Horrible story and deaths likely to go up.
Via Daily Caller:
Well over a dozen fires engulfed northern California starting Sunday night, causing catastrophic damage, 17 deaths and stacks of reports of missing people.
More than 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Seventeen people are dead and around 180 are still missing. At least 2,000 homes and businesses have been torched beyond recovery, CNN reports.
The death toll has climbed since Monday. The majority of missing people, however, are due to downed cell towers cutting off communication between family and friends, the San Francisco Gate reports.
Small fires on Sunday quickly grew to out-of-control disasters as hurricane force wind gusts as high as 79 miles per hour fed the flames. The area’s electrical grid has been severely damaged and 35,000 people have lost power, according to CNN.