Local stories: FEMA has stepped in to help fight the wildfire in Flipper Bend; Wildfires continue across region with no rain imminent; some residents evacuated
ATLANTA (AP) – Unseasonable warmth and no rain have deepened a drought that’s igniting forest fires across the southeastern U.S. and forcing people to evacuate dozens of homes in the Appalachian Mountains.
Thursday’s national drought report shows 41.6 million people in parts of 15 southern states now live in drought conditions. The worst is in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, but extreme drought also is spreading into western North and South Carolina.
All but two of the 61 active large wildfires nationwide Thursday were in the Southeast, according to the U.S. Forest Service, and most were being fought in Tennessee and Kentucky. Nearly a dozen large fires were uncontained, with 14 more breaking out Thursday alone.
In mountainous western North Carolina, people living on five roads near one roaring blaze were advised to leave their homes, and residents of 38 more homes in another part of the state were told to evacuate ahead of a separate wildfire.