(OPINION) Michael Snyder – At this hour, a thick blanket of smoke from the horrific wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington is covering much of the western portion of the country.
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon has used the word “apocalyptic” to describe the utter devastation that has been caused by these fires, and that is not an exaggeration whatsoever. There are some small towns that have literally been wiped off the face of the map during the past week, and some of them may never be rebuilt.
This has already been a wildfire season like no other along the west coast, and we are just now entering the heart of the 2020 fire season. It is very difficult to imagine another couple months of this, but that is potentially what we are facing. By the time that it is over, nobody living on the west coast will ever forget the chaos that this wildfire season has caused.
Some of the largest fires have been burning for weeks, and all of the smoke is having a dramatic impact on large cities such as San Francisco… The cityscape resembles the surface of a distant planet, populated by a masked alien culture. The air, choked with blown ash, is difficult to breathe.
There is the Golden Gate Bridge, looming in the distance through a drift-smoke haze, and the Salesforce Tower, which against the blood-orange sky appears as a colossal spaceship in a doomsday film. San Francisco, and much of California, has never been like this.
Yes, every year there are wildfires, but what we are watching this year is on an entirely different level. The following are 11 facts that prove the apocalyptic wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington and unlike anything we have seen before…
#1 According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 30,000 firefighters are currently contending with 94 large fires that have burned more than 4.6 million acres in 12 western states.
#2 40 of those large fires have prompted evacuation orders, and many have been forced to flee “with just the clothes on their backs” because the fires have moved so rapidly.
#3 The August Complex Fire has already officially become the largest wildfire in the history of the state of California, and at this hour it continues to rage out of control.
#4 Five of the ten largest wildfires in California history have happened in 2020.
#5 In Oregon, 40,000 people have already been evacuated, and hundreds of thousands more have been told to prepare to potentially evacuate. CONTINUE
