Governor requests state of emergency declaration for state fire

Source: Sacramento Bee

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sent a letter to President Bush through the Federal Emergency Management Agency requesting that he declare an emergency for the state of California as a result of the more than 1,000 fires ignited by lightning and the 265,000 acres that have burned to date.

The governor is requesting direct federal assistance, debris removal and emergency protective measures, including air and ground firefighting resources, evacuation operations and sheltering of displaced people and animals for the counties of Butte, Mendocino, Monterey, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta and Trinity.

Dear Mr. President,

Under the provisions of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. § 5121 et seq. (the Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, I request that you expeditiously declare an emergency for the State of California as a result of wildfires, exacerbated by drought conditions, high winds and lightning strikes beginning on or about May 22, 2008 and continuing throughout Northern California, including, but not limited to, the counties of Butte, Mendocino, Monterey, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta and Trinity.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/102/story/1044497.html

that where I live (central San Joaquin valley), at least 100+ miles away from any fire, the smoke is like a fog bank hanging over us.

When the sun actually breaks through for a few minutes everything has a reddish cast to it.

Im getting tired of smelling smoke.

And the sky here is persistently hazy. I haven't seen "blue" in several days.

my relatives are on the C. Ca., coast and they are all feeling not so good breathing all that smoke. This is in Earth Observatory's new images and is from yesterday's image (June 26th).
Yuck!



There are other images at the link as well as the story:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14912&src=map

No wonder I can't see any sky!

BTW, I smelled the smoke clear down here in LOS ANGELES this morning. They said on the news it is going to cause a smog alert for us today.

You know how the White House doesn't like opening emails!!!!

Sure glad our helicopters and other stuff are over keepin' Iraq safe!