By Brad Brooks, Maria Tsvetkova and Andrew Hay
July 17 (Reuters) – Wildfire smoke blanketed the eastern U.S. from the Great Lakes to Washington, D.C. on Friday, floodwaters tore through Texas’s Hill Country for a third day, and new fires erupted in the Pacific Northwest overnight, with 68 large blazes now burning in 15 states.
Millions of Americans faced hazardous conditions and orders to stay indoors, as the country’s summer weather extremes converged on three fronts at once: a smoke-choked East, rising water in the South, and fast-spreading flames in the West.
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Firefighters are now battling 68 large fires nationwide, up by nearly
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