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California's wildfires could be the costliest disaster in US history, the governor said, as forecasts of high winds raised fears the catastrophic blazes could spread further.
Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, Gavin Newsom said the fires, which have burned at least 22,000 acres, would be the worst the country has ever seen “in terms of the costs associated with them, (and) in terms of size and scope.”
He added that there are likely to be a much higher number of confirmed deaths. The death toll on Saturday evening reached 16 people, according to Los Angeles authorities.
The possibility of a renewed Santa Ana wind Sunday that fueled the fires left tens of thousands of residents under evacuation orders. Fires late Saturday threatened homes in the upscale Mandeville Canyon and Brentwood neighborhood, though officials said they had made progress in halting their advance there.
The National Weather Service forecast wind gusts between 50 and 70 miles per hour.
Newsom, a Democrat, responded to a barrage of attacks from President-elect Donald Trump, who accused the governor of depleting water reserves to protect endangered species of fish, and refused to sign a “Water Restoration Proclamation” that would have “allowed millions of gallons of water… “To flow daily into many parts of California,” Newsom’s office said there was no such announcement.
Trump, who has a long-running feud with Newsom and refers to him as “Newscom,” also called on the Californian president to resign, accusing him of “gross incompetence.”
“The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California,” Newsom said.
He added: “I do not believe that this false and misleading information is helpful or helpful to any of us.” “To respond to Donald Trump’s insults, we will spend another month. I'm familiar with them. “And every elected official who doesn’t agree with him knows them well.”
Newsom also said he invited the president-elect to visit the affected areas, but has not yet heard back from Trump's transition team.
On Sunday, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency raised the possibility of sending US forces to Los Angeles to help control the fire.
“There are active-duty military personnel ready to deploy the system, ready to come in and continue to support the firefighting effort,” Dean Cresswell told ABC's This Week. She warned in an interview with CNN that the strong winds expected in the coming days could lead to the fire spreading further.
An official estimate of the cost of the damage has not yet been released, but analysts at AccuWeather estimated last week that economic losses ranged between $135 billion and $150 billion — less than the $250 billion cost associated with Hurricane Helen last year.
President Biden pledged on Thursday that the US government would pay “100 percent of all costs” resulting from the disaster, and he would ask Congress for more financial aid.
Trump, who during the campaign last year threatened to withhold disaster funding from California, has so far remained silent on whether he would provide similar aid. On Sunday, he renewed his attacks on state officials.
“Incompetent politicians have no idea how to put out (the fires),” he wrote. “There is death everywhere. This is one of the worst disasters in the history of our country. They just can't put out the fires. What's wrong with them?”
