President Trump Approves California Disaster Declaration
![Burned home in the Kettenpom area. [Photo by LaDonna Auxier]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/120879032_2724187881128704_5722381659087741328_n.jpg)
Burned home and hoop greenhouse in the Kettenpom area. [Photo by LaDonna Auxier]
[Yesterday], President Donald J. Trump declared that a major disaster exists in the State of California and ordered Federal assistance to supplement State, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by wildfires beginning on September 4, 2020, and continuing.
The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Siskiyou.
Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
Federal funding also is available to State, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency protective measures in the counties of Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Siskiyou.
Finally, Federal funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
Pete Gaynor, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Willie G. Nunn as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas.
Damage assessments are continuing in other areas, and more counties and additional forms of assistance may be designated after the assessments are fully completed.
Residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated counties can begin applying for assistance by registering online athttp://www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired. The toll-free telephone numbers will operate from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (local time) seven days a week until further notice.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Thanks Prez! Trinity county sends a warm hello.
Trinity County is not in the scope of the assistance.
PinkAsso smelled slightly of sarcasm, but maybe it was something else.
A little history and a study in contrasts:
Back when George H.W. Bush was president there was operation Greensweep out on the coast around the King Range. They were using National Guard personnel and equipment to eradicate pot. They had been there about a week when some hunters accidentally started a fire which spread rapidly in the wilderness.
Within a couple days the pot eradication people were gone to be replaced by a massive federal and state effort to deal with the fire. Federal water bombers and choppers were in use and the effort put forth by the US government was both massive and rapidly deployed.
This was a case where no homes were destroyed though the threat to Shelter Cove and surrounding area were certainly real.
This administration didn’t seem to notice or care till hundreds of people were made homeless. I’m sure it still doesn’t care but it looked bad so now, long after the fact, one county out of many gets a disaster declaration.
Effing disgusting!
Who was Governor back then?
either george or pete. both repubs.
So you are saying that republican presidents offer aid more quickly and freely to states with republican governors? Because you certainly can be suggesting that a republican governors is to thank for the federal response, that would obviously be a very stupid thing to suggest.
Yeah man gavin newsome and gerry brown dont care about californians.
Bring back arnold! We need the govinator of cal-lee-fornia back!
Arnold has lots of love in his heart for California. Not perfect, no one is. We have been blessed with some great governors.
Operation Greensweep, which was an illegal federal action, was stopped by a lawsuit filed by own own hero, attorney Ron Sinoway, not because hunters started a fire.
As I remember the pigs got in the way of the fire response
🕯🌳Why didn’t he do it when came to visit like he did for Oregon and Washington State?
Gee, he was just giving you what you loudly demanded- your own way.
If you don’t like logging and grazing welcome to the real “new normal”
Free-range grazing did nothing to reduce fuels in the Ruth Valley. Commercial logging does nothing to reduce undergrowth or to thin immature forests. It just makes the problems worse. You’re parroting industrial propaganda.
Clear cutting and dragging logs across the hillsides with skidders dramatically reduces fires. Then coming in and replanting, this is called farming and it works. Leaving a yard a untouched sanctuary is dumb and a fire hazard. Same goes for the forest, lets not be dumb about this, the solution is productive and easy.
You are massively ignorant. Even age tree farms are horrible for fuels reduction and ecology.
Maybe a tree farm thats not maintained, key word maintain, I know thats a tough word for the lazy generation but that’s the way us old timers got it done. Manual labor bud, keep that tree farm, forest, backyard whatever, maintained. A little physical labor , thats a solution. Peace out
It certainly can. But the goal of open grazing regulation on State and Federal land is to keep stock low enough that it still look “natural” with lots of grass and brush. Which firefighters look to back burn to stop fires. Don’t believe the propaganda from those who look for ways to spin everything into a means to force government to legislate protecting nature at all costs. If you hold that humans have a right to immigrate in unrestricted numbers, then you have already eliminated leaving nature alone.
“University of California Cooperative Extension researchers just completed a timely study showing cattle grazing is an essential tool in reducing wildfire — a tool they say should be expanded and refined.” https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/livestock/new-study-cattle-grazing-significantly-reduces-wildfire-spread/article_4e57a21c-f2b2-11ea-bfcc-7fbfbde3935e.html
“Send in the goats.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/using-goats-to-prevent-wildfires-51327045/
Goats have been a major contributor to the desertification of the planet for the last 4000 years.
If not managed well. But then wildfires are increased by not managing too. Theat argument against using animal grazing is the same as those who refuse life preserving vaccinations for masses of people because sometimes they have our threatening side effects. Hateful people latch onto extremist examples to make their points all the time.
Being declared a national emergency to receive funds starts on the ground in the County, then moves to the State and then to the Federal government. If we’re unhappy about a lack of designation the ire should start on the County and State level. The Feds respond to what information they’re given by the Governor’s office, there’s no cherry picking here. Look to your County leaders and the Governor’s office.
🕯🌳He was here and seen it first hand,what took so long?
He was in shock on how lousy our forest management is. Visit your local ranger station once in awhile, not the office in eureka, the office near these pristine forests. They will tell your exactly what needs to be done by our state and whats getting done. You want the state to acquire forests then maintain it.
May I say the same for you if you want the Forest “Raked” then here you go, here’s a Rake for ya, GET JIGGY!!!!
Or maybe it can. “While it isn’t feasible to reduce fire risk by raking the forest with hand tools, if you hold a drip torch in the other hand, you could get the work done.”
https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=28855
Maybe if hateful idiots would not waste so much of their energy looking to ridicule Trump at all times, they might be able to actually accomplish something reasonable.
No one has to look to ridicule Trump. He does it all by himself. Even political satirists are having trouble with Trump because they can’t come up with things more ridiculous that what he says himself.
For example, his remark to California scientists and foresters who were briefing him on the fires who brought up the impact of climate change on fire and forests and his response was, “It’ll get colder, just wait.”
The Federal Government has direct responsibility for managing about 1/2 of the forested lands in California — not the state. The state doesn’t have any control over what the Feds do in terms of land management. If he has a problem with forest management, he should be talking to his own people about providing more funding and hiring more employees, which is the exact opposite of what he is doing.
It’s just a lot easier to blame California for it because it plays better to the ill-informed that make up his supporters.
Except the county and state did their part in a timely manner. So your comment is null and void.
FEMA announced it was because they didn’t supply needed data. But then politics gets in the way of good policy all the time so who knows. Trump did fix it.
Let’s be blunt. If it was a simple missing data problem FEMA could’ve just asked for it. They were looking for an excuse to reject the application. Anyone who’s paid attention to the news about these specific fires would’ve been aware of the extent of the damage.
If you’re looking for politics screwing with good policy, there’s your place to start.
Why isn’t Trinity on the list? We’ve been evacuated for a month and a half and lost our jobs.
I’m shocked also. Why isn’t Trinity County included?! Is it the way that our state wrote up the request? Did Gov. Newsom leave Trinity County out? Or did the feds write it up this way? WTF!! And of course have to mention these days….Trinity County voted for Trump. I hope politics had zero bearing on which of our neighbors gets help. But Mendocino got help and not Trinity- that’s just not right…
I’m so thrilled! What a President! So insightful, so compassionate, so courageous. NO ONE ELSE IN HISTORY would have the brains, the guts, or the heart to declare a Federal disaster in California when only slightly over 4 million acres have burned in 3 months. And climate change had nothing to do with this at all — it was all because of a Federal action against medicine farmers 25 years ago. Way to go! I’m going to vote for this guy as many times as I can get away with it. You should, too, SoHum!
I’m hoping this is sarcasm, otherwise WTF Are You ON????
Vote early and often!
Typical male, control-freak narcissist.
I knew when he first denied the fire relief funding that it wouldn’t be long before he backpedaled and approved it. SMH sure enough, he did.
Self-absorbed, abusive, idiots like him say no to everything! Until they say yes, then they act like it was THEIR idea .
(Women who are married to textbook narcs like this, take note. They never change. )
Anon, I’m getting the idea that you have a large chip on ur shoulder. One word … Therapy.
I’m guessing that Mendocino got the disaster designation because most of the fire was on national forest. It would be hard to blame the state for that managment. Trinity should and hopefully will get it soon or at least after the election. VOTE!
Of course! The victims always pursue all sorts of “therapy,” and introspection, because narcissistic sociopaths certainly never change.
Eyes wide open. That ain’t a chip; it’s a mission. And because I’ve seen behind the mask I’m not afraid to call a duck a duck. And Donald , among others, is one.
By my observation we appear to be in a toxic and abusive relationship – with our president! And our entire nation will probably need “therapy” to recover and learn to trust again.
I thought the August Complex covered some of SEVEN counties. What , because the name is the Mendocino Nat Forest ? what happens w the other six ?
Perhaps it was worded that way as a quick start since we all knew Mr T would have to back peddle quickly on the “NO” to everything that has to do w the State of California ??
I suggest everyone who does NOT get assessed by the BAER Team, the inspection team for mitigation efforts to all of the quickly dozed fire breaks, access roads etc contact their own MNF office. The BAER Team is only prioritized for areas that actually burned.
I have new fire breaks all over the place , as well as a few neighbors who also did not burn. Our properties are adjacent to the MNF and were used by USFS and Calfire as access points and to put in second and third ( the last stand) Fire containment lines.
Fortunately, they were well planned but not needed ( until the next big one🙄) But require ALOT of rehab before real winter rains and we are last on the list.
There ARE plans but def are gonna require follow up after follow up and also it is very important to interact with whowever shows up on the ground to make sure the remediation work is done to your satisfaction. Now that “the military efforts “ are mostly over we have to keep on keepin’ on to make sure we don’t all end up with a huge mess of unfinished work and erosion problems.
Excellent comment! Having lived through the Lodge Fire in 2014 I agree- those who spoke up and stayed in contact were the ones who ended up getting the funds for restoration. Once the Cal Fire heavy equipment leaves it is gone but they do their best to do it right for you while they are still around. Same goes with funding for replanting and erosion control later. Speak up and remain engaged!
You are correct that BAER only deals with effects from the actual fire. What you are talking about is Suppression Repair (trying to repair the mess the fire machine made during suppression efforts, whether the area actually saw fire or not). The fire machine is supposed to fix all that before they leave. Which is also to say, once they leave they are not coming back. If you have specific concerns, you need to get them to the Team in charge of the fire, either through the Forest Service or CalFire or however you can (go to the ICP yourself), and make sure they know about it. There’s a lot going on right now so don’t fall through the cracks. Time is short. I hear a lot of resources are being requested to leave us for fires in Montana and New Mexico.
After the 2008 Lightning Complex the BAER team came in and said they couldn’t get down my road, they had no problem getting down it when they wanted to put in dozer lines 4 blades wide! So I got stuck with that mess and 14 inches of talcum powder for roads, that is not an exaggeration…my brakes went out and they found mud in my brake manifold from all the dust and my Yamaha Rhino engine got destroyed by the dust, just couldn’t keep it out with daily shop-vac of the air filter compartment. Rain just made it a slip and slide, you could only bring things in on ATV till it packed down mid-winter. I was also left with about 100 acres of land locked dead trees. I got a LOT of help from USDA NRCS in dealing with all that so don’t forget them. They spent $350,000 of your tax dollars cleaning up what should have gone to the mill because the Ranger f’d up getting me an emergency road access. Just so you know what your tax dollars went to, we cut and stacked that 100 acres of trees and lit a match and poured it all into the sky and I was out a half million in lumber, but at least it is gone.
Trump is just covering Carter,Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama’s asses for all the years of federal mismanagement and poor hiring at the federal level for decades. Lock it up and throw away the key didn’t work, leave it to the beaurcrats, technocrats did not work, leave it to the pie in the sky environmentalists did not work and leave it to the democrats pandering to all of the above groups did not work. So now the awnser to all the Bull shit that did not work is to blame it on phony global warming and phony man made climate change so every dollar made can be taxed and audited by the government that has given us our current utopia we are in. Good luck with more regulations from those we call leaders of our country.
So Kym I put up two posts tonight on two different articles tonight and both were taken down. That’s ok with me my I am sure my thousand plus views a year you do not need in your numbers you show to your advertisers. I now rank you along with Twitter and Facebook as far as hindering first amendment rights piss off I will never read your blog again.
In order to keep down spam, my website holds new commenters for moderation. Sometimes it takes me a while to moderate and it’s only been about two hours since your first comment. If you look at the other comments, you might see that there are many supporting Trump.