Wildfire sparks decline in tourism business in Big Sur
https://www.yahoo.com/news/wildfire-sparks-decline-tourism-business-big-sur-072256111.html
Lodge managers and cafe owners along California's dramatic Big Sur coast were looking at a summer of jittery guests and cancelled bookings after fire officials warned that crews will likely be battling a wildfire raging in steep, forested ridges just to the north for another month.
Big Sur establishments were already reporting as much as a 50 percent drop in business, said Stan Russell, executive director of the chamber of commerce. That's even though the only signs of the blaze were fire trucks and an occasional whiff of smoke along the famously winding and scenic Highway 1....
More than 5,000 firefighters were battling the wildfire that officials expect to linger until the end of August....
Smoke was thick along the Big Sur coast for the first days of the blaze. With a shift in the wind, "the past few days, if you were standing on our ridge, you wouldn't even know there was a fire," Geanides said. Other residents and travelers agreed.
The end of August?!
Hey, maybe some of us could score a deal and head down there!