Marque Centeio

10/17/17

Last week, Northern California had probably one of their worst disasters ever seen. Fifteen major wildfires started tearing across California, scorching over 217,000 acres destroying over 5700 structures. 11,000 firefighters had to go up against a fire that made over 500 people go missing and killing 41 people. The damages of everything is going to cost $3 billion which isn’t a small amount of money so it’s going to be a long process to rebuild on.

CNN reports that the Reinforcements from other regions are helping firefighters contain more of the largest wildfires devastating Northern California, through strong winds expected over the weekend could challenge those gains, a fire chief said friday. More and more people have been getting discovered after searching through the 5700 houses and destroyed businesses. The fires has made unhealthy air quality for San Francisco and the fire reached 100 miles wide. As of Sunday, nearly 75,000 people had to be evacuated from homes and any place they were at which was 100,000 the day before. Lots of the people were getting impatient on waiting because they were all praying to see their homes still standing. Most of the dead are believed to have died when fires exploded and took people by surprise in the middle of the night. Most victims were elderly.

New York Times reported that some people are staying in motels or staying with friends and family. Evelyn Gibson, 73, has moved in with her boyfriend. Some people have gone as far as Oakland and San Francisco, upward of 70 miles from Santa Rosa, in search of a place to sleep and a refuge from the fire’s new reality. California already had a housing crisis long before the fires. With strict environmental rules the population growth has fallen short. In 5 years, California has added 544,000 households, but only 467,000 housing units. Less than half the number of units needed from the fire is being built due to the population. Some people who lost their houses said that the fires had shifted priorities of their lives, and that possessions and nice houses don’t seem so important anymore.

A woman and her husband had lost everything besides their dogs and the clothes they were wearing. Days after the fires, they were to roads to see ashes of the people who lost their lives. A school teacher “I started to cry, and then it felt like, It’s not worth crying about.”. Another women named susan gibson said she saved her cats and cat food, a purse, and a few pairs of clothes, but lost everything else when her house burnt to ashes. She described her house saying “The place was lovely, down a winding road in the woods” but she had to walk away from the memory of fire and flight was too strong for her to handle and comprehend. She knew being where her house burnt down would make her feel uncomfortable.