California ‘Apple Fire’ forces 8,000 to evacuate; storm Isaias nears virus-hit Florida after lashing Bahamas
LOS ANGELES: Nearly 8,000 residents of Riverside County in Southern California were forced to evacuate their homes on Saturday as a wildfire spread uncontained across more than 4,000 acres, the County fire department said.
The fire, dubbed the Apple Fire by local firefighters - who routinely give blazes identifying names - was reported on Friday in Cherry Valley, a community about 75 miles east of Los Angeles and had destroyed at least one family home as of Saturday evening. Photographs shared by the Riverside County fire department on Twitter on Saturday showed thick plumes of smoke filling the sky over the mountainous region.
Residents of 2,586 homes, totaling around 7,800 people, had been told to evacuate, the department said. The fire had grown from 700 acres on Friday evening to 4,125 acres by Saturday evening and was 0% contained, according to the County fire department and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
ISAIAS CHURNS CLOSE TO FLORIDA EAST COAST MIAMI: Early bands of heavy rain from Isaias lashed Florida’s east coast before dawn on Sunday as authorities warily eyed the approaching storm, which threatened to snarl efforts to quell surging cases of the coronavirus across the region.
Isaias weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm late Saturday afternoon, but was still expected to bring heavy rain and flooding as it barrels toward Florida. “Don’t be fooled by the downgrade,” Florida governor Ron
Desantis warned during a news conference on Saturday after the storm spent hours roughing up the Bahamas.
Florida authorities closed beaches, parks and virus testing sites, lashing signs to palm trees so they wouldn’t blow away. The governor said the state is anticipating power outages and asked residents to have a week’s supply of water, food and medicine on hand. Officials wrestled with how to prepare shelters where people can seek refuge from the storm if necessary, while safely social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.
In Palm Beach County, about 150 people were in shelters, said emergency management spokeswoman Lisa De La Rionda. The county has a voluntary evacuation order for those living in mobile or manufactured homes, or those who feel their home can’t withstand winds.
“We don’t anticipate many more evacuations,” she said, adding that the evacuees are physically distant from each other and are wearing masks, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Isaias is piling another burden on communities already hard-hit by other storms and sickness.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds declined steadily throughout Saturday, and were at 100 kph) by Sunday morning, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.