Summer typically brings wildfires to many western states, including Arizona. While Arizona had a fairly quiet 2015 fire season (1540 wildfires, which burned just over 158,000 acres), California’s drought contributed to an active wildfire season, with more than 838,000 acres burned. 

A delegation from Israel’s emergency preparation, response and recovery team recently visited Arizona for 10 days as part of the Firefighters Without Borders program in partnership with the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation (GTFF).

This summer was a wet one for many parts of Colorado. The State was hit repetitively with severe storms that caused massive flooding. As if that wasn’t enough, tornadoes, landslides and mudslides caused further damage. The State of Colorado declared a State of Emergency and then requested a federal declaration in support of recovery efforts.