Terence Mulligan: A Resilient Community

When you’ve been through a traumatic event, reminders can come at the most unexpected times.

A couple months ago, my wife and I were guests at a wedding in the hills above Calistoga, on a beautiful ranch dotted with decades-old walnut trees. When the wind roared through the Mayacamas Mountains during the ceremony, the people seated next to us, from New York, fretted over the bride’s veil. We grew edgy about wildfires.

Six years ago, on an eerily warm Sunday evening in October, fires broke out across Napa Valley and were stoked into monsters by gale-force winds. In 2020, two separate firestorms ravaged the upper Valley from east to west. Our drive to Calistoga was an up-close tour of the devastation left behind, much of it still visible through the windshield.

For those of us in Napa, the summer and fall can feel like a test of one’s nerves. But these seasons, so freighted with trauma, can also be a cause for celebration.  

Time after time, disaster after disaster, I marvel at the grit and determination of my neighbors. Some are hardworking immigrants who lose hourly wages when wildfires shut down our wine and hospitality economy. Others are homeowners or business owners, determined to rebuild after having lost everything. They battle insurance companies, they wrangle with contractors, they patiently wait for permits.

I enter the holidays with a sigh of relief and a deep sense of gratitude. We didn’t see any real fires this fire season. Yet there was a go-bag in my garage for months, and plenty of evidence, from Maui to the Oregon border, that all of us are grappling with unprecedented hazards and a changing climate.

Cut back to the wedding. When the DJ played Sinatra’s “The Summer Wind,” my wife and I exchanged a knowing glance on the way to the dance floor. Such breezes are less romantic than they used to be here in Napa Valley: their caress leads to vigilance instead of ease.

With a Perspective, I’m Terence Mulligan.

Terence Mulligan is the president of a community foundation in Napa.