CHICO, Calif. -- President Donald Trump on Saturday toured a scene of devastation in California, picking his way around burned trees and the hulking skeletons of automobiles as he pledged federal resources to help Californians recover from the most deadly and destructive wildfire in state history.
California's outgoing and incoming governors joined Trump as he surveyed the town of Paradise and visited a firefighting command center. Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, had welcomed Trump's visit, declaring it's time "to pull together for the people of California."
The tour came as firefighters raced to get ahead of strong winds that were expected overnight and as authorities struggled to locate 1,011 people who were unaccounted for. Authorities stressed that not all on the list are believed missing, but the death toll has risen daily, reaching 76 as of Saturday.
"This is very sad to see, but we're all going to work together," Trump said after a walking tour of a burned-out RV park and housing tract in Paradise. As he spoke, thick, smoky haze hung in the air, and stone and brick chimneys -- all that remained of some homes -- were visible behind him.
The president criticized forest-management decisions that he suggested are at least partly to blame for the wildfires that have raged across the state this month, even though the fires are believed to be more closely related to a record drought, high winds and a changing climate. But unlike earlier comments in which he threatened to withhold federal funding if changes weren't made, Trump provided a reassuring note.
"You've got the federal government" at the ready, he promised.
Referring to the staggering loss of life, Trump sounded shaken.
"As far as the lives are concerned, nobody knows quite yet. We're up to a certain number, but we have got a lot of people that aren't accounted for yet," Trump said.
"Right now we want to take care of the people who are so badly hurt," Trump said. "We won't know that for a while," he said of the full death toll. "There are areas you can't even get to them yet."
Brown, who walked with Trump, told reporters that the state's requests are being answered.
"It's just the big, massive cleanup after a terrible tragedy," said Brown, who has been a frequent Trump critic.
"The federal government can provide some help and a lot of money and some expertise," Brown said. "We'll all pull through it together."
The Camp Fire, north of Sacramento, covers an area the size of Rhode Island. Firefighters said Saturday that it was slightly more than 50 percent contained.
Trump said other countries, including Sweden, do a better job of "cleaning the floor" of the forest to reduce forest fires. He said he hopes that changes in forest-management practices will lead to the Camp Fire being the last one of such size and devastation.
"I don't think we'll have this again to this extent," Trump said. "Hopefully this is going to be the last of these because this was a really, really bad one."
When asked whether seeing the historic devastation, which stretched for miles and left neighborhoods destroyed and fields scorched, altered his opinion on climate change, Trump answered, "No."
The president has long voiced skepticism about humans' effect on the climate, and he has been reluctant to blame a warming earth for the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters.
"I think people have to see this really to understand it," Trump said.
Hours later and hundreds of miles to the south, Trump found similar signs of devastation in the seaside city of Malibu, one of the areas of Southern California ravaged by wildfires that have killed at least three people. Palm trees stood scorched, and some homes were burned to the ground on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
SURVIVORS WEIGH IN
About 200 people, some of them wearing Make America Great Again hats and carrying Trump flags, gathered Saturday morning to meet Trump at the airport in Chico, a city on the edge of the devastated area.
But at a makeshift camp next to a Walmart in Chico, no one appeared to be paying close attention to Trump's visit. Many of the evacuees were trying to pack up after being told they had to leave by today.
Maggie Missere-Crowder said that if Trump went near the Walmart, she would shake his hand, but she otherwise needed to focus on getting her tent and plastic storage boxes with food and other items into her pickup.
Missere-Crowder, 61, and her husband fled their home in Magalia, a community near Paradise that also was devastated, and planned to go to a shelter in Yuba City, about an hour's drive from Chico.
She said she was angry that two days after the fire began, Trump posted a tweet blaming forest mismanagement for the fire, a sentiment he repeated just before his visit.
"Like we've done it on purpose. It's like a slap in the face," Missere-Crowder said.
Still, she said that if she met him, she would say, "Think about what you're saying, because it takes away from all the good stuff you're doing."
June Busalacchi, 57, and her husband, Steve, 56, went to a Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance center at the Chico Mall to see whether some friends they haven't heard from were there. The Trump voters said they hoped the president would show up.
"He's going to get these guys, and no pun intended, get a fire under them," Steve Busalacchi said, referring to state officials in California. "They need to protect people, not just in big cities."
Ron Waterbury, who lost his home in Paradise, watched news about Trump's visit on a TV set outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico.
"I think his visiting here is just for show," he said. "I think he was talked into coming here to make himself look better than what he is."
The blaze that started Nov. 8 has destroyed more than 9,800 homes. Thousands of firefighters were battling the blaze, which covered about 230 square miles, officials said.
Firefighters were racing against time, with winds up to 40 mph and low humidity expected Saturday night into today. Rain was forecast for midweek, which could help firefighters but also complicate the challenging search for remains.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said emergency responders have made progress in finding people who had been reported missing in the wildfires, but the list of those unaccounted for is now nearly 1,300.
Honea on Saturday pleaded with members of the public to check the list and to call in if they are safe. Honea said the list is growing because authorities continue to cull names from phone calls, emails and reports from the early hours of the wildfire that started Nov. 8.
Authorities also said they found five more bodies Saturday in Northern California's Camp Fire, bringing the death toll to 76.
The Camp Fire in Butte County is the deadliest in the country in at least a century. Honea said authorities have tentatively identified 63 of the dead. Of the five bodies discovered Saturday, four were found in Paradise and one in nearby Concow.
Michelle Mack Couch, 49, lost the home she was renting in Paradise. An employee at a skilled nursing facility, she helped patients escape through a wall of flames.
"Let's hope [Trump] gets us some help," she said at a FEMA assistance center, where she was trying to get a walker for her 72-year-old mom.
But as far as watching the president's visit, she said wryly, "We don't have a TV anymore."
Allison Bazan, a 24-year-old stay-at-home mom and criminal justice student who fled Paradise, hopes Trump's visit leads to needed funding.
"We'd like our town to be rebuilt. People need to put political point of view aside right now if they want their town rebuilt. We need to look at this from a financial standpoint more so than personal opinion."
She and her husband, Eddie Bazan, 28, a correctional deputy with the Butte County sheriff's office, lost the home they had moved into three months ago. They have two daughters, ages 4 and 18 months. They are all staying at Allison's parents' home in Chico.
"We want [Trump] to see firsthand the real damage and the losses we've had," Eddie Bazan said as they walked toward the FEMA disaster emergency center in Chico.
They said they have a mixed opinion on Trump generally but that they were glad he was in the area.
"I appreciate that he took the time to come here," Allison Bazan said. "I appreciate that he took the time to thank our first responders, our law enforcement, everybody who's been battling this for weeks now. It's been a long road for all of us, and we have a long ways to go still."
Information for this article was contributed by Sudhin Thanawala, Kathleen Ronayne, Jocelyn Gecker, Janie Har, Olga Rodriguez and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; by Jenna Portnoy and Anne Gearan of The Washington Post; and by Thomas Fuller of The New York Times.
A Section on 11/18/2018