Major fires produce biggest US disaster since Hurricane Katrina
Rushda:
October 25th, 2007
Over the last 4 days, wildfires have destroyed many parts of California with a staggering 500,000 people being evacuated from their homes in what is now officially a state of emergency. Though so far the fires have claimed few lives, they have been devastating – 1,500 homes have been destroyed and damage is estimated to be £1bn.
As you can see from this video, firefighters are desperately trying to calm the monster but the scale of the disaster is so great that there has been little progress, especially as the strong winds have been sweeping the fires along all the way from Santa Barbara to Mexico. Indeed 400,000 acres have been scorched – “an area bigger than New York City.”
Thankfully the winds are now slowing down so the fires will be more easy to control in the next few days. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, has praised the efforts of the hundreds of firefighters who are trying to control the fires. Similarly, President Bush has made a speech in which he announced the signing of the disaster declaration for 7 California counties, which will mean government funds will be available to help residents to recover after the fires have died down. He says:
“I will continue to make sure that our efforts are coordinated, and that we are responsive to the needs of people… we offer our prayers and hopes that all will turn out fine in the end.”
Let us hope that Californian residents will be able to get their life back together soon after such an unanticipated catastrophe.