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The North Bay wildfires are causing “unprecedented levels” of air pollution throughout the Bay Area, regional air quality officials said today.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District earlier today issued a smoke advisory because of the wildfires, which have burned tens of thousands of acres in Napa and Sonoma Counties, and this afternoon issued a health advisory and Spare the Air alert.
Air district officials recommend that residents impacted by heavy smoke, particularly in Napa and Sonoma counties, take shelter in buildings with filtered air or move to areas less impacted by the pollution.
“Due to active wildfires and changing wind patterns, air quality could be impacted for many days to come,” air district officials said in a statement.
They encourage residents who see or smell smoke in the area to avoid outdoor activity or exercise. Parents and school administrators should check air quality readings before allowing children to practice outdoor sports, according to the air district.
Real-time air quality readings can be found at go.usa.gov/xnxhb.
People who are indoors should set their air conditioning to re-circulate to avoid bringing outside air into buildings. Air district officials also asked that people avoid any activities like wood burning, lawn mowing, leaf blowing, driving or barbecuing that can add to the air pollution.
Children, the elderly and people with respiratory conditions are the most sensitive to the pollution and should take extra precautions, according to the air district.
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Gee, if you know so much about how to deal with catastrophic situations like the one in wine country, why aren’t you going up there to volunteer your “expertise”?
Or are you just another keyboard warrior?
The question must be asked: How is it that large parts of North Bay are aflame and Santa Rosa now resembles Mosul? And whose fault is it?
Apparently, in the land of Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft we have disaster response capabilities as primitive as they were 100 years ago and government agencies without a clue. While the Firefighters are putting their lives on the line, their management is now planning how to react to the fires?
Disaster response is something you plan and prepare for. Our leaders obviously did neither.
– North Bay has no cellular or WiFi service? This is not Africa and India we were about to cover with Internet service.
– We are unable to track where the fires are? How many drones startups are here in SV?
– We cannot notify people who have smartphones that their lives are in danger? Hey Siri? Alexa?
– We have elderly victims burned alive because we did not know they were in the way of fire?! This is not Mount Vesuvius exploding and we are supposedly technologically better than Pompeii.
– We are unable to track ONLY tens of thousands of displaced and hundreds of missing people? We put a man on the moon with 1/10 computing power of an iPhone.
– We have little idea what displaced people need and where help is needed? Should we dig out IBM-360 and dust off a punch-card reader?
– Our displaced people are short of smartphone chargers?? REALLY? Someone make a Fry’s run?