Sierra Club staff and volunteers can see and smell the smoke from our head office in Oakland, and up here in Lake County, I can see and taste the smoke from the fires burning near me and those further south in the wine country.
And what we're seeing and smelling from the multiple wildfires blazing simultaneously around the place I've called home for 36 years is horrific beyond measure: 42 people dead and hundreds missing. More than 5,700 homes and structures destroyed. Schools closed, desperate families camping on beaches. The worst air quality on record.
We need your help, and we need it now.
Please, can you help with an emergency gift to the Sierra Club's Redwood Chapter now?The Redwood Chapter is working with community partners to support local organizations serving farm worker and low income families impacted by the fire. Your support will help us give those community organizations the resources they need to help in the recovery from this terrible and ongoing disaster.
The destruction wrought by these unforgiving fires is bone-chilling. Over a hundred thousand acres in total have been scorched; much of the Sonoma County seat of Santa Rosa reduced to ash.
And the effects of these wildfires will be felt by those far outside the blaze's reach. The fires have produced as much pollution as all the cars in the entire state of California do in a year. And for children with asthma and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart conditions, breathing the air is dangerous. The smoke may even harm fetuses.
Anything you can contribute to help would be so appreciated -- and will go directly to recovery efforts here on the ground. Please, rush $5 or whatever you can now.
Thank you for anything you can do to help. We are both heartbroken and afraid of what's ahead.
Victoria Brandon is chair of the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter.