Wildfires are once again ravaging in the state of California, raging across the entire state. with tens of thousands of acres burning up and down the state, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people and leaving many of those who are still in their homes without power.
Earlier this year, Northern California experienced a devastating loss of 30,000 acres within two months. The fires were so bad and seemed to be popping up in thin air, President Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding to the California Fire Department.
More recently, almost 230,000 acres burned forcing residents to flee their homes and schools to cancel class days within many Southern California school districts. Bringing this to a whopping total of 260,000 acres lost, a number that almost doubles the acreage lost in 2018- But residents of the sunny state have not seen the end of it yet
Southern California residents are expected to continue to see Santa Ana winds blow through the regions, bringing hot and dry conditions along with it.
Nine of California’s ten most destructive fire recorded in the state’s history, have been recorded in just the last four months.
Ten fires were recorded in the Los Angeles and Ventura county as of October 30th, and eleven were recorded in San Diego county as of November 1st.
In efforts to minimize fires in Southern California, PG&E has shut off power in 965,000 homes across 32 counties. As of today, 106,000 homes are still without power in the Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
AccuWeather estimates that the total economic damage of the wildfires has reached $80 billion dollars, this is based on an analysis incorporating independent methods to evaluate all direct and indirect impacts of the fires based on a variety of sources. AccuWeather’s estimate includes damage to homes and businesses as well as their contents and cars, job and wage losses, farm and crop losses, infrastructure damage, auxiliary business losses, school closures and the costs of power outages to businesses and individuals.
On October 25th, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide state of emergency, “We are deploying every resource available, and are coordinating with numerous agencies as we continue to respond to these fires,” he said. “It is critical that people in evacuation zones heed the warnings from officials and first responders, and have the local and state resources they need as we fight these fires.”