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Associated Press

Desperate family members and friends pleaded on social media for help finding loved ones missing amid California’s wildfires, as the number of people unaccounted for on Wednesday was put at 670 in hard-hit Sonoma County alone.
How many people overall were missing was unclear, and officials said the lists could include duplicated names and people who are safe but have not told anyone, whether because of the general confusion or because cellphone service is out across wide areas.
“We get calls and people searching for lost folks and they’re not lost, they’re just staying with somebody and we don’t know where it is,” said Napa County Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht.
As of Wednesday, 22 wildfires were burning in Northern California, up from 17 the day before. The blazes were blamed for at least 17 deaths and the loss of at least 3,500 homes and businesses, many of them in California wine country.

With many fires still raging out of control, authorities said finding the missing was not their priority.
“We are not switching operations to anything but life saving right now. It’s all about life saving and evacuations,” said Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano.
As a result, many people turned to social media, posting pleas such as “Looking for my Grandpa Robert,” ‘’We are looking for our mother Norma” or “I can’t find my mom.”
A sobbing Rachael Ingram said on Wednesday she had been searching shelters and calling hospitals to try to find her friend Mike Grabow, whose home in Santa Rosa was destroyed. She also plastered social media with photos of the bearded man.
Privacy rules, she said, prevented shelters from releasing information.
“You can only really leave notes and just try and send essentially a message in a bottle,” she said.
She said she hopes Grabow is simply without a phone or cell service.
“I’ve heard stories of people being relocated to San Francisco and Oakland. I’m hoping for something like that,” she said. “We’re hearing the worst and expecting the best.”


Jessica Tunis went online in search of her mother, employing an increasingly familiar ritual that was seen after Hurricanes Harvey, Rita and Maria and the Las Vegas massacre.
Tunis was talking by phone with her mother as the older woman’s mobile home in Santa Rosa caught fire.
“She said, ‘I can’t get out. There’s fire at both doors. My house is on fire.’ She just kept saying ‘fire’ and coughing. She said, ‘I’m going to die,’” Tunis said. “Then the phone went dead.”
Out of respect for her mother’s privacy, she hesitated at first to put the woman’s name and photo on Facebook. But she ended up posting a picture of her mother smiling at a cafe with the caption, “Does anyone know if Journey’s End Mobile Home Park got evacuated before it burned down? I can’t find my mom, Linda Tunis.”

The owner of the trailer park and residents said they believe everyone got out before it burned to the ground. But Tunis’ mother was still unaccounted for.
“I’ve called the coroner. I’ve called every hospital. There are no Jane Does,” Tunis said. “I’ve called burn units. I’ve called everywhere.”
Her post spawned well over 100 comments, most from strangers. Some gave suggestions of places to look or call. Many just gave good wishes and prayers. Others took it as an assignment.
The only drawback, Tunis said, has been false reports and false hope.
“One person messaged me that they saw her,” she said. “They said she was looking at her phone. I knew that wasn’t her. You get your hopes up for a split second.”
For some lucky people, their loved ones turned up within hours or minutes of their Facebook inquiries.
“This is my grandma,” read a post by Mica Jennings. “We haven’t heard from her all day and have checked the shelters … with no luck.”
Then, a few hours later: “UPDATE: FOUND.”


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Natural disasters

Families scour social media for  hundreds missing in California wildfires

Jessica Tunis stands outside a Red Cross evacuation centre and holds a flier about her missing mother on Wednesday, October 11, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. Tunis is searching for her missing mother, Linda Tunis, who was living at a mobile home park when wildfires struck. Photo: AP

Phil Rush walks over the garage door at the site of his home destroyed by fires in Santa Rosa, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017. Wildfires tearing through California’s wine country continued to expand Wednesday, destroying hundreds more homes and structures and prompting new evacuation orders. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Jessica Tunis stands outside a Red Cross evacuation center and holds a flyer about her missing mother Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. Tunis is searching for her missing mother, Linda Tunis, who was living at a mobile home park when wildfires struck. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

‘Pure devastation’: toll of California fires rises to 15 dead, with 2,000 buildings destroyed

A man watches as his neighbourhood of Fountaingrove, California, is destroyed by the bush fires. Photo: AP

A burnt tree stands amidst the destroyed Journey's End Mobile Home Park during the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, California, U.S., October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

epaselect epa06255694 Homeowners embrace after learning that their home was destroyed by the Canyon Fire No. 2 in Anaheim Hills, California, USA, 09 October 2017. The Canyon Fire 2 has spread to between four to five thousand acres and is zero percent contained. EPA-EFE/PAUL BUCK

epa06256171 A California Highway Patrol handout aerial image of one of the ongoing wildfires near Santa Rosa, California, USA, 09 October 2017 (issued 10 October 2017). Multiple wildfires are scattered through out Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties, leaving at least 10 people dead and destroying homes and businesses in their path. EPA-EFE/CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

TOPSHOT - People watch water-dropping helicopters amidst smoke from the Canyon Fire 2, October 9, 2017 in Orange, California. / AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck

Wildfires lay waste to California wine country, destroying 1,500 homes and killing 10

Flames from a wildfire burn a home in Anaheim Hills, California on Monday, October 9, 2017. Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through Northern California sending residents on a headlong flight to safety through smoke and flames as homes burned. Photo: The Orange County Register via AP

The fire-ravaged Signorello Estate winery is seen through a window Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Napa, Calif. Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through Northern California sending residents on a headlong flight to safety through smoke and flames as homes burned. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Napa County firefighter Jason Sheumann sprays water on a home as he battles flames from a wildfire Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Napa, Calif. Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through Northern California sending residents on a headlong flight to safety through smoke and flames as homes burned. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a home as they battle a wildfire in Anaheim Hills, Calif., Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. Wildfires whipped by powerful winds swept through Northern California sending residents on a headlong flight to safety through smoke and flames as homes burned. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)

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