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A cross-country storm system tore through the South and the Midwest over the weekend, accompanied by tornadoes, dust storms and wildfires. Severe damage was reported in at least eight states.Number of reported deaths from storms and firesOfficials reported at least 40 deaths across seven states that have been attributed to severe weather in the South and Midwest. More
Hundreds of homes and other buildings were destroyed in Oklahoma, as fierce winds and wildfires swept the region. More than 150 blazes were burning in Oklahoma alone, damaging many structures and hundreds of thousands of acres, and causing one death.Nick Oxford/ReutersWhen Geraldine and Charles Wyrick heard shouts ring out through their community of a dozen trailer homes on Friday afternoon near Wellston, Okla., they knew the fires were near. It was time to get out. As Ms. Wyrick rushed to her Chevy Tahoe, and Mr. Wyrick to his pickup truck, they noticed that a neighboring family of five did not have a working vehicle. They, too, scrambled into the truck, along with several dogs. In the chaos, there was no time to salvage any personal belongings.On Saturday, talking at an emergency shelter in Stillwater, Okla., Mr. Wyrick, a 70-year old retired mechanic, said their home and entire neighborhood had likely been destroyed by the fire, alongside many of his prized possessions: a pontoon boat, three trailers and a tractor.“It got everything,” his wife said.From the Texas Panhandle to the suburbs of Oklahoma City, residents braced on Saturday to assess the damage after wildfires and smoke forced many to evacuate.In Oklahoma, nearly 300 homes and other structures were destroyed, Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a news conference on Saturday. At least 50 of those structures were in Stillwater, home to about 50,000 people and Oklahoma State University.Videos on social media showed houses consumed by flames. He described visiting neighborhoods where just a few homes had been spared, while the rest were little more than rubble.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
On a Sunday in February, a white Ford van zigzagged through the fire-ravaged neighborhood of Altadena, Calif. Ash piles lined front yards. Charred washing machines sat on bare concrete foundations.“I can’t imagine coming back to this,” said Albert Kyi, a graduate student researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, briefly looking up from his laptop and out the van’s window.He and his colleagues, however, were there to help people learn whether it was safe to do just that. A mast poking out from the van’s roof was sending readings on hundreds of compounds in the air to the laptop. This laboratory on wheels was so sensitive, Mr. Kyi said, that it could detect the chemicals produced by someone peeling an orange outside.The data the team was gathering was part of a newly launched study tracking the health impacts of the Los Angeles wildfires over the next decade. By traversing the 38,000 acres that encompass the two burn zones in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades along with the surrounding region, the researchers hope to fill gaps in the data on air, soil and water quality. Already, they have found cause for concern.More than 16,000 homes and buildings were destroyed, and another 2,000 were damaged during the recent fires. So far, there is only limited information for the tens of thousands of residents returning home to the affected areas about whether or when it might be safe to grow vegetables in their backyards, swim in their pools or go for a morning run, especially as rebuilding efforts stir up potentially toxic ash.On weather apps, the Air Quality Index that day indicated that the air above Altadena posed little risk.The sky was blue, and there was even a cyclist on the streets.But the van’s readings told a different story.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
Firefighters in New York were continuing to battle at least one brush fire in a wooded stretch of Long Island on Sunday with the wealthy coastal enclave of the Hamptons vulnerable and officials warning that high wind gusts threatened to ignite further blazes.The state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency on Saturday after four separate fires broke out. The flames were spreading across large swaths of the narrow strip of barrier land that stretches for more than 100 miles east from New York City out towards the Atlantic Ocean.A huge fire in Long Island’s Pine Barrens region prompted road closures and evacuations of a military base.As of Sunday morning, three of the fires had been contained, while one was still burning in the hamlet of Westhampton, according to Michael Martino, a spokesperson for Suffolk county executive Ed Romaine.Local fire crews, as well as the air national guard, worked through the night, containing roughly 80% of the blaze, according to Martino.He said the Suffolk county police department’s arson squad had initiated an investigation into the blaze, though there was no immediate evidence to suggest arson.At least two commercial structures had been damaged. One firefighter was flown to a hospital to be treated for burns to the face on Saturday.Massive clouds of smoke billowed and flames towered over the Sunrise highway that leads to the Hamptons, the string of historic seaside communities flanked by magnificent sandy beaches with rolling waves and dotted with summer mansions of the rich and famous.According to the National Weather Service, wind gusts of up to 30mph were expected on Sunday, making it more difficult to extinguish parts that were still burning.“Our biggest problem is the wind,” Romaine said at an earlier news conference. “It is driving this fire.”Roughly 15 miles west, officials were monitoring a small brush fire along Sunrise highway early on Sunday, Brookhaven town supervisor Daniel Panico said. More
An official said that dozens of agencies were fighting multiple fires on Saturday. At least one firefighter was injured.Multiple wildfires broke out on Long Island on Saturday amid high-risk fire conditions of low humidity and gusty winds, forcing the closure of sections of a highway in Suffolk County and drawing the response of dozens of agencies.At a news conference on Saturday evening, Ed Romaine, the Suffolk County executive, said that one firefighter was hospitalized with second-degree burns to the face. Two structures also burned in the fire, he said.“We maximized our firefighting capabilities to stop this fire from spreading and then we tried to contain it,” Mr. Romaine said. “But it is not under control as I speak.”Mr. Romaine added that he did not expect the fire to be fully out until Sunday because of the high winds.The fire in the Westhampton area was roughly 50 percent contained by Saturday evening, Rudy Sunderman, the Suffolk County fire coordinator, said at the news conference.Mr. Romaine said in a statement earlier that more than 80 agencies were involved in fighting three fires in eastern Long Island. More
Zoe Saldaña stood in the middle of Vanity Fair’s Oscars after-party Sunday night, holding an In-N-Out burger in one hand and her best supporting actress statuette in the other.She hugged Cynthia Erivo twice and then grinned for a selfie with Gayle King. Queen Latifah applauded as she twirled at the center of a dance circle.If Adrien Brody had similar moves, he kept them to himself. He brought along his Oscar for best actor and his parents, who were asked over and over about how proud they must be of their son.“We’re so ashamed,” his father, Elliot Brody, deadpanned.At Vanity Fair’s annual post-Oscars party, the ceremony’s victors and also-rans streamed in one after another for a stiff drink or a victory lap.Kim Kardashian, left, and Helena ChristensenParis HiltonHalle BerryDanielle Brooks, left, and Cynthia ErivoWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
Gusty winds combined with dry air and unusually high temperatures were fueling the rapid spread of fires on Saturday.Brush fires fueled by gusty winds and dry conditions broke out on Saturday in North and South Carolina, prompting the authorities to order evacuations in several communities.On Saturday afternoon, a brush fire in the mountains was threatening Tryon and Saluda, small communities about 40 miles south of Asheville, N.C.Polk County said multiple fire departments were responding to a blaze threatening Meadowlark Drive in Tryon, which was evacuated. Tryon’s population is about 1,500, and Saluda’s less than 1,000.The county said on social media that the Tryon brush fire was spreading rapidly and that multiple fire departments had been mobilized.A brush fire along the South Carolina coast was threatening Carolina Forest, S.C., just west of Myrtle Beach. That fire was 75 percent contained as of early Saturday night, according to the South Carolina Forestry Commission.“Crews are continuing to work toward the containment of this fire,” the Horry County Fire Rescue, which is leading efforts to fight the fire, said on social media on Saturday evening. Several neighborhoods in Carolina Forest were under an evacuation order.Another fire broke out near Six Mile, S.C., a rural town about 30 miles west of Greenville. County officials there had recommended evacuations along several streets but, as of Saturday evening, no evacuations had been ordered.The fires ignited while a large portion of the southeastern United States was under a red-flag warning, an alert from the National Weather Service indicating a high risk of fires.Gusty winds, dry air and afternoon high temperatures in the low 70s helped fuel the rapid spread of the fires.Another factor: South Carolina had unusually low rainfall in February, and the vegetation is dry. For instance, Myrtle Beach, S.C., has recorded 2.30 inches of rain since Jan. 1, compared with 6.30 inches of rain that is considered normal for this time of year. North Carolina was a bit wetter last month, though it also received below-average rainfall.The fire risk is expected to decrease overnight as winds ease. The red flag warnings were set to expire at 10 p.m. on Saturday.Claire Fahy More
The US Forest Service is firing about 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 workers under Donald Trump’s push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy, according to a report on Friday.The terminations target employees who are in their probationary employment periods, which includes anyone hired less than a year ago, according to Reuters, and will affect sites such as the Appalachian trail, Yellowstone, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the Sequoia national forest.The cuts represent about 10% of the Forest Service workforce and about 5% of National Park Service employees, but excludes firefighters, law enforcement and certain meteorologists, as well as 5,000 seasonal workers, from the cutbacks.“Allowing parks to hire seasonal staff is essential, but staffing cuts of this magnitude will have devastating consequences for parks and communities,” the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) president, Theresa Pierno, said in a statement.The association warned in a statement this month that staffing levels were not keeping pace with increasing demands on the national park system, which saw 325m visits in 2023 alone – an increase of 13m from 2022.Kristen Brengel, the NPCA’s senior vice-president of government affairs, warned that visitors from around the world expecting a once-in-a-lifetime experience could now be faced with “overflowing trash, uncleaned bathrooms and fewer rangers to provide guidance”.Like other government agencies, the National Park Service was taken by surprise by a late January order from the White House office of management and budget pausing federal grants. The administration rescinded the order two days later and is re-evaluating it.Across the federal government, about 280,000 employees out of the 2.3 million-member civilian federal workforce were hired in the last two years, with most still on probation and easier to fire, according to government data.In addition to the visits to national parks, about 159 million people visit national forests annually. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, said it could not comment on personnel matters.The agriculture department said in a statement that protecting people and communities, as well as infrastructure, businesses and resources, remains “a top priority”.“Our wildland firefighter and other public safety positions are of the utmost priority,” it added.However, the federal funding freeze is affecting programs meant to mitigate wildfire risk in western states as well as freezing the hiring of seasonal firefighters.The reduction in resources for wildfire prevention comes a month after devastating blazes in Los Angeles that are expected to be the costliest in US history.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Oregon-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project non-profit said its contracts with federal agencies, including the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, to reduce hazardous fuels in Oregon, California and Idaho have been frozen.“The funding freeze has impacted more than 30 separate grants and agreements that Lomakatsi has with federal agencies, including pending awards as well as active agreements that are already putting work on the ground,” the project’s executive director, Marko Bey, said in a letter to the senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.A spokesperson for the interior department, the parent agency of the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, said it was reviewing funding decisions.Senate Democrats have called on the administration to unlock fire-mitigation funding, and separately have asked interior and agriculture department leadership to exempt seasonal firefighters from a broad federal hiring freeze.Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group for federal firefighters, said its members have been unable to hire the hundreds of firefighters that are typically brought on at this time of year to gear up for the summer fire season.“The agencies already have had a recruitment and retention problem,” Riva Duncan, vice-president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said in an interview. “This just exacerbates that problem.” More
