“We have a responsibility to help the state recover,” Biden told elected officials and emergency responders in an afternoon briefing from the state capital examining efforts to fight the state’s biggest fire in recorded history. “I am announcing today that the federal government is covering 100% of the cost,” Biden said, although he had said earlier in the day that he would need congressional approval for funding. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “We will be here for you as a response and recovery as needed,” Biden said, adding that he saw an “amazing” amount on the perimeter of the area that had been burned on the flight to Santa Fe. “It looks like a lunar landscape,” he said. Due to drought and wind, the fire has destroyed hundreds of homes in the mountains northeast of Santa Fe since two US Forest Service (USFS) fires went out of control in April. read more Air Force One circled around fire damage in New Mexico, allowing Biden to see burned forests and plumes of smoke from the sky before landing and greeting the governor and other elected officials who had asked for more financial support from the federal government. Local officials told Biden they did not currently have sufficient resources to forecast the weather or help residents affected. “Our people are tired, angry, and afraid of the future they face,” said David Dye, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
“THIS WAS HUMANIZED”
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from Indo-Spanish rural villages with twice the national poverty rate, overturning fragile economies where residents cut firewood and raise hay to make ends meet. “This is not a natural disaster, it was man-made by a government entity,” said Ella Arelano, whose family lost hundreds of acres of forest around the village of Holman. “It’s a mess, just a big mess that will take generations to come to terms with.” With more than 320,000 acres (129,500 acres) of mountains blackened by the Hermits Peak Calf Canyon – an area about the size of Los Angeles – communities are preparing for mud landslides, ash flows and flooding in areas where extreme wildfires have hit forests. the water absorption equivalent of asphalt. To date, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided more than $ 3 million to more than 900 households. But the maximum FEMA payments of about $ 40,000 for damaged homes are in some cases not enough to make up for the loss of burned-out farm equipment, which in a home was probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether Biden’s promise of federal support would cover only emergency response or would also include damages. The blaze is burning alongside another in southwestern New Mexico, the second-largest in the state’s history, underscoring concerns that climate change is exacerbating wildfires that threaten to destroy most of the southwestern U.S. forests. Investigators found that a USFS-controlled burn went off the border on April 6 to start the Hermits Peak fire. The Calf Canyon fire was caused by a pile of USFS logs and twigs on April 19. The two fires were joined on April 22. To prevent fires from spreading, land managers sometimes use controlled burns to reduce small trees, shrubs, and other material that feeds fires. The U.S. Forest Service has since called for a nationwide cessation of the practice, and is reviewing the procedures. [nL2N2XC2KJ] Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico and Trevor Hunnicutt in Santa Fe. Writes Michael Martina. Edited by Aurora Ellis Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
