Month: July 2022

“Yreka Police Department has issued an Evacuation Order for the area west of Fairchild Street and Shasta Street to include Oakridge Mobile Estates,” the Forest Service announced Saturday evening. “This area is being evacuated due to proximity to the fire and the need for additional time necessary for this group of residents to safely evacuate. Residents in the Evacuation Order area should evacuate immediately.

“An Evacuation Warning has been issued for all areas of Yreka west of I-5. Residents in the Evacuation Warning area should prepare to evacuate and should be ready if the area is changed to an order.”

Weather conditions are not favorable for fire crews. On Sunday, they’re expecting single-digit humidity, lightning, blazing temperatures and gusting winds, which “will continue to be the drivers for the extreme fire behavior.” The Forest Service expects “structure defense operations continue along the Highway 96 corridor [and] Beaver Creek community.” Over the next day, they’re projecting “fire growth… to spread in all directions as Red Flag Warning for thunderstorms and lightning are in the forecast. Fire could impact Gottville, Humbug Road area on the east flank. Movement towards Scott Bar is expected as the fire moves of Collins Baldy.”

ALSO READ: Dozens rescued from Pacific Crest Trail as McKinney Fire threatens

The McKinney Fire broke out on Friday in the Klamath National Forest, about 15 miles south of the Oregon border, sending out a massive pyrocumulus cloud and triggering a flurry of evacuations in small forestland communities in the northern most part of the Golden State. The McKinney Fire was reported at 300 acres on Friday night with no containment, and exploded overnight, reaching 18,000 acres by Saturday morning, the US Forest Service said.

“Because of the erratic winds the fire is going all over the place,” Caroline Quintanilla, a public information officer with the US Forest Service, told SFGATE on Saturday afternoon.

The blaze started at 2:38 pm in the Oak Knoll Ranger District west of the Walker Creek Bridge on the south side of the Klamath River, the US Forest Service said. Thunderstorms passed over the region Friday night and may have exacerbated the blaze.”We had 100 lightning strikes in western Siskiyou County last night,” said Brad Schaaf, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Medford, Ore.

“It looks like the fire definitely came first, before the thunderstorms,” ​​Schaaf said. “It looks like there was a wind gust from the fire that aided the thunderstorm development. The first lightning strikes happened after 7 pm”

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Schaaf said the fire put out a 39,000-foot-tall pyrocumulus cloud at 11:30 pm Friday. “It’s unusual for a fire to put out a fire cloud of that size late at night because usually fires stabilize after sunset,” he said.

Pyrocumulus clouds, also known as fire clouds, form when air heats up and moves upward, pushing smoke, ash and vapor up with it. They are a sign that fire activity on the ground is increasing.

Multiple roads were closed due to the blaze including Highway 96, Scott River Road, Highway 96, and Highway 263, the Siskiyou Office of Emergency Services said.

Two other smaller fires were reported near the McKinney Fire, the China Peak Fire and the Evans Peak Fire. The Klamath National Forest said at 11 am on Saturday that the China Fire had combined with the Evans Fire and was about 300 to 350 acres and 2 to 3 miles west of the town of Seiad Valley.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Volunteers from the local Mennonite community carry debris from flood-soaked houses at Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Ky., on Saturday.

Timothy D. Easley/AP

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Timothy D. Easley/AP

Volunteers from the local Mennonite community carry debris from flood-soaked houses at Ogden Hollar in Hindman, Ky., on Saturday.

Timothy D. Easley/AP

PRESTONBURG, Ky. — Some residents of Appalachia returned to flood-ravaged homes and communities on Saturday to shovel mud and debris and to salvage what they could, while Kentucky’s governor said search and rescue operations were ongoing in the region swamped by torrential rains days earlier that led to deadly flash flooding.

Rescue crews were continuing the struggle to get into hard-hit areas, some of them among the poorest places in America. Dozens of deaths have been confirmed and the number is expected to grow.

In the tiny community of Wayland, Phillip Michael Caudill was working Saturday to clean up debris and recover what he could from the home he shares with his wife and three children. The waters had receded from the house but left a mess behind along with questions about what he and his family will do next.

“We’re just hoping we can get some help,” said Caudill, who is staying with his family at Jenny Wiley State Park in a free room, for now.

Caudill, a firefighter in the nearby Garrett community, went out on rescues around 1 am Thursday but had to ask to leave around 3 am so he could go home, where waters were rapidly rising.

“That’s what made it so tough for me,” he said. “Here I am, sitting there, watching my house become immersed in water and you got people begging for help. And I could n’t help,” because he was tending to his own family from him.

The water was up to his knees when he arrived home and he had to wade across the yard and carry two of his kids out to the car. He could barely shut the door of his SUV as they were leaving.

Cleanup efforts are under way in eastern Kentucky.

Timothy D. Easley/AP

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Timothy D. Easley/AP

Cleanup efforts are under way in eastern Kentucky.

Timothy D. Easley/AP

In Garrett on Saturday, couches, tables and pillows soaked by flooding were stacked in yards along the foothills of the mountainous region as people worked to clear out debris and shovel mud from driveways and roads under now-blue skies.

Hubert Thomas, 60, and his nephew Harvey, 37, fled to Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonburg after floodwaters destroyed their home in Pine Top late Wednesday night. The two were able to rescue their dog, CJ, but fear the damages to the home are beyond repair. Hubert Thomas, a retired coal miner, said his entire life savings was invested in his home.

“I’ve got nothing now,” he said.

Harvey Thomas, an EMT, said he fell asleep to the sound of light rain, and it wasn’t long until his uncle woke him up warning him that water was getting dangerously close to the house.

“It was coming inside and it just kept getting worse,” he said, “like there was, at one point, we looked at the front door and mine and his cars were playing bumper cars, like bumper boats in the middle of our front yard.”

As for what’s next, Harvey Thomas said he doesn’t know, but he’s thankful to be alive.

“Mountain people are strong,” he said. “And like I said it’s not going to be tomorrow, probably not next month, but I think everybody’s going to be okay. It’s just going to be a long process.”

Kentucky is the latest state to be hit by severe flooding this summer

At least 25 people have died — including four children — in the flooding, Kentucky’s governor said Saturday.

“We continue to pray for the families that have suffered an unfathomable loss,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “Some have lost almost everyone in their household.”

Beshear said the number would likely rise significantly and it could take weeks to find all the victims of the record flash flooding. Crews have made more than 1,200 rescues from helicopters and boats, the governor said.

“I’m worried that we’re going to be finding bodies for weeks to come,” Beshear said during a midday briefing.

The rain let up early Friday after parts of eastern Kentucky received between 8 and 10 1/2 inches (20-27 centimeters) over 48 hours. But some waterways were not expected to crest until Saturday. About 18,000 utility customers in Kentucky remained without power Saturday, poweroutage.us reported.

It’s the latest in a string of catastrophic deluges that have pounded parts of the US this summer, including St. Louis earlier this week and again on Friday. Scientists warn climate change is making weather disasters more common.

As rainfall hammered Appalachia this week, water tumbled down hillsides and into valleys and hollows where it swelled creeks and streams coursing through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and trashed vehicles. Mudslides marooned some people on steep slopes.

President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to more than a dozen Kentucky counties.

As climate change affects weather patterns, officials will have to grapple with plans on how to handle the impact

The flooding extended into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.

Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency for six counties in West Virginia where the flooding downed trees, power outages and blocked roads. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also made an emergency declaration, enabling officials to mobilize resources across the flooded southwest of the state.

The deluge came two days after record rains around St. Louis dropped more than 12 inches (31 centimeters) and killed at least two people. Last month, heavy rain on mountain snow in Yellowstone National Park triggered historic flooding and the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. In both instances, the rain flooding far exceeded what forecasters predicted.

Extreme rain events have become more common as climate change bakes the planet and alters weather patterns, according to scientists. That’s a growing challenge for officials during disasters, because models used to predict storm impacts are in part based on past events and can’t keep up with increasingly devastating flash floods and heat waves like those that have recently hit the Pacific Northwest and southern Plains.

“It’s a battle of extremes going on right now in the United States,” said University of Oklahoma meteorologist Jason Furtado. “These are things we expect to happen because of climate change. … A warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor and that means you can produce increased heavy rainfall.”