• WHITNEY, Neb. (AP) -- More evacuations have been ordered as a series of wildfires continues to burn in northwest Nebraska.
• U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Cyd Janssen told the Rapid City Journal on Saturday (http://bit.ly/O2WYrW) that the town of Whitney was evacuated overnight as a fire that had been burning south of Chadron moved west and threatened it.
• Janssen says the fire "burned right up to Whitney."
• Another fire that was burning between Chadron and Hay Springs has spread north into South Dakota. The Sheridan County Sheriff's Office says a pre-evacuation order has been issued for residents in the border town of Whiteclay, Neb., and the surrounding area.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency says

it has authorized the use of federal funds to help with firefighting costs for an 11,500-acre fire in South Dakota's Shannon County.
• FEMA Regional Administrator Robin Finegan says the agency approved a fire management assistance grant, which covers 75 percent of the state's eligible firefighting costs for managing, mitigating and controlling the Welcome Fire.
• At the time of the state's request, the fire was threatening 175 homes and businesses and seven communities on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for 1,600 people and one shelter was open in the town of Pine Ridge.
• The grants do not provide assistance to individual home or business owners and do not cover other infrastructure damage.

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