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An earthquake centered off the coast of Maine rattled the region Monday, causing light to moderate shaking in the state, as well as in parts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake as a 3.8-magnitude temblor that struck shortly before 10:30 a.m. ET. The epicenter was off the coast of York Harbor, Maine, roughly 45 miles southwest of Portland.

The National Weather Service has not issued any tsunami watches, warnings or advisories in the aftermath, and there have been no reports of fatalities or significant damage so far.

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Rain on the way to parched southern California on Saturday will aid firefighters mopping up multiple wildfires. But heavy downpours on charred hillsides could bring the threat of new troubles like toxic ash runoff.

Los Angeles county crews spent much of the week removing vegetation, shoring up slopes and reinforcing roads in devastated areas of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble and ash after breaking out during powerful winds on 7 January.

The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards on Saturday continued efforts to break up ice and free a freighter that has been trapped in a frozen Lake Erie for days, officials said.

The Manitoulin, a 663-foot (202-meter) Canadian vessel with 17 people on board, got stuck in the ice on Lake Erie on Wednesday after it dropped off a load of wheat in Buffalo, New York, and was heading back to Canada, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The ship wasn’t damaged, and its crew is safe, officials said. Freighters in the Great Lakes often encounter surface ice in the winter but sometimes run into ice that is too hard or thick to break through.

Additional evacuations were ordered for residents near a large fast-moving wildfire north of Los Angeles, as parched southern California endured another round of dangerous winds ahead of possible rain over the weekend.

The Hughes fire broke out late on Wednesday morning and quickly ripped through nearly 5,000 acres of trees and brush, sending up an enormous plume of dark smoke near Castaic Lake, a popular recreation area about 40 miles (64 km) from the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires that are burning for a third week.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.

Trump’s action, hours after he was sworn in to a second term, echoed his directive in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.

As firefighters in Los Angeles made progress on Sunday containing wildfires that have destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods, forecasters warned that fire weather is likely to return on Monday.

Donald Trump told NBC news he plans to travel to California to inspect the damage after his inauguration, “probably, at the end of the week”. California governor Gavin Newsom had initially invited the president-elect to visit more than a week ago, even as Trump attacked him on social media and spread misinformation about the state’s Democratic leadership response to the fires.

In a state that averages more than 7,500 wildfires a year some California homeowners keep helmets and fire hoses handy.

However, the Los Angeles fires demonstrate a new reality: Wildfires in the state are growing larger and more ferocious and burning into suburbs and cities more often, experts told USA TODAY.

“We really are dealing with a new wildfire paradigm,” said Faith Kearns, a water and wildfire expert with the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University.

People are used to thinking of fire in terms of either structure fires or wildfires in rural areas, but in recent decades, the lines have blurred. More intense wildfires burn into neighborhoods where flames quickly spread from cars and homes, Kearns said. "That becomes “a very, very different kind of fire to fight, and also a very difficult kind of fire to fight.”

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As the battle against the deadly fires in Los Angeles county enters its 10th day, officials are warning evacuees against returning to their homes due to the presence of toxic, hazardous waste and exposed power and gas lines.

During a Thursday press conference, Yonah Halpern, principal engineer with LA county public works said that toxins such as asbestos, and mercury can be found in fire debris and that the US Environmental Protection Agency and county fire department will be going house-to-house to assess and remove hazardous materials at no cost to the property’s owner.

The extreme winds behind the disastrous fires in Los Angeles are forecast to calm the rest of the week into the weekend, making it easier for firefighters to further efforts to put out the massive Palisades and Eaton fires that have been ablaze for over a week.

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