Gov. Kemp: 'We're still in the worst drought we've seen in 20 years'

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]When we got the briefing on the Pineland fire here, one of the things that stood out to me to let you know what we've been dealing with, what the folks on the ground have been dealing with, this fire doubled in size in two days. Uh, and you all know how big the fire is, but it shows you how quickly uh this thing flared up and moved. I will just tell you that from Sunday when uh the first lady and I were down um visiting the Highway 82 fire to today, uh there's been, you know, Sunday was a really, really tough day. Monday was a tough day. Uh even though things were getting a little better down here, it was really rough up in Brantley County. The weather was not good. The fire was burning really hot, very dangerous. Uh really taxing for the team. Uh but when we landed uh there this morning back in Nihuta uh completely different attit attitude. That little bit of rain that we got, it allowed us to gain some ground and uh everybody's feeling really good about that. We're definitely not out of the woods, but feeling a lot better. And uh I know the team here feels the same way. We got to stay vigilant here, but they've done a great job taking taking advantage of a good weather day yesterday. and the team here was telling us that they had a good day on the ground yesterday and I believe that they will today. Uh despite the little bit of rain that we're getting and we're getting some in North Georgia today, thank goodness. Uh we're still in the worst drought that we've seen in 20 years. So I want people uh our fellow Georgians and people around the country to understand uh that a little bit of rain is going to help us, but it's not going to get us out of this situation and we're going to be dealing with this for for quite a while.

[00:01:48]Um, also EPD, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, issued a level one drought declaration for all of Georgia yesterday. So, we're dealing with that as well. Our wildfires are already above a 5-year average. I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a few minutes.

[00:02:06]And again, we are under a temporary burn ban statewide. Uh, and the main reason we're doing that is just to make sure that we don't have to go pull off of these big fires and go put out something that started in somebody's yard and got out. It's just a matter of resources and we'll turn that around uh and open that back up just as soon as we can get things under control. And Director Sabbo can talk about that a little more if he needs to. Also, we have the uh state of the emergency that I did for the same 91 counties uh that we have the burn ban in. Uh we've been in continuous communications with President Trump's office, the White House, all of our federal partners. Very appreciative to the assets and resources that they have allowed us to get. Uh we just cannot thank them enough and our federal partners that are on the ground uh helping us.

[00:03:04]Also, uh, the Georgia Guard General Wilson had talked a little bit about this with air assets starting to transition now, uh, to some more on the ground assets like tractors, and this is really just the local teams telling us what they need and us pivoting to be able to do that. And General Wilson will talk a little bit more about that. Also, just wanted to thank there's a lot of other states that are sending us assets, reaching out, uh, offering to help.

[00:03:29]We've got equipment coming, uh, from Texas, Mississippi. Uh the team here mentioned Colorado and Idaho, so we're thankful for that and I'm sure there's there's many more. Uh just want to thank the local EMA folks, too, for what they're doing to help coordinate and obviously the fire management incident team that's doing a great job down here.

[00:03:50]Um just shifting to the Highway 82 fire as of right now. And these numbers are a little bit fluid, but we've had 82 homes that have been lost. We still have 17 more to assess. Some of these we can't really tell if it's an out building or somebody's house. Uh and we're working on that now. Uh four commercial structures that were lost. And I will just tell you as Marty and I were on the ground, uh when you talk to the Forestry Commission employees and the local firefighters, whether they're full-time volunteers, it is heartbreaking.

[00:04:26]It's heartbreaking for them when they can't save that house. And uh you know, we've seen it in their eyes, in their heart, and um but I'll tell you, they're doing everything they can to try to save these homes. And I thought today when we were flying the 82 fire before we got here, uh we saw some of those homes Sunday and or Friday and Sunday when we were on the ground there. We saw some more from the air today. Uh but also thought to myself, there was a lot of homes that literally the edge of the fire had burned up into their yards and those firefighters stopped that fire and save those homes. And that's what they're focusing on every single day.

[00:05:10]And there is literally hundreds of them that are right next to the fire line. Uh so as as much devastation has come for these families and as heartbreaking as that is uh and our thoughts and prayers are certainly with them, we are so thankful for these brave people that have been working countless hours to save the homes that they have and I just want to thank them from the bottom of my heart and I hope all Georgians will keep them in their thoughts and prayers.

[00:05:39]I also just want to make sure that even though we've had a good couple of days um and things are better that we know that that these you know this weather uh hopefully we're going to get some rain.

[00:05:50]It'll make it even better, but we know we're going to have to deal with this situation for a while longer and we just want everybody to continue to stay vigilant. Just since we were down here Sunday, we've had 80 more fires statewide that we've had to go deal with. Most of them we've been able to get on quick and stop them quick, but we do have to pull resources out. Uh that's the reason we got the burn ban uh right now is trying to just help our firefighters out and our first responders dealing with that. Director Zabbo Zabbo also told me ju just in the last 30 days, we've had 767 fires in Georgia in the last 30 days.

[00:06:31]That's 85% more than we would normally have on a five-year average. And it's 145% more acreage that's been burned than on the 5-year