President Trump and first lady Melania Trump flew to the worst impacted areas of eastern Alabama today to review damage from a recent series of tornadoes and comfort victims. Traveling aboard AF1 was Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, and Representative Mike Rogers.
President Trump toured Lee County, Alabama, where 23 people were killed by a massive EF4 tornado almost a mile wide. After Air Force One landed at a military base along the Georgia border, the President took Marine one for an aerial tour of the damage while press followed in two Ospreys.
The President and First Lady then traveled to Beauregard, Alabama, where at least one tornado had maximum impact and visited with survivors of the storm.

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A minimum of two, and possibly as many as five, tornadoes hit eastern Alabama (Lee County) near the Georgia border and devastated several small communities.  Horribly, at least 23 people were killed and the death toll is expected to rise.

(Via Reuters) BEAUREGARD, Ala. –  Alabama residents and rescue workers on Monday dug through the remnants of homes destroyed by a spate of tornadoes that killed at least 23 people, including two children, the deadliest U.S. twisters in almost six years.
The tornadoes ripped through Lee County on Sunday with winds of at least 150 miles per hour (240 kph), at the midpoint of the six-step Enhanced Fujita scale, which meteorologists use to measure tornado strength.

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The latest updates from Paradise, California, according to Butte County Sheriff and Cal Fire:

• Two more bodies located Friday.  Death toll now: 81
• Number of Missing Persons rises again to: 870  [list here]
• Number of homes lost is now: 12,637
• Number of commercial buildings lost is now: 483

Important video information below:
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A guilt ridden departing governor Jerry Brown concedes that President Donald Trump is absolutely correct in the California mismanagement of the forestry.  With the death of untold numbers of people –yet to be discovered– Jerry Brown knew immediate changes were needed to logging regulations to thin the California forests.  Trump was right!

CALIFORNIA August 2018 – Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing broad new changes to California’s logging rules that would allow landowners to cut larger trees and build temporary roads without obtaining a permit as a way to thin more forests across the state.
The proposal — which has the support of the timber industry but is being opposed by more than a dozen environmental groups — would represent one of the largest changes to the state’s timber harvesting rules in the past 45 years.

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Boy, is this video ever interesting.  In the first several minutes of the video (briefing) Governor Brown and Governor-elect Newsom are absent.  Likely both are receiving massive inbound communication from their political teams and national democrats who are watching every granular moment/optic for political damage and giving advice.
After Brown and Newsom finally show up, their lack of actual connection to the crisis being explained in front of them is jaw-dropping. Watch their body language, they are oblivious to the actual issues at hand and have no questions for the SME’s. Stunning.  Absolutely stunning.

As a comparative mental exercise in competence.  Compare two states, of similar size, similar populations, amid similar crises.
Contrast Governor Brown in these moments against Florida Governor Rick Scott following the hurricanes.  Brown appears detached, lost, and incapable (perhaps unwilling) to understand the details of the challenge (past and present); whereas Florida Governor Rick Scott was/is entirely engaged, entirely absorbed in the details of rescue and recovery, and entirely understanding of the challenges in each event.
What a contrast.
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President Trump is in Paradise, California, with Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom to review the absolute horror as the death toll from the worst wildfire in California history continues to climb.  Up to a thousand people are still missing.
President Trump carefully couches his anger and delivers remarks at 01:15

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Unimaginable sadness.  According to the latest official briefing, seven more bodies were located today in the Califorinia region impacted by the horrific ‘Camp Fire’.  This brings the total death toll to 63 with hundreds still missing…

CALIFORNIA – Authorities have reported seven more fatalities from a blaze in Northern California, bringing the total number of fatalities so far to 63 in the deadliest wildfire in state history.
The announcement came Thursday as authorities continued to search the devastated town of Paradise for human remains.

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Terrible news from the region just north of Sacramento California where the devastating ‘Camp Fire’ impacted the town of Paradise.  Late Wednesday evening search and recovery workers located another eight sets of human remains bringing the total death toll from this single fire event to 56.   The death toll is anticipated to climb…

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and FEMA Director Brock Long visited the devastated area today to thank firefighters and rescue workers.  The search for bodies is gruesome as some human remains are found inside burned structures and others outside.

CALIFORNIA – 9 p.m. ET: As of Wednesday night, eight more human remains have been found, bringing the death toll to 56. Six of them were found inside structures and two were found outside. Statewide, the death toll is 59 (including three from the Woolsey Fire).
There have been more than 10,000 structures destroyed by the Camp Fire, including homes. The total amount of evacuated residents remains at 52,000 people.
The Camp Fire containment remains at 35 percent. Some 138,000 acres have been scorched.

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PARADISE, Calif. (Reuters) – The charred remains of 14 more people have been found in and around a Northern California town overrun by flames from a massive wildfire, officials said on Saturday, raising the death toll to at least 23.

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The bodies were recovered in and around Paradise, a mountain community some 90 miles (145 km) north of Sacramento that has been left devastated by the Camp Fire, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Scott Maclean said (read more)
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For those who know the stages of hurricane recovery, specifically in the deep southeast and Florida region, there is no needed explanation for the importance of this video and the subsequent joy.

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For those who don’t know – this convoy means the catastrophic stages of rescue work and the painstaking process of going block by block therein is complete.  People are now safe. Primary arteries are clear.  Massive numbers of power crews are working to rebuild the grid; tens of thousands of tons of debris being removed. [Much of what is now called “debris” represents the cherished belongings of thousands of lives.]
Now it’s time to try and restore some sense of normalcy for those who have been so incredibly impacted, and commit to a long-term rebuilding process. For many outsiders it’s just an innocuous convoy; yet for others it represents a purposeful recovery phase where we have counted our blessings and live thankfully, neighbor-to-neighbor, hand-in-hand, in fellowship.
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