Rain douses most of California's Camp Fire, but brings new threats to recovery efforts
After more than two weeks of destruction, northern California's Camp Fire is almost out.
The state's deadliest wildfire was 95 percent contained as of Friday morning, per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The official death count now sits at 84, but 560 still remain missing as new natural disasters threaten recovery efforts, per USA Today.
As the massive Camp Fire swept the area north of Sacramento, it destroyed the entire town of Paradise and sent toxic air as far south as San Francisco. About 14,000 homes and nearly 5,000 other buildings were destroyed, per Friday's count. Rain finally arrived on Tuesday, helping firefighters douse the flames and restoring the Bay Area's air quality to "good" from its "very unhealthy" designation a few days ago, per the San Francisco Chronicle. Most firefighters have turned to searching for bodies and potential survivors.
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But heavy rain isn't always a good thing. The California hills are now prone to mudslides now that trees have burned down and debris has piled up, and the National Weather Service has put the area under a flash flood watch. Strengthening winds in the area also "could topple trees already weakened by fire and rain-soaked soil," the Chronicle writes. Some firefighting efforts stalled Thursday amid these threats. Still, firefighters now hope to completely put out the Camp Fire by Nov. 30.
Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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