Wildfires Break Out In Appalachia Amid Deepening Drought

By AP | Last updated: Nov 16, 2016 - 11:25:33 AM

Image: droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

ATLANTA (AP)—Unseasonably warm dry weather has deepened a drought that’s igniting forest fires across the southeastern U.S., forcing people to flee homes in the Appalachian Mountains and blanketing Atlanta in a smoky haze.

The national drought report on Nov. 10 showed 41.6 million people in parts of 15 Southern states living in drought conditions. The worst drought is in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, but extreme drought also is spreading into the western Carolinas, and Kentucky and Tennessee had the most fires.

All but two of the 61 active large wildfires nationwide Nov. 10 were in the Southeast, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Nearly a dozen large fires were uncontained, with 14 more breaking out that day alone.

“Right now we’re kind of holding our own,” said Jennifer Turner, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky’s state Division of Forestry. “We’ve been able to get control over some of the smaller fires.”

Nearly 390 firefighters and support crews and half a dozen water-dumping helicopters were battling 20 fires in Kentucky Nov. 10 that together have burned nearly 20,000 acres, Ms.Turner said.

Humidity is so low in the normally lush Appalachians that forestry officials are bracing for more.

North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for a fourth of his state’s 100 counties, to help with evacuations and provide more assets to fight the fires.

Authorities also made two arson arrests in eastern Kentucky, and citied another man for causing a brush fire while defying a burn ban. Tennessee authorities also reported arrests for arson and burning violations.

Bans on outdoor burning were in effect across the drought zone, and in Alabama, authorities extended that ban throughout the state, where drought is choking 80 percent of the land, drying up streams and lakes and killing plants. Firefighters were battling three active wildfires in Alabama on Nov. 10, the latest of more than 1,100 fires that have charred nearly 12,000 acres in the last month.

An aircraft from the U.S. Forestry Service drops fi re retardant on a wildfi re burning along the Flipper Bend area of Signal Mountain in Hamilton County, Tenn., on Nov. 9. Wildfi res burning across the South have created a smoky haze over metro Atlanta and prompted a public health advisory in Kentucky, and the forests are expected to continue burning for days as flaming leaves fall to the ground and spread the flames. Other fires were burning in parts of Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Tuscaloosa and Birmingham have both tied or broken records for days without measurable rain; neither has had more than sprinkles since late September. And Noccalula Falls, a popular attraction on Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama, has been bone dry for weeks.

“It’s fed by Black Creek and the creek is dry. There’s not even a trickle going over the falls,” Kaila Fair, manager at the adjoining campground, said Nov. 10.

In mountainous western North Carolina, people living on five roads near one roaring blaze were advised to leave their homes, and residents of 38 more homes in another part of the state were told to evacuate ahead of a separate wildfire.

A large wildfire burning through a rugged and thinly populated part of the north Georgia mountains this week sent a smoky haze over Atlanta. Haze also settled over Chattanooga area, where firefighters were trying to save homes on both Signal Mountain and Mowbray Mountain.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced federal funds to reimburse some of the firefighting costs in response to a request from Tennessee.

Drought conditions also are persisting in parts of the Florida panhandle and portions of Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri, according to the Drought Monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, patriarch of the Nation of Islam taught that Allah (God ) would use the forces of nature to chastise America for her continued mistreatment and deception inflicted upon the Black and Indigenous man and woman of America. His National Representative, Minister Louis Farrakhan continues to warn, “watch the weather,” and did so again recently on Nov. 5 in front of a capacity crowd in North Charleston, S.C.

In Mr. Muhammad’s seminal book, “The Fall of America”, he writes in a chapter titled, “America’s Dreaded Destiny” about “All of the plagues, destructions and judgment which Allah (God) used to destroy the wicked and disobedient from the time of Adam until this day will be brought upon America. Then she will be burned with fire. This is the time of trouble that shall bring America into insanity.”

(Final Call staff contributed to this report.)

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