TODAYS TOP HEADLINES
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Saturday, November 17, 2018 3A
N. CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE
Officials looking to
account for hundreds
missing in fire’s wake
Fla. hand recount in
US Senate race begins
Unofficial results show Scott up on Nelson by 0.15 percentage points
BY KELLI KENNEDY
AND CHRIS O’MEARA
Associated Press
WILFREDO LEE I Associated Press
Workers at the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office, foreground, show Republican
Democrat observers ballots during a hand recount, Friday, Nov. 16, in Lauderhill, Fla.
BY KATHLEEN RONAYNE
AND SUDHIN THANAWALA
Associated Press
CHICO — With 63 peo
ple confirmed dead in
the Northern California
wildfire, authorities Fri
day tried to winnow down
a slapped-together list of
the missing more than 600
names long, hoping many
of them got out safely in the
chaos over a week ago.
President Donald Trump,
meanwhile, will travel to the
disaster zone Saturday to get
a look at the grief and dam
age caused by the deadliest
U.S. wildfire in a century,
and he could face resent
ment from locals for blam
ing the inferno on poor forest
management in California.
In an interview taped
Friday and scheduled for
broadcast on “Fox News
Sunday,” Trump said he
was surprised to see images
of firefighters removing
dried brush near a fire,
adding, “This should have
been all raked out.”
As the search for bodies
continued, Butte County
spokeswoman Miranda Bow-
ersox said the “unaccounted
for” list released by the sher
iffs office late Thursday was
an effort to put names out
there so people can call in to
say they are OK.
The roster probably
includes some who fled the
blaze and do not realize
they’ve been reported miss
ing, Sheriff Kory Honea said.
Some on the list have
been confirmed as dead by
family and friends on social
media. Others have been
located and are safe, but
authorities haven’t gotten
around to marking them as
found.
Tamara Conry said she
should never have been on
the list.
“My husband and I are
not missing and never
were!” Conry wrote Thurs
day night on Facebook.
“We have no family looking
for us.... I called and left a
message to take our names
off.”
Authorities compiled the
list by going back to listen
to all the dispatch calls
they received since the fire
started, to make sure they
didn’t miss anyone.
In last year’s catastrophic
wildfires in California wine
country, Sonoma County
authorities at one point
listed more than 2,000
people as missing. But they
slowly whittled down the
number. In the end, 44 peo
ple died in several counties.
The wildfire this time all
but razed the town of Para
dise, population 27,000, and
heavily damaged the outly
ing communities of Maga-
lia and Concow on Nov. 8,
destroying 9,700 houses and
144 apartment buildings,
authorities said.
Firefighters continued
to gain ground against the
blaze, which blackened
222 square miles but was
45 percent contained and
posed no immediate threat
to populated areas. Crews
managed to stop it from
spreading toward Oroville,
population 19,000.
This patch of California, a
former Gold Rush region in
the Sierra Nevada foothills,
is to some extent Trump
country, with Trump beat
ing Hillary Clinton in Butte
County by 4 percentage
points in 2016.
But some survivors
resent that Trump took
to Twitter two days after
the disaster to blame the
wildfires on poor for
est mismanagement. He
threatened to withhold
federal payments from
California.
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In his Fox News inter
view on the eve of his visit,
the president repeated
his criticism. Asked if he
thought climate change
contributed to the fires, he
said: “Maybe it contributes
a little bit. The big problem
we have is management.”
“If you insult people, then
you go visit them, how do
you think you’re going to be
accepted? You’re not going
to have a parade,” Maggie
Crowder of Magalia said
Thursday outside an infor
mal shelter at a Walmart
parking lot in Chico.
But Stacy Lazzarino,
who voted for Trump, said
it would be good for the
president to see the devas
tation up close: “I think by
maybe seeing it he’s going
to be like ‘Oh my goodness,’
and it might start opening
people’s eyes.”
Nick Shawkey, a captain
with the state fire agency,
said the president’s tweet
blaming poor forest manage
ment was based on a “misun
derstanding” because much
of the forest land in Califor
nia is controlled by the U.S.
Forest Service.
“The thing he’s tweet
ing about is his property,”
Shawkey said.
There were also worries
the presidential visit would
be disruptive.
“It’s already a zoo here
and I don’t care who the
president is. He needs to
wait because the traffic’s
already horrendous,” said
Charlotte Harkness, whose
home in Paradise burned
down. “He could just tweet
something nice — three
words: ‘I am sorry,’ and
that’s fine.”
More than 450 search
ers continued looking for
human remains in the
ashes.
Around 52,000 people
have been driven out and
have gone to shelters,
motels and the homes of
friends and relatives. With
winter coming on, many are
seeking answers on what
assistance will be provided.
FORTLAUDERDALE
— Volunteers gathered
around tables Friday to
begin a painstaking hand
recount in Florida’s U.S.
Senate contest, with a goal
of determining the intent
of about 93,000 voters
whose ballots for Repub
lican Gov. Rick Scott or
Democratic Sen. Bill Nel
son could not be counted
by machine.
The hand recount is
required whenever can
didates are separated by
0.25 percentage points
or less. Unofficial results
showed Scott ahead of
Nelson by 0.15 percent
age points, or fewer than
13,000 votes out of more
than 8 million cast.
In Broward County,
officials relied on a color-
coded system to tally
some of the last ballots by
hand.
Ballots with clear votes
for Republican Gov. Rick
Scott went into a bin with
a red tag. Clear votes for
Democratic Sen. Bill Nel
son went into one with
a blue tag. Blank ballots
went into a bin with a
yellow tag. Anything that
needed further examina
tion by the canvassing
board was dropped into
one with a green tag.
Dozens of volunteers
sitting behind the bins
stacked on folding tables
in a Broward County
warehouse cheered
loudly when they finished
their hand recount Friday
morning. Results were not
immediately announced.
At the election super
visor’s office in Tampa,
volunteers were joined by
observers from both polit
ical parties at 12 tables as
the recount started.
The ballots were in a
locked wire basket on a
rolling cart when they
were delivered to the
room. An elections employee
cut the lock off the basket,
and the ballots were distrib
uted, where teams of two vol
unteers examined each one.
The hand recount does
not review all votes. It
involves ballots that were not
recorded by voting machines
because voters cast either
two votes for one race, which
is called an overvote, or
appeared to choose no candi
date, which is an undervote.
The idea is to figure out a
voter’s intent.
Broward County — which
experienced numerous prob
lems throughout the election
— had the most overvotes
and undervotes of any Flor
ida county — almost 31,000.
Just a day earlier, the
county missed the deadline
to submit its machine recount
results by two minutes. But it
finished its manual recount
in just a few hours, which
Elections Supervisor Brenda
Snipes attributed to the large
number of volunteers assem
bled for the task.
The contest for gover
nor appeared all but over
Thursday, with a machine
recount showing Republican
DeSantis with a large enough
advantage over Democrat
Andrew Gillum to avoid a
hand recount, which had a
margin of 0.41 percent.
Gillum, who conceded on
election night only to retract
his concession later, said in a
statement that “it is not over
until every legally casted
vote is counted.”
On Friday, however, Presi
dent Donald Trump tweeted:
“Congratulations to Ron
DeSantis on becoming the
new Governor of Florida.
Against all odds, he fought
& fought & fought, the result
being a historic victory. He
never gave up and never will.
He will be a great Governor!”
The overall recount has
been fraught with prob
lems. One large Demo
cratic stronghold in South
Florida could not finish its
machine recount by the
Thursday deadline because
of machines breaking down.
A federal judge rejected a
request to extend the recount
deadline.
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