President Trump Declares Oregon Wildfires A Disaster

US President Donald Trump officially declared the wildfires in the western state of Oregon a disaster on Tuesday.

 

With that, federal money could be made available for victims of the fires, subsidies, temporary housing and favourable loans for uninsured people who have lost their homes, the White House said.

Thousands of evacuees are already entering their second week in emergency shelters as firefighters fight the flames and rescue teams search the charred remains of houses and towns for the missing.

Due to limited resources, the state of Oregon is no longer able to cope with the crisis in its current magnitude. Governor Kate Brown, therefore, enlisted federal help.

Thousands of fires have reduced some 1.8 million acres of scrub, field and forest in the states of Oregon, California and Washington since August. Little is left of several towns and thousands of homes, and at least 34 people died.

In the past week, eight deaths have been confirmed in Oregon alone. That state is the most recent site of wildfires in the western United States this summer. It is also the area with the greatest concentration of wildfires.