering will likely also take a mental toll, Frances Everage, a therapist and 44-year resident of the city of Hazard told CNN. While her home was spared, she said some of her friends have damaged homes or lost their entire farms. “When you put your blood, sweat and tears into something and then see it ripped away in front of your eyes, there’s going to be a grieving process,” Everage said. “This community will rebuild and we will be okay, but the impact on mental health is going to be significant.”
As
the climate crisis fuels more extreme and frequent weather events, several areas of the US are currently experiencing flash flood risk, including swathes of the desert Southwest, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Tucson, Arizona. Scientists are detecting a stronger link between the planet’s warming and its changing weather patterns. Though it can be hard to pinpoint whether climate change intensified a particular weather event, the trajectory is clear — hotter heat waves, drier droughts, bigger storm surges and greater snowfall.
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