California fires: Searchers seek hundreds of missing

Story highlights

• Death toll rises to 23, officials say
• Wind gusts made fighting fires more difficult Wednesday

(CNN)In some areas in Sonoma County, the wildfires that have ravaged tens of thousands of acres died down enough Wednesday for the sheriff's department to check on more than 600 missing persons reports by visiting burned-out neighborhoods.

In many other cases, detectives used telephones to track down people who are unaccounted for.

Still, 285 people remain missing in just this one county, people who authorities pray are still alive but have no way to contact police or their loved ones.

But there is some dread that the death toll -- 23 in the region -- from the Northern California wildfires will rise as more areas cool down and searchers discover what's left.

"I'm optimistic that we will get a lot of people connected," Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano said. "At the same time we have to be realistic and start searching for the ones we found are missing."

Firefighters battling 22 blazes were challenged Wednesday by blustery conditions and shifting winds.

The California wildfires, by the staggering numbers

Gusts had died down early this week, but on Wednesday they blew between 20 and 40 mph and conditions were still extremely dry, with low humidity and no rain. Thursday's forecast is for similar conditions.

More than 20,000 people had been ordered to evacuate as of Wednesday, and authorities were encouraging others to pack "ready-to-go bags" with documents and medicines in case they had to flee the fast-spreading flames on a moment's notice.

Giordano had a suggestion for people who'd been advised to be prepared to leave: Go anyway.

"Traffic is bad in the county. If we have to evacuate people, it'd be better to have you (already) out of the area. If you have a place to go, go," he said.

"We are very concerned about all the fire lines, because of the wind they're anticipating," he said.

Photos: Wildfires blaze in California

Homes are destroyed in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California, on Wednesday, October 11. Deadly wildfires have been tearing through the state, destroying homes and businesses and prompting evacuation orders.

Latest developments

• Wildfires have burned nearly 170,000 acres throughout the state. The largest fires were in Northern California's Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, filling the picturesque landscape of the state's wine country with charred rubble and clouds of smoke.

• Of the 23 people who have died since Sunday night, 13 were killed in the Tubbs wildfire in Sonoma County, officials said. That makes the Tubbs fire, one of 22 blazes burning in the state, the fifth-deadliest fire in recorded California history, according to the Cal Fire website.

How to help the victims of the California wildfires

• The director of Cal Fire, Ken Pimlott, expects the number of homes and businesses that have been destroyed to rise significantly from 3,500.

• Officials said Wednesday that almost 8,000 firefighters are involved in trying to contain the blazes. The equipment being used includes 550 fire trucks -- at least 170 of which came from out of state -- 73 helicopters and more than 30 planes.

Homes in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California are seen before and after being destroyed by raging wildfires in the region. Tens of thousands of acres and hundreds of homes and businesses in several Northern California counties are been reduced to ashes.

Google Earth/Getty Images

Scores missing

Derek Southard has been worried about his 71-year-old father, Daniel, since he heard Sunday that fires were blazing through Northern California.

Southard, 29, lives with his father in Santa Rosa, California, but he was at a wedding in Monterey on Sunday while his father was at home.

"I had been texting him that day at the wedding. I told him I'm call him that night. And then he never called me back," Southard told CNN in tears. "He texted me at midnight and asked if I was having fun at the wedding. I guess the fire came an hour or two after that."

When Derek Southard got back to Santa Rosa on Monday, the neighborhood was still closed off. He called the sheriff and asked him to go have a look.

Santa Rosa, California, satellite photos taken before and after the wildfires.

Courtesy of Planet

"The sheriff said his house was burned to the ground and his car was melted in the driveway, but I've still got my fingers crossed that he made it out somehow," he wrote in a plea on Facebook on Tuesday.

Derek talked to his next-door neighbors, who told him that they barely got out. They said they didn't have time to knock on his dad's door.

Authorities believe communications issues are preventing many of the missing from checking in with relatives.

Family confirms woman's death in Santa Rosa

Among the dead were a couple who relatives said had known each other for nearly 90 years: Charles Rippey, 100, and his wife, Sara, 98.

They died shortly after the Atlas fire -- now one of the largest, at more than 42,000 acres -- began Sunday night, engulfing their home near the Silverado Country Club north of Napa, Napa County spokeswoman Kristi Jourdan said.

"This house was one of the first ones hit (in the subdivision)," their son Mike Rippey told CNN affiliate KPIX on Tuesday.

The couple met each other in grade school in Wisconsin and began a family together after Charles served in World War II, the son told KPIX. They relocated to California after living in the Midwest and on the East Coast, he said.

Before and after images show devastation of California wildfires

The son said he believed his father was trying to save his mother when the fire struck."From where they found his body, he was trying to get from his room to her room," he told KPIX. "He never made it. ... There is no way he would have left (without her)."

Elsewhere in the county, part of a veterans home in Yountville, near Napa, was evacuated Tuesday night over fears of approaching flames, but the fire changed directions, so the rest of the residents will stay put for now, Napa Mayor Jill Techel said. Only the most frail -- those in a nursing facility -- left the property in the initial evacuation, Techel said.

"We are set up with buses and everything we need to do if we get the call that a part of town or a part of Napa needs to be evacuated," Techel said.

Ash and rubble

The Tubbs fire reduced cars and homes into burnt piles of ash and rubble in parts of Santa Rosa, a city of about 175,000 roughly 50 miles northwest of San Francisco.

Wildfire victim: We had 5 minutes to escape 01:23

That fire has burned 27,363 acres and destroyed at least 576 structures between Santa Rosa and the Calistoga area, Cal Fire said Wednesday. It is 10% contained.

6 important things to know about wildfires

A large part of Santa Rosa was evacuated. In the city's Coffey Park neighborhood, homes are in ruins -- the fire seemed to consume everything that wasn't steel, concrete or brick. At some properties, all that is recognizable are the remains of washers, dryers and water heaters.

CNN's Dan Simon, Miguel Marquez and Jake Carpenter contributed to this report from Santa Rosa, California. CNN's Nicole Chavez, Christina Zdanowicz and Paul P. Murphy also contributed to this report.

Originally published on http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/11/us/california-fires-updates/index.html

Commercial flights finally open up Napoleon's hidden Atlantic island

(CNN) — Almost 200 years ago a British warship transported Napoleon Bonaparte to his exile on the island of St. Helena, a place from where it would be impossible for him to escape ever again.

Today, Bonaparte would probably find it almost as tough to escape from the tiny volcanic island located right in the middle of the South Atlantic.

The island is one of a string of remote British possessions scattered across the hostile seas that lie between Africa and South America, the remains of a once mighty empire.

It's no exaggeration to say that reaching St. Helena from Europe takes pretty much as long as in Napoleon's time.

While St. Helena was once a port of call for sailing ships plying the route around the Cape between Europe and Asia, the Suez Canal and maritime advances have left it redundant.

Until last year, the only regular link to the outside world was RMS St. Helena, the mail ship that, every three weeks, covers the five-and-a-half day journey from Cape Town, South Africa.

After a rocky start, that's set to change -- a scheduled commercial air service linking St. Helena to Johannesburg is due to start later this month.

A year of setbacks

In 2016, with much fanfare, St. Helena prepared to inaugurate its first ever airport -- but then an unexpected obstacle got in the way: the South Atlantic winds.

South African airline Comair, a British Airways franchise, planned to start flights to the island in May 2016 using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

However, a serious wind shear issue was detected as soon as the airliner attempted to land.

The wind shear only affects aircraft when landing from the north, but if the aircraft approaches from the south, there's a problem with tailwinds.

Prevailing tailwinds mean that aircraft need a longer runway to land with a full load.

Smaller aircraft can still land, and a number of them have done so -- for medical evacuation missions, for example. However, size and weight limitations render the route uneconomic for most airlines.

Atlantic Star Airlines, a start-up founded by former British Airways pilots with the purpose of linking St. Helena to the UK, advocated the use of Avro RJ100 aircraft, a now-aging model that nevertheless has the capability to land on very short runways.

To demonstrate, last year Atlantic Star Airlines arranged for a former SWISS Avro RJ100 to make a stopover at Saint Helena while on a ferry flight from Zurich to Chile. Although the landing was successful, the Avro option has fallen to the wayside.

Embraer, the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, also threw in its two cents. It flew one of its Embraer E190 jets, an airliner with capacity for nearly 100 passengers, from Fortaleza, Brazil direct to St. Helena.

As well as demonstrating the capabilities of this aircraft type and its suitability for operations in the island, the Brazilian firm's publicity stunt left us with stunning footage of St.Helena's natural beauty.

It's actually an Embraer E190 airliner that will finally take up the task of connecting St. Helena to the outside world by air.

South African carrier SA Airlink has opened ticket sales for its upcoming Johannesburg to Saint Helena flight.

The flight, expected to launch on October 21, will have a stopover in Windhoek, Namibia. The aircraft will carry a maximum of 76 passengers, instead of the usual 99, in order to comply with operational restrictions imposed by the tailwinds.

In the meantime, Atlantic Star Airlines has not given up on its project to link the island to Europe.

"We are going to wait and see who it goes with the South African route, which is government supported. If we can establish there is enough demand, we may follow suit with some charter services to the UK" states Richard Brown, Atlantic Star's CEO

Why the airport matters

At the moment traveling between Europe and St. Helena is a costly proposition, both in terms of time and money.

After reaching Cape Town, visitors must spend five and half days at sea aboard the RMS St. Helena.

Once on the island, travelers must wait until the ship makes its next visit before they can leave -- meaning a month-long trip with no flexibility of dates, a luxury few travelers can afford.

Mostly it's the islanders that suffer the inconveniences of isolation.

Atlantic Star Airlines expects "Saints," as the locals are commonly called, to make up most of the air traffic, at least initially.

St. Helena has a population of about 4,500, but there another 10,000 Saints overseas, mainly in the UK.

Those that leave the island in order to work or study overseas are often resigned to spending long periods of time away from their loved ones.

No wonder that anticipation is running high among the islanders over the new air service.

A unique island

About 4,500 people live on St. Helena.

Air links are expected to have a massive transformative effect on the island's economy -- particularly on a tourism industry that's currently limited to a few guest houses.

In many ways, St. Helena is a sort of lost paradise.

It boasts an unspoiled natural environment with ecosystems ranging from rainforest to desert.

It has a picturesque capital, Jamestown, and several historical sites, some connected to the island's past role as a Royal Navy anti-slavery base.

The most popular of the island's sights, though, may well be Longwood House, Napoleon's last residence on the island.

Locals are already gearing up for the economic boost that tourism can bring about, with plans to expand the island's accommodation options and some operators working on special-interest tours.

There may be concerns about the island's ability to cope with a sudden influx of visitors, but even at peak capacity St. Helena is likely to remain a niche tourist destination.

Its tourist appeal largely depends, after all, on its remoteness and truly unique character.

Despite its tiny size, there is no shortage of things to do and see on the island.

Its waters present numerous opportunities for whale- and dolphin-watching.

It's also perfectly suited for stargazing -- in fact while on St. Helena astronomer Edmond Halley worked on the first star catalog ever compiled with the aid of a telescope.

Napoleonic heritage

Napoleon died in exile on St. Helena.

One of the most promising tourist markets, though, is that of Napoleon-era enthusiasts.

Even today, in spite of its isolation, St. Helena welcomes a small but regular stream of French visitors who come to see the sites linked to their country's former emperor, who died in exile on the island.

These include Longwood House, as well as The Briars, Bonaparte's first residence in the island, and The Valley of the Tomb, where he was buried before his remains were later repatriated.

The number of Napoleon devotees making the pilgrimage to St. Helena can only be expected to increase once the island becomes more easily accessible from Europe.

The Napoleonic Estates also have a peculiarity that adds to St. Helena's uniqueness: they're under direct French administration and enjoy extraterritorial status, making them French enclaves within British territory.

The French flag flies over them and the French Republic maintains a consul on the island that takes care of their preservation.

Premium coffee

There's more than tourism in St. Helena.

Coffee has been grown on the island since the 18th century, when beans were brought all the way from Yemen. The island produces a rare, high-quality coffee whose flavor was praised by Napoleon himself, and is currently appreciated by connoisseurs the world over.

As coffee beans are particularly sensitive to changes in humidity and environmental conditions and their quality can decay significantly during the long journey to market, air transport will no doubt facilitate the export of what is possibly the island's most valuable commodity.

And that's not all.

SA Airlink will also provide a monthly charter service between Saint Helena and Ascension Island, a route extension that was previously considered by Atlantic Star Airlines.

Ascension Island, a dependency of St. Helena that lies about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) to the northwest, has long had an air base with regular Royal Air Force passenger flights to and from the UK, but the military activity and small permanent population means prospects for tourism development are limited.

However, the fact that quite a few Saints work on Ascension might make it feasible to launch commercial flights between the two islands.

And a trip to Ascension could provide the most adventurous travelers with the perfect complement to the St. Helena experience.

Very different from St. Helena, Ascension features other-worldly volcanic landscapes and a unique physical environment that inspired naturalist Charles Darwin when he stopped here and on St. Helena in 1836.

When looking at St. Helena's tiny dot on the map it's easy to forget it played host to the likes of Napoleon, Darwin and Halley and was once right in the middle of one of the most important trade routes in the world.

What geography gave, geography took away and the ocean that once linked it to the epicenters of culture and commerce became, in later times, a formidable barrier.

However, as the island prepares to welcome the first aircraft, St. Helena might soon emerge as the destination of choice for the world's most discerning tourists.

A hidden treasure waiting to be rediscovered.

Originally published on http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/remote-atlantic-airline-saint-helena-napoleon/index.html

North Korea foreign minister: Trump has 'lit the wick' of war

Story highlights

• The statement follows weeks of escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States
• Ri's comments are likely to continue to fuel a mounting war of words between President Trump and Kim

(CNN)US President Donald Trump has "lit the wick of the war" against North Korea, a Russian state news agency quoted North Korea's foreign minister as saying on Wednesday.

The statement follows weeks of escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States, fueled by Pyongyang's repeated nuclear tests and Trump's tough talk.

Speaking to Russia's state-run TASS news agency, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho cited Trump's September speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York as the tipping point.

Tense and difficult meeting preceded Tillerson's 'moron' comment

"By his bellicose and insane statement in the UN arena, Trump -- it can be said -- lit the wick of the war against us," Ri is quoted as saying on TASS' English language website. "We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words."

During his remarks at the UN last month, Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea and mocked the country's leader, whom he referred to as "Rocket Man."

Ri, who had called Trump "mentally deranged" after the UN speech, told TASS that North Korea was "winning" and represented "a worthy counterweight to the US."

President Donald Trump addresses world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.

Echoing previous warnings by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Ri said, "the United States should act sensibly and stop touching us if they do not want to disgrace themselves in the face of the whole world," adding that his nation's forces "will not leave America, the aggressor state, unpunished."

Ri's comments are likely to continue to fuel a mounting war of words between Trump and Kim.

During an appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said that while he listens to others around him, he has a "different" attitude when it comes to the North Korea -- one he describes as "tougher."

"I think I have a little bit of a different attitude on North Korea than other people might have. And I listen to everybody, but ultimately, my attitude is the one that matters, isn't it?" Trump said. "That's the way it works. That's the way the system is."

Trump says he wants nuclear arsenal in 'tip-top shape,' denies desire to increase stockpile

Trump also told reporters that he wants to have the US nuclear arsenal in "tip-top shape," pushing back on an NBC report that he wanted to increase the stockpile tenfold.

Asked by a TASS reporter if dialogue between North Korea and the US is possible, Ri said it is not.

"The current situation -- when the US resorts to maximum pressure and sanctions, to outrageous military threats against the DPRK -- is not at all an atmosphere to negotiate," Ri said, according to TASS.

 

Originally published on http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/11/politics/north-korea-trump-lit-wick-of-war/index.html

Report: Massive morale problems aboard US Navy ship

Story highlights

• "Even the taxi drivers on base know us for being the 'USS Bread and Water,'" one survey respondent said
• The Shiloh is part of the US Navy's 7th fleet, which has been beset by a series of problems

(CNN)Morale aboard a US warship operating in the Pacific reached such a low ebb that one sailor described serving aboard the ship as being akin to being on "a floating prison," according to surveys obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

The Navy Times obtained three command climate surveys featuring hundreds of pages of anonymous comments from sailors revealing widespread morale issues aboard the USS Shiloh, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser based in Yokosuka, Japan.

Two Navy officials told CNN that the information reported from the surveys was accurate.

According to the obtained surveys only 31% of the sailors who responded to the survey said yes to the prompt: "I trust that my organization's leadership will treat me fairly," compared to 63% under the previous commanding officer. The commanding officer at the time of the survey, Capt. Adam Aycock, no longer works on the Shiloh.

US Navy officers lose jobs after fatal collision

Additionally, only 37% agreed with the statement "I feel motivated to give my best efforts to the mission of the organization," compared to 69% agreeing to the statement under the previous leadership.

The Shiloh is one of 84 US ships equipped with the Aegis Missile Defense system, which is capable of shooting down hostile missiles from adversarial states like North Korea.

One sailor hinted that morale could affect the Shiloh's role in the US' entire missile defense architecture.

"I just pray we never have to shoot down a missile from North Korea," one said, "because then our ineffectiveness will really show."

US President Donald Trump touted the effectiveness of missile defense systems in a recent interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

"We have missiles that can knock out a missile in the air 97% of the time," he said.

It's important to note not all military and weapons analysts share that level of confidence in US ballistic missile defense systems, as they have never been used in wartime.

More surveys

The Navy officials added that the poor results of one climate survey caused Navy leadership to increase the frequency of which such surveys were conducted to help prompt the commander, Capt. Aycock, to improve his performance.

One of the officials said they could not explain how Aycock managed to retain command in the face of the poor survey results.

Aycock served as the Shiloh's commanding officer from June 2015 to August 2017 and is now at the US Naval War College.

US Navy destroyer sails near disputed islands in South China Sea

One official said that Aycock remains on active duty and was not prematurely reassigned from his command of the Shiloh.

The survey responses also showed that junior sailors were concerned about receiving harsh punishments from Aycock, including being placed in the brig and fed only "bread and water," an arcane form of punishment that is still available to commanding officers.

"Even the taxi drivers on base know us for being the 'USS Bread and Water,'" one survey respondent said.

Language prohibiting that form of punishment was placed into the current version of the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act.

The Shiloh is part of the US Navy's 7th Fleet which has been beset by a series of problems including two deadly collisions involving the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John McCain, both of which are also equipped with the Aegis system.

US bombers conduct drills off both coasts of Korean Peninsula

Officers in the 7th Fleet have faced a range of disciplinary actions and the Navy took the rare step of relieving the fleet's commander, Vice. Adm. Joseph Aucoin.

The ship made headlines in June when a US sailor who was thought to have gone overboard for seven days and was presumed dead was found alive aboard the ship after prompting a major search operation. The sailor was later subjected to a non-judicial punishment.

The string of incidents has fueled concerns about perceptions of the 7th Fleet's readiness and abilities.

"The Navy definitely has a perception problem, and the 7th Fleet in particular," Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, told CNN.

"Those issues could worry US allies who rely on Aegis-equipped ships for missile defense -- What if states like Japan and South Korea start doubting the 7th Fleet's ability to shield them from a North Korean attack?

"There's an old saying that effectiveness not only has to be done, it has to be shown done. Perception is reality in these things," Schuster said. "They're going to have to address that perception."

 

Originally published on http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/11/politics/morale-problems-us-navy-shiloh/index.html

Trump got you down? There's Hope.

New York (CNN)For Americans feeling anxiety over the state of the nation, a new chat bot is here to help.

Meet "Hope," a Siri-like politically minded bot built to hear out concerns about President Donald Trump and offer advice for what to do about it.

Through a series of interactive text messages, Hope aims to act as a "personal political adviser" that users can discuss the latest news and explore options for action.

"There's just so much happening right now that it's really hard for people to actually process it, not to mention understanding what you should actually do about it," said Josh Hendler, chief technology officer at Purpose, the technology company that built the program. "How do we give people something to do? How do we help people take smart actions and talk to people outside their bubble? We're doing this because we think it's needed."

Hope can coach you through a conversation with a family member about a divisive political issue, provide information about contacting a member of Congress, provide the location of a local demonstration or offer language to share a message on social media.

The application was built in response to Trump's actions on issues like climate change, immigration and LGBTQ rights, creators said.

Purpose has teamed up with liberal advocacy groups Emily's List and NextGen America, which will help supply content.

One of the first actions NextGen will offer will be a call to ask members of Congress to pass a version of the DREAM Act -- a bill that would allow children of undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States -- without additional conditions from the Trump administration.

Hope's launch comes at a time when companies and organizations are increasingly using forms of chat bots and artificial intelligence to serve users. Apple introduced iPhone users to the "personal assistant" Siri in 2010. Last year, an SMS-based program called HelloVote connected voters will polling places and information about voter registration. And CNN offers chat programs on Facebook, Line and Kik to engage with viewers.

Hope's creators are aiming for expansive uses of the technology, which promises to be conversational and, through machine learning, become more tailored to each individual user.

"Siri doesn't have a point of view of what you should be doing. But Hope does," said Hendler. "Hope's your adviser. But it's also your friend." 

 

Originally published on  http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/11/politics/trump-response-program-hope/index.html