Thanks for all the LOVE
Walt and I really didn’t want our third blog post to be about the terrible wildfires we’ve had here in beautiful wine country since Sunday night, October 8th but we’ve had so many of you asking after us and our area that it seemed the best way to share news.
First of all let us say that because of amazing firefighters we are all safe and miraculously have not had to evacuate from Windsor. Earlier in the week it was incredibly scary and it was hard to focus on anything other than safety and survival. When the fire near us started on Sunday night it was moving incredibly fast, fueled by a perfect storm with 50+mph winds. There was also low humidity and very dry brush, conditions ideal for massive destruction. At one stage the fire was moving 100 yards every 3 seconds.
By the middle of early Monday morning we were all watching the news around the clock trying to make the right decisions for our families. By Monday night we learned family members and dear friends had lost their homes - thousands had been displaced and Santa Rosa, the town three miles to the south of us, looked like a nuclear wasteland in parts. Latest reports say that 2800+ homes and 4,400 commercial spaces have been destroyed and reduced to ash just in Santa Rosa!
Photo Credit: Christopher Chung, Press Democrat
The town of Windsor has been very smoky and we’ve been without gas, Wi-Fi and hot water at home for most of the week but that is minor compared to what our neighbors have suffered.
On the plus side our kids have been off school and eager to help us at CapaBunga during one of our busiest times of year. Reinforcements have swarmed into the area and we now have 8000 firefighters fighting 200,000 acres of fire in California. We have 747s dropping fire retardant and the winds have died down. The fire closest to us is 35K acres wide but is now 20% contained, that’s up from 10% yesterday. We still have 10+ fires in Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties but we're very hopeful they will be under control soon.
Our hearts go out to all those who have lost family members, homes or suffered because of these fires. It will take a long time to rebuild and restore this beautiful place to its former glory. Demand will be high for temporary homes and for builders. In the meantime we hope you’ll buy wine from our region and support those businesses that have been affected. If you would like to donate we’d recommend any of the following
Thanks so much for all your offers of help - it means a lot!
Máire, Walt, Elizabeth, Lynette and Tracy
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