Last month, the Carr Fire forced nearly 40,000 people to flee their homes in Redding and the surrounding area. More than a thousand homes were destroyed and many businesses took a major hit. Now, as the smoke literally begins to clear, residents are dealing with the economic fallout of the disaster.
As the tour boat pulls away from the shoreline of Lake Shasta, Matthew Doyle chats with a handful of his customers on their way to visit the scenic caverns across the lake.
鈥淪eems like primarily all of you are from California, so you鈥檙e all dealing with the smoke鈥� (鈥淒on鈥檛 go to L.A.鈥�) (laughs)
Doyle runs Shasta Caverns and Lake Shasta Dinner Cruises, a popular tourist attraction on this lake about 20 miles north of Redding. It鈥檚 early afternoon and the sun is shining, but a persistent haze hangs over the lake and you can taste the smoke from the wildfires that are still burning around the region. Doyle says his summer season had been humming along nicely until the Carr fire broke out in late July. Then, as word of the devastation spread, cancellations began to roll in.
鈥淐ompared to last year,鈥� he says, 鈥渇rom the beginning of August to now, we鈥檙e down about 75 percent.鈥�
Lake Shasta wasn鈥檛 directly affected by the Carr fire, and Doyle says he spent a lot of time correcting misinformation on social media. But air quality has continued to be a challenge.
鈥淪ometimes we can鈥檛 run a tour because the smoke has come in,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd then an hour later we鈥檙e running tours and it鈥檚 all cleared out.鈥�
Outdoor recreation and tourism businesses like Doyle鈥檚 make up a significant part of the economy in far-northern California. And one major driver of local tourism -- Whiskeytown National Recreation Area 鈥� is closed indefinitely due to fire damage.
But Loree Byzick says lots of businesses took a hit when the Carr fire swept through 鈥�
鈥淧eople just weren鈥檛 spending money. They weren鈥檛 there. They were evacuated or they were in shock.鈥�
Byzick is with Superior California Economic Development, a non-profit agency that works to boost the economy in the north state. She says for the first week or so, much of Redding鈥檚 retail trade dried up.
鈥淲e鈥檝e talked with the corner neighborhood grocery store that serviced everybody in a neighborhood then all of a sudden people stopped coming and their sales plummeted.鈥�
Byzick鈥檚 group offers small, low-interest loans to help businesses keep the doors open until help from federal agencies comes through 鈥�
In the cavernous interior of a former K-Mart store in Redding, dozens of people line up at the newly-opened Disaster Recovery Center, a kind of one-stop shop set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- or FEMA.
鈥淵ou can talk to FEMA, you can apply for our loans, you can talk to the DMV, and the CHP and you can get your passport replaced.鈥�
Chelsea Irvine is with the Small Business Administration, which --- along with FEMA 鈥� offers financial assistance to disaster victims.
鈥淲e can keep employees paid, we can keep the lights on, we can keep rent paid,鈥� she says.
The SBA can lend up to $2 million to help businesses get back on their feet after a disaster. But it鈥檚 not just businesses that are suffering. Irvine explains that the Small Business Administration also offers disaster recovery loans to non-profits, homeowners, even renters.
鈥淪o for those people who are renting a home of an apartment that鈥檚 been damages,鈥� she says, 鈥渨e actually can replace everything that you鈥檝e lost with these disaster assistance loans.鈥�
While that federal money is crucial for businesses and households, Loree Byzick from the economic development group says the damage to this economically-fragile region is hard to calculate at this point. She says the area still hasn鈥檛 fully recovered from the Great Recession of 2008.
And as the climate trends hotter and drier, Byzick is hearing from business people getting nervous that the growing length and severity of fire season could lead potential visitors to decide to vacation elsewhere.
鈥淲e hope that by next summer, everything will be fine,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ookings will be back up again. People will want to visit our area. But the thought that鈥檚 in someone鈥檚 mind when a major disaster or a forest fire happens like this, takes a long time to go away.鈥�
For his part, Ed Rullman isn鈥檛 too worried. Rullman is president of the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association, a group that promotes tourism in the region. Sitting outside the hotel and restaurant he runs in Redding, he doesn鈥檛 think fire and smoke will be an ongoing drag on the local economy.
鈥淟ook at it this way,鈥� he says. 鈥淵osemite鈥檚 having the same issue right now, they鈥檝e got a huge fire in Yosemite. But people won鈥檛 stop going to Yosemite.鈥�
As the fires are brought under control 鈥� and as blue skies return 鈥� that optimism could prove well-founded. It may be years before it becomes clear whether the disruption caused by this year鈥檚 wildfires was a one-off 鈥� or if it represents the beginning of a new normal in California鈥檚 north state.
