Firefighters watch as a helicopter drops water over a wildfire burning near a winery in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Now that the wildfires that have swept through the vineyards, forests and towns of northern California’s wine country since Oct. 8 have been virtually contained, it’s time to assess the damage.
According to Inverse.com, so far they have destroyed more than 8,400 structures in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Solano counties and killed at least 42, making it the deadliest series of fires in California’s history.
The devastating scenes of burned-out neighborhoods and wineries that have flashed across global television screens have prompted tourists to contact hotels, wineries and restaurants in the area to cancel reservations. Wine tourists who were in Napa and Sonoma immediately packed their bags and fled the smoky air as it filled with gray ash.
Initial reports indicate that more than two dozen wineries suffered damage, which means the region’s overall wine production, with more than 1,200 wineries, survived largely intact. Yet the overall economic impact could end up cutting a lot deeper, not only for the region but for the state and the nation.
So how long will the horrific images linger in the minds of tourists and keep them from returning to a region that depends on wine tourism as its economic backbone?
