View | Forest fires, covid-19, earthquakes. What’s next for California?

Every two weeks for the past eighteen years, my wife and I have made the five-hour round-trip car ride between Berkeley and Mendocino County, California. It has a healthcare clinic in both places so our country house is not a getaway; However, like others who had a choice, when the pandemic began, we chose the country, where social distancing is intuitive and less likely to be anxious.

But it was before the fire season, who had just returned with revenge. (Just as hurricanes resumed storming the Gulf). In the past week, hundreds of fires have burned more than a million acres, destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and buildings, and claimed seven lives.

This devastation is now an annual event. Last October, when Covid-19 was just a flash in the eye of a fruit bat and the Pacific shut down gas and electricity across Northern California during a red flag fire alarm, we packed up and headed south towards the Bay Area. But we were back in Sonoma County, where Kincaid Fire had shut down US 101. We considered heading east to I-5, but that was closed by various fires. The same goes for the coastal road.

Luckily we found a supermarket with snow and retreated to the Mendocino cabin for another night, only in danger due to the lack of light. The fires did not threaten our possessions, but reached a distance of a few miles. We’ve spent a lot of time this summer designing fire-retardant landscapes, but we still know that one day we might need refuge from our sanctuary – an escape from one disaster to another heart. Fire season, of course, was bad enough before. But pandemic fire season is a square disaster: disaster cooperation.

This appeared immediately in evacuation centers. More than 100,000 people have been forced to leave their homes last week, but since hundreds of refugees have been mobilized indoors in close quarters that do not comply with coronavirus guidelines, some are checking in to hotels where they are starving. But housing costs money, and it’s noticeably in short supply for a lot of people – especially with senators on vacation, who talk about making things worse.

The California wine industry, already battered by the epidemic, faces the specter of “smoke pollution” in the grapes, few of which had been picked before the fires.

In San Francisco, where the challenge of the double disaster is more about tolerance than survival, catastrophic dissonance also appears. Back in spring (which now looks quiet) when everything shut down, people have embraced the great outdoors. Since germs spread better outside, and exercise is good for the mind and immune system, parks fill up so quickly that it was difficult to maintain social distancing there. You might think you can take off your mask in nature, but it turns out you have to keep wearing it when someone comes around the next turn – that is, every other minute.

We are now supposed to be inside because the smoky air is not safe to breathe. Even if we want to break directions and take advantage of our opportunities, parks are closed due to the risk of fire. (The good news: the corridors are empty now.) We’ve all been dreading the onset of winter and its consequences Covid-19 indoors, but to paraphrase what a local doctor said in a hospital facing closure of an outdoor waiting area due to unhealthy air quality: It’s like the winter that has begun in August.

Then there is the mask struggle. Don’t wear one; In the politically correct Gulf region, most of us do. The question now is what kind. On the epidemic, we were told that paper N95 masks (especially those with breathing valves) were not good: “Because the valve releases unfiltered air when the wearer breathes, this type of mask does not prevent the wearer from spreading the virus,” Mayo advised Clink. In the past several fire seasons, N95 has been stringent, and it has gained MIA status from epidemic toilet paper.

As it happens, I still have N95 left over from last year. But which one am I supposed to wear now? N95 to protect myself, or cloth to protect others? Both? Layers provide options for style, and the pandemic has shown that face coverings can be a fashion statement. So I’m dressing up a rag on paper, as the outlaw image of even a fake napkin is cooler than the health-conscious look of the N95. (Remember when the people wearing the masks looked paranoid? Now we all match the generic “Can you imagine?” State of the Union.)

Of course, disaster convergence also works in hurricane regions, which we are seeing repercussions for this week. In terms of relief, it is embarrassing that hurricane season overlaps with fire season, and that the two main climate change disaster scenarios involve opposite forces: fire and water. Once again, this contemporary model of crisis made us all go and go.

And don’t even get me started about the cubic catastrophe: Over the past week, our part of Mendocino County has seen over 40 earthquakes.

David Darlington is a California-based writer, author of five books, and recipient of a National Magazine Award and James Beard Award.

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