California ‘Apple Fire’ forces 8,000 to evacuate; storm Isaias brushes past Florida, heads up US East Coast
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 MOVES ALONG EASTERN COAST
Isaias, downgraded from a hurricane but still a powerful tropical storm, moved along Florida’s eastern coast on Sunday, bringing strong winds but no longer posing a storm surge threat.
The storm is forecast to move upward along the East Coast and reach Washington, Philadelphia and New York City on Tuesday before moving into New England.
On its current path, Isaias will move near or over Florida’s east coast during Sunday, the Miamibased NHC said. On Monday and
Tuesday, its center would move from offshore of the coast of Georgia into the southern mid-atlantic states. Little change was expected in the storm’s strength in the next couple of days, the NHC said.
The Palm Beach area, where President Donald Trump’s Mara-lago resort is located, emerged largely unscathed from the storm after it brushed off its coast, with authorities reporting no widespread damage and no flooding.
“We still are experiencing some winds,” Lisa Delarionda, a spokeswoman for Palm Beach County said on Sunday. “However, based on the latest forecast, those winds should be dying down early afternoon.”
Although it appeared that Isaias’ impact on Florida would not be severe, the storm provided local emergency management with a “real-world scenario” of what extreme weather preparation and response could look like in the midst of a public health emergency as the states battles the coronavirus pandemic, Delarionda said.
The NHC discontinued a storm surge watch for Florida on Sunday, but warned that the South and North Carolina coast could still be hit by storm surges - when a storm pushes tidal levels above normal - of up to 4 feet (1.22 m). A tropical storm warning was issued for both states, according to the NHC.