As disaster relief continued for the U.S. regions affected by hurricanes, the northern area of California was ravaged by major wildfires in mid-October. The wine country area of California has been impacted by a multitude of fires over the years, and this year is projected to cause significant damage.

According to statistics from around the time the fires burned, the death count for the wildfire outbreak in northern California was 40 people, with 200 reported missing. More than 75,000 people are estimated to have been evacuated from eight different counties due to the fires. An estimated 5,700 structures such as homes and commercial buildings have been destroyed, and an estimated 217,000 acres have been torched according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. 11,000 firefighters were on the task of containing these fires.

Some residents have been able to return to their homes, or for some what is left of their homes. Just as Janice Mathis, a Napa resident, found out when she returned to the ruins of her three bedroom home, discussing the matter in a CNN article.

“I’m realizing you don’t put your boots on and your gloves on and go sift through stuff, there’s nothing to sift through,” Mathis said.

Experts predict fires for this region of the country will continue to intensify and occur more often with global temperatures rising. Weather patterns indicate the lead up to the fires was through wetter and shorter winters, setting out the foundation for more vegetation to grow in the spring. The vegetation began to dry out during the course of the hotter and longer summer period. All these factors caused by climate change, and the addition of the Diablo winds causing faster evaporation, have laid out more intense fires this year for California. Just as California governor Jerry Brown said to CBS news, events like the fires occurring now will begin to appear more often.  

“With a warming climate, dry weather and reducing moisture, these kinds of catastrophes have happened and will continue to happen and we have to be ready to mitigate, and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” Brown said.

As the northern California fires begin to get more contained more residents are returning to the devastating damage that the fires have left behind. The governor of California also announced Friday, Oct. 14 that he has secured the federal aid to begin the removal of debris in these scorched areas. With a hard recovery in store for northern California physically, as well as financially, and the fears of more fires of this magnitude in the future, only time will tell how this region will readjust.