Here in the valley, we’ve had quite a few fires over the last few months. The French Fire and the Colony Fire have been some of the worst. These fires have affected towns and families throughout the Kern River Valley and in the surrounding communities. The French Fire caused many evacuations in the Valley and filled the air with smoke, which made being outside a health hazard. The Colony Fire in the Sierra Nevadas grew to incredibly large sizes and became a threat to the General Sherman Tree in the Sequoia National Park. The park officials and firefighters wrapped the tree and other structures in the park with fire-resistant blankets to protect them.

Over the months of September and October, we’ve had many troubling weather conditions. In addition to the fires these past few months we’ve also experienced hurricanes, tornadoes, and tropical storms in our southern and eastern states. In New York, they had floods that killed many people and in Louisiana, there were floods and high winds that tore homes and buildings apart. There is also a current storm here in California causing much damage in the areas that were harmed by the fire due to the lack of stabilizing vegetation.

In August and September, there was a crisis in Afghanistan as the US raced to pull their troops and people out of Afghanistan by the August 31st deadline. As the US pulled their troops back to America it caused instability in Afghanistan and the Taliban was able to regain control of the country. During the transition out of Afghanistan, there were casualties. A suicide bomber at the Kabul airport, which the US was using to fly out troops and civilians, killed 60 Afghanis and 13 US troops.  While the US was able to take all of our soldiers by the deadline, there were hundreds of US citizens and Green Card holders left behind and we are still trying to retrieve them.