Presidential actions Wednesday provided federal money for temporary housing and home repairs, cheap loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help residents and business owners recover, the statement said.
About 300,000 acres have burned this year in New Mexico – more than the last two full years combined, said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller. The Hermits Peak / Calf Canyon fire – the largest in the United States this year and the second largest in New Mexico in at least 30 years – burned more than 165,000 acres by Thursday, destroying dozens of homes and threatening more than 15,000 this week. officials said. Much of the southwestern part is undergoing a prolonged, severe drought, fueled by the climate crisis, which has caused critical fire conditions. Drought conditions have worsened over the past week in much of the southwest and south, deepening the water crisis and setting fires in several states, the US Drought Monitor said in a weekly summary on Thursday.
“In California and the southwest last week, conditions were dry with strong winds observed throughout the region,” the statement said. “Windy dry conditions have worsened weather in Arizona and New Mexico, where several large forest fires at the start of the season are currently affecting the region.
New Mexico recorded the largest increase in the two worst categories of drought – extreme and extreme – adding to the worst markings more than 14,000 square miles, an area about twice the size of New Jersey. Fire conditions in April were the worst in the state in more than a decade, even before typically the busiest months with forest fires in May, June and July, Miller said.
The disaster order can help restore the watershed
The governor of New Mexico this week called for a presidential declaration of disaster, as her state is battling seven wildfires – the most in each state, according to the National Interdepartmental Fire Center. This year is already the most active for fires in New Mexico since 2018, exceeding the average annual burned area of about 260,000 acres, Miller said.
“I have evacuated 6,000 people,” Governor Michel Lujan Grisham said on Tuesday. “I have families who don’t know what the next day looks like. I have families who are trying to manage their children, their own health care resources, make a living, and they’re in every little community.”
The presidential disaster declaration will unlock resources “to restore the watershed, restore all these wild lands and personal direct financial reparations and assistance before the fire goes out,” she said.
According to the order, officials and non-profit organizations are also entitled to assistance in paying for emergency measures, including shelters for evacuation and mitigation throughout the state, the statement said. People in the counties of Colfax, Lincoln, Mora, San Miguel and Valencia can apply.
The Hermites / Calf Canyon fire destroyed 172 homes in Mora and San Miguel counties, officials said Tuesday. The area includes the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, about 85 miles northeast of Albuquerque.
This is a “long-term event”, officials in both counties said. “We do not expect to have” control “over this fire any time soon.
CNN’s Gregory Lemos, Teresa Waldrop, Nicki Carvajal and Monique Smith contributed to this report
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