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TODAYS TOP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Thursday, November 22, 2018 3A
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE
Light rain falling could
impair search effort
Crews fear flash floods, mudslides will complicate recovery of remains
BY KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press
JOHN LOCHER I Associated Press
A search and rescue dog searches for human remains Friday, Nov. 16, at the Camp Fire, in
Paradise, Calif.
AP Explains: The hunt for missing, dead
Why does the number of
‘missing’ keep fluctuating?
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea
releases a daily list of names of people
who are unaccounted for, saying he doesn’t
expect it to be an accurate tally of the miss
ing. He calls it a liberal roster of “raw data”
intended to prompt people — some who
may not know they have been reported
missing — to call in and say they’re safe.
How is the list compiled?
Names are compiled from emails,
phone calls and emergency dispatch
reports, Honea said. The number of names
ramped up in part because deputies went
back to calls from the early hours of the
disaster, when people were calling franti
cally for help finding friends and family.
Is it possible hundreds are dead?
Honea has declined to speculate on
the eventual scope of deaths, preferring
to instead release nightly updates on the
death toll based on remains that have
been recovered.
Who runs search, recovery?
The Butte County sheriff’s office is
leading the effort, with assistance from
search and recovery teams, cadaver
detection and coroners’ units from other
counties, California, other states and the
U.S. government.
Why so much confusion?
Sonoma County sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer
Crum says his office took some 2,200
reports of missing people during last
year’s devastating wildfires in Northern
California wine country. Eventually, 24
were confirmed dead. Most were identi
fied within the first month, but Crum said
it took two months to clear all the names.
The numbers were high in part because
people, including distant relatives and
long-ago friends, called in with incomplete
information, Crum said.
Why is it so hard to ID the dead?
Sheriff Honea has said it’s possible offi
cials will never know the exact death toll.
Light rain began falling Wednesday,
which could potentially disturb remains.
Searchers are looking carefully for frag
ments of bone, with some imagining
where a person may have been when the
fire roared through.
“In some cases, all they have is bone
fragments and pieces of dental work and
teeth, so it’s immensely more challenging
to identify people who have perished in a
fire of this magnitude,” said Kelly Huston,
a spokesman with the California Gover
nor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Associated Press
Officials warn of
E. coli outbreak
in romaine lettuce
CHICO — Light rain fall
ing Wednesday in some
areas of Northern California
could aid crews fighting a
deadly wildfire while rais
ing the risk of flash floods
and complicating efforts to
recover the remains of those
killed.
Heavier rain was
expected later in the day
in the Paradise burn area,
where a monstrous wildfire
has killed at least 81 people
and destroyed more than
13,000 homes.
Farther south, residents
of communities charred
by a Los Angeles-area
fire stacked sandbags as
they prepared for possible
downpours that threaten
to unleash runoff from hill
sides left barren by flames.
Forecasters say the rain
could cause mudslides and
rock slides.
In Paradise, teams sifted
through ash and debris as
they searched for bodies
about 140 miles northwest of
San Francisco.
“The task is arduous,”
said Rick Crawford with the
California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protec
tion. “And the possibility
exists that some people may
never be found.”
Precipitation could hin
der the search by washing
away fragmentary remains
and turning ash into a thick
paste.
Former California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
made a surprise visit to the
area, providing encourage
ment to weary firefighters
while helping serve them
breakfast.
“I wanted to let you know
how much I appreciate all
the work that you do,” he
told firefighters during a
brief speech.
The 71-year-old actor also
slammed President Don
ald Trump for blaming the
wildfire on poor forest man
agement. He told firefight
ers, “you are tough to not
only fight the fires, but you
are tough to listen to all this
crap.”
Authorities trying to
identify people killed are
using rapid DNA testing
that provides results in just
two hours. The system can
analyze DNA from bone
fragments or other remains,
then match it to genetic
material provided by rela
tives of the missing.
The technology depends
on people coming forward
to give a DNA sample via a
cheek swab.
But as of Tuesday,
nearly two weeks after the
start of the inferno, only
about 60 people had pro
vided samples to pop-up
labs, said Annette Mat-
tern, a spokeswoman for
ANDE, a Colorado com
pany that is donating use of
the technology.
“We need hundreds,”
Mattern said. “We need a
big enough sample for us to
make a positive ID on these
and to also give a better idea
of how many losses there
actually are.”
BY CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Health
officials in the U.S. and
Canada told people Tues
day to stop eating romaine
lettuce because of a new E.
coli outbreak.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration said it is
working with officials in
Canada on the outbreak,
which has sickened 32
people in 11 states and 18
people in the Canadian
provinces of Ontario and
Quebec.
The strain identified
is different than the one
linked to romaine earlier
this year but appears simi
lar to last year’s outbreak
linked to leafy greens.
FDA Commissioner Scott
Gottlieb said the agency
doesn’t have enough infor
mation to ask suppliers for
a recall, but he suggested
that supermarkets and res
taurants should withdraw
romaine until the source of
the contamination can be
identified. People are also
being advised to throw out
any romaine they have at
home.
The contaminated let
tuce is likely still on the
market, Gottlieb told The
Associated Press in a phone
interview.
He said FDA wanted to
issue a warning before peo
ple gathered for Thanks-
WASHINGTON -
President Donald Trump
has provided the spe
cial counsel with written
answers to questions about
his knowledge of Russian
interference in the 2016
election, his lawyers said
Tuesday, avoiding at least
for now a potentially risky
sit-down with prosecutors.
It’s the first time he has
directly cooperated with
the investigation.
The step is a milestone in
the negotiations between
Trump’s attorneys and spe
cial counsel Robert Muel
ler’s team over whether
and when the president
might sit for an interview.
The compromise out
giving meals, where the
potential for exposure
could increase.
“We did feel some pres
sure to draw conclusions
as quickly as we could,” he
said.
In Canada, officials
issued similar warnings to
the two provinces where
people were sickened.
They said there was no evi
dence to suggest people in
other parts of the country
had been affected.
Most romaine sold this
time of year is grown in Cal
ifornia, Gottlieb said. The
romaine lettuce linked to
the E. coli outbreak earlier
this year was from Yuma,
Arizona. Tainted irrigation
water appeared to be the
source of that outbreak,
which sickened about 200
people and killed five.
The FDA’s blanket warn
ing in the current outbreak
is broader and more direct
than the ones issued in the
earlier outbreak, said Rob
ert Whitaker, chief science
officer for the Produce
Marketing Association. In
the earlier outbreak, the
warnings about romaine
from Yuma might have
been confusing, he said.
Whitaker said the indus
try group told members
they should cooperate with
the FDA and stop supplying
romaine lettuce, especially
since people have been told
to stop buying and eating it.
come, nearly a year in the
making, offers some ben
efit to both sides. Trump at
least temporarily averts the
threat of an in-person inter
view, which his lawyers
have long resisted, while
Mueller secures on-the-
record statements whose
accuracy the president will
be expected to stand by for
the duration of the probe.
The responses may
also help stave off a
potential subpoena fight
over Trump’s testimony
if Mueller deems them
satisfactory. They rep
resent the first time the
president is known to have
described to investiga
tors his knowledge of key
moments under scrutiny
by prosecutors.
CORRECTION NOTICE
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Trump team turns
over written answers
to Mueller’s questions
Associated Press
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