Zinke, Perdue view California fire damage
56 views · Published 3 December 2018 · 3:05 · Indexed 5 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(27 Nov 2018) Top Trump administration officials toured the fire-ravaged town of Paradise, where they met with local officials and pushed for more aggressive forest management to lessen the damage of increasingly fierce wildfires. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue were in the town of Paradise on Monday. Zinke said he has never witnessed such devastation, and costs associated with a deadly Northern California wildfire will likely be in the billions. The Camp Fire killed at least 88 people and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes in the town of Paradise and surrounding communities. It was fully contained over the weekend after igniting more than two weeks ago. The U.S. government has distributed more than $20 million in assistance for people displaced by the catastrophic wildfire in Northern California, a Federal Emergency Management Agency official said Monday as hundreds of searchers kept looking for more human remains. FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell told The Associated Press that $15.5 million has been spent on housing assistance, including vouchers for hotel rooms. During an interview in the city of Chico, he said disaster response is in an early phase but many people will eventually get longer-term housing in trailers or apartments. FEMA also has distributed $5 million to help with other needs, including funeral expenses, he said. About 17,000 people have registered with the federal disaster agency, which will look at insurance coverage, assets and other factors to determine how much assistance they are eligible for, Mansell said. Meanwhile, the list of people who are unaccounted for has dropped from a high of 1,300 to the "high 200s" Monday, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said. He said the number of volunteers searching for the missing and dead has been reduced to about 200 Monday from 500 Sunday after many of those reported missing were found over the weekend. Secretary Perdue suggested donating timber from the nearby Plumas National Forest to rebuild Paradise. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/95841f2a912db6f2150e841f009fff68
