New York
hell is brought down on Paradise, a town of 27,000 souls popular with retired californians. In this corner of the forest, 300 km north of San Francisco, the wall of flames that spreads from the morning of Thursday, November 8, exceeds all previous records beaten in California in recent years: 56.000 hectares of forest destroyed, 81.000 people displaced, at least 11.860 buildings destroyed, of which 9,700 from a dwelling in the single county of Butte, and so many homes ruined in a few seconds, the memories of a lifetime evaporated in the blaze.
Friday, the confirmed death count had risen to 66, adding to another number terrifying, 631 missing, while they were still 130 missing the day before. The balance sheet is getting worse by the hour, as the relief discover in a setting of end of the world of human remains in the middle of the woods, in vehicles liquefied by the heat, or buildings charred. In the shelters, the church, and the parking lots of the supermarket, the Red Cross and the u.s. federal agency for emergency situations (Fema) is distributing water, food. Bibles, too. North of Sacramento, the capital city, residents have opened their fields to columns rv the sides are blackened.
The causes of the disaster will slowly emerge : a short-circuit fatal in a transformer, combined with an extreme drought and winds blowing east to west over 80 km/h
It’s nine days that the Californians of the North learn to live with heavens orange heavy-duty threats, and a contaminated air up to Frisco. In the bulletins on television, they watch, frightened, scenes from exodus and destitution reminiscent of the terrible “dust bowl” during the great recession of the thirties. When the fire broke out, the prompt arrival on the scene of 1,500 firefighters, 300 response vehicles, 20 bulldozers, planes and helicopters could not prevent its progression jumping. Hundreds of detached houses, caravans and cars were surrounded and then swallowed up by the flames.
the cause of the accident slowly emerge: a short-circuit fatal in a transformer of the electricity supplier, PG&E, combined with an extreme drought and winds blowing east to west over 80 km/h, quick to pick up on the passage of the valleys oriented themselves north-south.
” READ ALSO – Paradise ghost town after the fire the most deadly in California
In the streets of Paradise the evil-named, Thursday, huge semi-trailers were carrying the carcasses of vehicles charred, between two rows of american flags, forming a guard of honour improvised. Originally, it was a tradition for the commemoration of Veterans’ Day, the american variant of the 11th of November in France. But circumstances have overwhelmed these modest local celebrations, substituting a tribute to the resilience of the residents, who start to clear and rebuild even as houses continue to burn.
“there has been this influx of population and this influx of jobs, but nothing to accommodate all these people. When a disaster occurs, there is no margin. No”
“Despite the tragedy we endure,” wrote a resident locally prior to their evacuation, Dani Davis, we have still managed to install the flags, Donald Trump.” Referring to the insulting of the president of the United States, which had blasted, two days before the outbreak of the fire of the Camp Fire, the negligence of the emergency services, california as well as policies for forest management and environmental laws. He had then threatened, to the astonishment of all, cut the federal subsidies, but it is income from his wrath original, announcing that he would be on the West coast this Saturday to meet with those who have lost everything.
The gigantic disaster of a Camp Fire, and its parade of castaways, is aggravating the housing crisis in California. Between 2009, epilogue of the last “great recession”, and 2014, says the McKinsey Global Institute, the State has identified 544.000 new homes, but built in the same time that 467.000 units. “There has been this influx of population and this influx of jobs, but nothing to accommodate all these people, down to the New York Times Carol Galante, the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the university of California, Berkeley. When a disaster occurs, there is no margin. No.”
This is another paradox of california: hardly out of the furnace, the remnants of the Camp Fire must now worry about another threat, the imminent arrival of winter, hoping that the emergency services will address the housing crisis by providing them with a roof, that it was in a hotel room or a camping-car. “There are even people, smiled Shawn Boyd, a spokesman for the directorate california emergency situations, who have made available their bed and breakfast and all types of rentals. Great people.”
