Trump sees the damage caused by Northern California wildfire
Viewing the destruction of a wildf ire that killed more than 70, with 1,000 people still unaccounted for, President Donald Trump said the federal government will help California recover from the devastation and work to prevent future catastrophic wildf ires.
Trump toured the rubble of Paradise, where more than 10,000 structures were lost, with Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom.
Trump said he was stunned by the destruction.
“Hopefully, this will be the last of these because it was a really, really bad one,” the president said. “People have to see this to really understand it.”
While Trump and Brown have strong political differences, they struck a chord of unity. Trump praised state first responders for their heroism and said he had productive discussions with Brown and Newsom.
Brown said the road ahead will be challenging. “It’s a big massive cleanup after a massive tragedy,” he said. “Somehow we will pull through it together.”
Trump’s next stop was Southern California on Saturday afternoon for a similar tour of devastated areas in and around Malibu and Thousand Oaks. The Camp fire in Northern California and the Woolsey fire in the south have burned more than 250,000 acres.
Trump was criticized last week for erroneously blaming the fires on poor forest management and threatening to cut off funding to California.
But in recent days, the president has offered more conciliatory comments about the wildfires. “We mourn for the lives lost and we pray for the victims of the California wildfires,” he said Tuesday.
In an interview on Fox News, Trump said climate change might have contributed to the fires, but he maintained that forest management policies must change.
“Maybe it contributes a little bit,” he said of climate change. “The big problem we have is management. … You need forest management. It has to be. I’m not saying that in a negative way. … I’m just saying the facts, and I’ve really learned a lot.”
Rep. Doug Lamalfa, R-calif., who was traveling with the president on Saturday, briefed reporters shortly before Air Force One landed in California about the significance of forest management, according to a White House pool report.
“The president wants to get something done on this,” Lamalfa said. “We need to be a lot more aggressive.”
Lamalfa dismissed criticism of the president’s earlier Twitter post tweet on forest management as having more to do with its timing and politics than the substance of the argument. He said forest management does not mean clear cutting but rather thinning and creating buffers around populated areas.
“Without forest management, things can go wrong,” he said.
Trump later made reference to his earlier comments about better forest management as he toured parts of Paradise with Brown and Newsom. He cited Finland as a good example of a country that keeps its forests clear, but his comments were more restrained.
“I think everybody’s seen the light on that,” Trump said. “We’re all on the same page now. Everybody’s looking at that. It’s going to work out well.”
He said the federal government would provide all the resources California needs to help it recover.
In Butte County, eight more bodies were found Friday, and the number of people unaccounted for rose from 631 to 1,011 as authorities continued to comb through 911 calls, emails and other reports of missing people.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said, however, the list of the missing may include people who were counted twice, whose names were misspelled or who may not know they were reported missing.