Skip to main content
U.S. Edition
Sunday, June 20, 2021

Tourism takes a blow in Sonoma County

Credit: KGET NBC 17 Bakersfield
Duration: 0 shares 1 views
Tourism takes a blow in Sonoma County
Tourism takes a blow in Sonoma County
17's Danny Freeman has more.

A good bet for some precipitation with this system, especially in the higher elevations.

As time goes out we will begin to get a better grasp of the details.

Jason: let's take a look at your morning commute... we'll have another check in 15 minutes.

Jason: fires are still raging in northern california, 21 in total now.

And at least 31 people have been killed by the wildfires.

Local residents are questioning what comes next...and it is an open question how the local economy will be affected.

Tourism will be impacted by these fires as well.

Fall and october, a popular time for visits to the sonoma valley.

17's danny freeman joins us live now from sonoma, danny tell us, how is the air quality, how are residents holding up?

Good morning really see it since it is still dark out, you can absolutely smell the smoke in the air.

We saw people wearing masks all day to protect themselves.

As to local residents, they are still dealing with shock of the devestation, but it was one tourist's story that stood out to us.

Jennings: it's a great area, we love it but man we just came here at the wrong time joe jennings expected the sonoma from the brochures.

Grapes, wine, and smiles.

But not far east of the city of sonoma thursday, helicopters flew through the air circling billowing clouds of smoke coming from scorched earth.

Roads were blocked off, and locals were processing evacuations from the night before.

For jennings, disbelief.

He's from fort lauderdale, and thought a trip to sonoma, escaping the aftermath of hurricane irma, would be a relaxing break.

Jennings: we didnt have power in the house and everything else and the amount of debris and everything that was around, and we figured wed just go do some wine tasting, we didn't have an idea of the severity of this cause we're used to hurricanes we're not used to fires...still this is a beautiful area, you know you look and you think you don't realize what's going on a few acres, a half a mile away.

Restaurants, shops, even hotels were all closed near the historic sonoma downtown yesterday.

Though a few bars opened their doors and kept the beer flowing so people could take their minds off of the destruction.

As for a bright spot here in sonoma, the hotel sonoma, servicing reporters, firefighters, and evacuees, managed to keep its lights on and coninue its tradition of serving nightly wine to its customers.

A bit of normalcy in the surrounding chaos.

Live from sonoma, danny freeman 17 news.

Maddie last