美国国家公共电台 NPR Shutdown Threatens To Stall Recovery In Wildfire-Ravaged Paradise, Calif.

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The partial government shutdown is triggering some anxiety around Paradise, Calif. David you know this town. You walked the streets of Paradise.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Yeah. I mean, this town - Steve, I was there two months ago, and the images stay with me. I mean, just totally devastated¹ by the Camp Fire - I mean devastated, flattened². You looked at just rubble³ that was the remnants of people's belongings⁴ and a lot of residents just wondering what was going to come next.

INSKEEP: Well, that was then, and NPR's Kirk Siegler reports on what's happening now.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE⁵: This cleanup and recovery is huge and largely reliant on federal aid. Marc Nemanic has been waiting for more than three weeks now to apply for up to $750,000 in disaster grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is closed. The grant would help Paradise even just begin planning for its daunting⁶ recovery.

MARC NEMANIC: Roads, sewer⁷, water - those types of things, those essential girders that you're trying to build.

SIEGLER: Nemanic is with a local nonprofit called 3CORE, which partners with the Commerce Department to do rural economic development. He says Paradise can't afford any delay or uncertainty⁸. And so many people here are living in limbo⁹, and they need to see signs of something happening, some kind of progress.

NEMANIC: You'll start having a brain drain and money leaving the community and making us actually in a worse position than we were before the fire.

SIEGLER: So far, FEMA and Small Business Administration loans are not affected¹⁰ by the shutdown. But a delay in these more under-the-radar infrastructure¹¹ projects could have serious consequences. Ironically, another example is the wildfire prevention work that's now stalled on federal public land across Butte County.

STEPHEN GRAYDON: We're creating a negative feedback loop where we're going to consistently get further and further behind.

SIEGLER: Stephen Graydon and his contractors¹² are nearly done with a 300-acre prescribed fire and fuels brake project on federal land on the ridge¹³ just adjacent to Paradise, where homes were spared last November. It's being held up because no one from the Bureau of Land Management is on site to approve the last bit of work.

GRAYDON: Our partners can't come to work, and I can't go out there and get rid of some these fuels that have been cut and piled. And we're trying to get it prepped to where this is a good strategic area and a defensible space.

SIEGLER: The rainy California winter is a key window for prescribed fire here in the foothills of the Sierra. Contracts like Graydon's are stalled, but so are talks about any future projects on federal land that were funded and ready to get done before the next fire season.

Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Chico, Calif.

1 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

2 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

3 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

4 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

7 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

8 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

9 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。