High winds continue to threaten Oklahoma after wildfires destroyed and damaged hundreds of homes

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Days after deadly fires swept across Oklahoma, Andrine Shufran and her husband spent Monday raking through the ashes of their home in a neighborhood that she said “looks like a checkerboard” as officials warned that high winds this week will again raise wildfire risk in the state.

“There’s no predictability or fairness about destroyed houses,” Shufran said. “There’s only two options for the homes in our neighborhood: standing or burned to the ground.”

Over 400 homes were severely damaged or destroyed in the outbreak of wildfires that started Friday in Oklahoma. At least four people died due to the fires or high winds, including a person who died in a vehicle accident as a result of poor visibility due to dust or smoke, officials said.

While calm weather over the weekend helped crews get a handle on most wildfires burning across Texas and Oklahoma, forecasters at the National Weather Service said extremely critical fire weather conditions were expected Tuesday over an area spanning from southeastern New Mexico through the Texas Panhandle and into western Oklahoma.

“These fires, once they get started, become really hard to stop," said Keith Merckx of Oklahoma Forestry Services. "They move more quickly than our resources can keep up with.”

He said officials will be returning their attention toward western and central Oklahoma, where high winds are expected to pick back up again over the next few days.

In Stillwater, a city of about 50,000 about 65 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City and home to Oklahoma State University, over 70 homes were destroyed by wildfires. The toll included Shufran's house, which burned to the ground in a matter of hours.

The smell of plastic lingered as she and her husband sifted through the remnants of their home.

Shufran, a director at Insect Adventure — a petting zoo part of OSU and the university’s extension campuses, said current and former students, friends and city officials have stepped in to help her and her husband.

“I’ve been more overwhelmed by how fantastic Oklahomans are when they’re friends with you, or neighbors with you, because we’ve had so many people reach out,” Shufran said.

Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce warned on Facebook on Monday afternoon of worsening fire conditions in the area.

“Be prepared to take action quickly, if necessary,” he wrote.

Southwest of Stillwater, residents in two parts of rural Logan County were urged to evacuate their homes Monday afternoon after wildfires that already burned more than 47 square miles (120 square kilometers) in the county since Friday picked back up amid high winds and dry conditions. An evacuation shelter had been set up at the county fairgrounds in Guthrie, said Logan County Deputy Emergency Management Director Shawn Pierce.

Pierce said an estimated 54 homes were destroyed in last week’s fire in the county, which is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City.

About an hour's drive west in Chandler, Deborah Ferguson told News 9 that her husband, Allen Ferguson, died after fighting a wildfire in a pasture with their 15-year-old son. She said that as they fled on a four-wheeler, it crashed into a tree in the heavy smoke.

State Rep. Jim Shaw said in a statement Monday that Ferguson was a “beloved youth wrestling coach" who died while trying to save his son, who remains in critical condition.

About 10 fires continued to burn in Texas on Monday as officials geared up for more high winds Tuesday, said Texas A&M Forest Service spokesperson Erin O'Connor.

Although most of the fires have been contained due to slower winds Sunday, Texas officials are expecting wildfire danger to ramp up further into the week, O'Connor said.

AP reporter Sean Murphy contributed to this report from Oklahoma City.

Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Andrine Shufran, right, looks through the ashes that are left of her home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Fire crews and volunteers battle hot spots and new fires about 8 miles west of Stillwater, Okla., on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Fire crews and volunteers battle hot spots and new fires several miles west of Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Cayton Jones, left, and his family look through the ashes of his home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area on Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Fire crews and volunteers battle hot spots and new fires 8 miles west of Stillwater, Okla. on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

New fires burn several miles west of Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Cayton Jones, left, and his family look through the ashes of his home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area on Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

An aerial view of Andrine Shufran's burned home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Cayton Jones, front, walks through the ashes that are left of his home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., on Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area on Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Friends and students of home owner Andrine Shufran, look through the ashes that are left of her home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla. on Monday, March 17, 2025 after wildfires burned through the area Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

Andrine Shufran, right, looks through the ashes that are left of her home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

An aerial view of Andrine Shufran's burned home in the Hidden Oaks neighborhood in Stillwater, Okla., Monday, March 17, 2025, after wildfires burned through the area Friday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A dog sits in the front yard as a Stillwater, Okla., resident assesses the damage in the Crosswinds and Pecan Hill communities, Saturday, March 15, 2025, due to Friday's wildfires on the west side of town. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

Stillwater, Okla., residents asses the damage in the Crosswinds and Pecan Hill communities due to Friday's wildfires on the west side of town, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

Stillwater, Okla., residents show support to some of the victims of lost homes on Saturday, March 15, 2025, due to Friday's wildfires in the Crosswinds and Pecan Hill communities on the west side of town. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

Residents of Deer Run at Lake Carl Blackwell, near Stillwater, Okla., on Saturday, March 15, 2025, assess the damage from Friday's wildfires. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

A row of houses on the west edge of Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 15, 2025, were among more than 50 homes and structures burned down due to wildfires. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

Stillwater, Okla., residents assesses the damage in the Crosswinds and Pecan Hill communities on Saturday, March 15, 2025, due to Friday's wildfires on the west side of town. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

Several RVs and a truck burned from Friday's wildfires not far from a larger structure that burned at Pecan Valley RV Park shown Saturday, March 15, 2025, on the west edge of Stillwater, Okla. (Jason Elmquist/The News Press via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives.

Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. Republicans said they will introduce legislation to achieve that, while Democrats have quickly lined up to oppose the idea.

The order says the education secretary will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities."

It offers no detail on how that work will be carried out or where it will be targeted, though the White House said the agency will retain certain critical functions.

Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its "core necessities," preserving its responsibilities for Title I funding for low-income schools, Pell grants and money for children with disabilities.

The White House said earlier Thursday the department will continue to manage federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite. It says the Education Department doesn't have the staff to oversee its $1.6 trillion loan portfolio and “must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America's students.”

At a signing ceremony, Trump blamed the department for America’s lagging academic performance and said states will do a better job.

“It’s doing us no good," he said.

Already, Trump's Republican administration has been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she will remove red tape and empower states to decide what’s best for their schools. But she promised to continue essential services and work with states and Congress "to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”

Part of her job will be exploring which agencies can take on the Education Department's various roles, she said.

“The Department of Justice already has a civil rights office, and I think that there is an opportunity to discuss with Attorney General Bondi about locating some of our civil rights work there,” McMahon told reporters after the signing.

The measure was celebrated by groups that have long called for an end to the department.

"For decades, it has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into a failing system — one that prioritizes leftist indoctrination over academic excellence, all while student achievement stagnates and America falls further behind," said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation.

Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave children behind in a fundamentally unequal education system.

“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said.

Opponents are already gearing up for legal challenges, including Democracy Forward, a public interest litigation group. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the order a “tyrannical power grab” and “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken.”

Margaret Spellings, who served as education secretary under Republican President George W. Bush, questioned whether whether the department will be able to accomplish its remaining missions, and whether it will ultimately improve schools.

“Will it distract us from the ability to focus urgently on student achievement, or will people be figuring out how to run the train?" she asked.

Spellings said schools have always been run by local and state officials, and rejected the idea that the Education Department and federal government have been holding them back.

Currently, much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money — both its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programs for colleges and school districts, like school meals and support for homeless students. The agency also is key in overseeing civil rights enforcement.

The Trump administration has not addressed the fate of other department operations, like its support for for technical education and adult learning, grants for rural schools and after-school programs, and a federal work-study program that provides employment to students with financial need.

States and districts already control local schools, including curriculum, but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached to federal money and provide it to states as “block grants” to be used at their discretion.

Block granting has raised questions about vital funding sources including Title I, the largest source of federal money to America’s K-12 schools. Families of children with disabilities have despaired over what could come of the federal department's work protecting their rights.

Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets — roughly 14%. The money often supports supplemental programs for vulnerable students, such as the McKinney-Vento program for homeless students or Title I for low-income schools.

Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for decades, saying it wastes money and inserts the federal government into decisions that should fall to states and schools. The idea has gained popularity recently as conservative parents’ groups demand more authority over their children’s schooling.

In his platform, Trump promised to close the department “and send it back to the states, where it belongs.” Trump has cast the department as a hotbed of “radicals, zealots and Marxists” who overextend their reach through guidance and regulation.

Even as Trump moves to dismantle the department, he has leaned on it to promote elements of his agenda. He has used investigative powers of the Office for Civil Rights and the threat of withdrawing federal education money to target schools and colleges that run afoul of his orders on transgender athletes participating in women's sports, pro-Palestinian activism and diversity programs.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, dismissed Trump's claim that he's returning education to the states. She said he is actually “trying to exert ever more control over local schools and dictate what they can and cannot teach.”

Even some of Trump’s allies have questioned his power to close the agency without action from Congress, and there are doubts about its political popularity. The House considered an amendment to close the agency in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Young people listen as President Donald Trump speaks at an education event and executive order signing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump, right, looking over to a young person during an education event and executive order signing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump, left, holds up a signed executive order as young people hold up copies of the executive order they signed at an education event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Dozens of people gather in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Kay May joins dozens of people gathered in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Dozens of people gather in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Cindy Mugent joins dozens of people gathered in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Bob Blazo blows a horn as he joins dozens of people gathered in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump arrives at the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk's son X Æ A-Xii on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington before they depart on Marine One. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protestors gather during a demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Education, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Protestors gather during a demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Education, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Sarah Cummings carries a protest sign to save the Department of Education while joining other protesters outside a Tesla showroom and service center in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)