The sheriff’s office also issued a dire alert telling residents farther north of Santa Rosa to leave.
“The wind is really starting to pick up, as is the fire activity. If you are still in this mandatory evacuation area you need to leave now while you still can,” the sheriff’s office said.
The new orders dramatically expand the number of residents who will have to flee the growing fires and could further tax emergency workers tasked with helping them seek safety. Roughly 175,000 people live in Santa Rosa, and many of those residents may join the 90,000 people in Sonoma County who were already ordered to leave their homes Saturday night.
A windstorm was expected to pummel the region throughout the morning, creating historic fire weather conditions, according to the National Weather Service.
Gusts as high as 80 mph swept through the hills and valleys north of the San Francisco Bay area and could continue until at least the early afternoon. An “extremely critical” fire weather area, the National Weather Service’s highest category, was in effect in several counties north of San Francisco….
Keith, has this affected you or your neighbors yet? Do you still have power — or for that matter a home?
Los Angeles Times: “Autumn in California now comes not only with fierce, wind-driven wildfires but with routine claims from President Trump that the state’s leaders are to blame for the disasters, followed by assurances from experts that the president doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“The cycle renewed again Sunday, when Trump tweeted that Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff had failed to properly manage the state’s forests, causing a string of recent blazes.”
More…
See also this AP story (via The Boston Globe)