Roughly eight months after the wind-whipped North Bay fires wiped out homes and businesses in the bustling wine country region, the cleanup and recovery process continues.
How well businesses have been able to recuperate or outright rebuild depends on location and proximity to the areas that were consumed by the destructive flames.
According to the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber of Commerce, overall economic activity is doing well, but that's in part due to ongoing rebuilding projects. Hotel rooms, for instance, have been filling up with workers and officials focused on rebuilding efforts.
On the other hand, businesses around the fire zones, such as those at the Larkfield Shopping Center, are struggling, according to Santa Rosa Metro Chamber CEO Peter Rumble.
When it comes to the wine industry, only one or two wineries in the Santa Rosa area were impacted by the wildfires, according to Rumble. He added that winery traffic as a whole is showing signs of life as the summer season kicks off, noting that Bay Area visitors are flocking back to the region. Rumble did point out that visitors outside of the Bay Area have been slow to return.
To the south in the Sonoma area, business was slow in October and November immediately after the wildfires ignited, but that is a somewhat normal occurrence for the wine industry, according to the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce. Business started to pick up around January and has been steadily on the rise ever since.
The series of fires last fall for the most part spared the popular Napa Valley floor, according to Visit Napa Valley, which is branded as the tourism marketing organization for the region. Only a "small number" of wineries in the area were "severely impacted" by the fires. Most of Napa Valley's 400-plus wineries were up and running days after the fires erupted.
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Not a single hotel in Napa County burned during the firestorm, according to Visit Napa Valley.
Thanks to recent events such as BottleRock Napa Valley and Auction Napa Valley, Visit Napa Valley expects that the number of people paying a visit to the area will "continue to be positive."
