OK, so I'm not actually on the fire line. I'm hunkered down in my house -- the smell of smoke is too bad to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather we're having -- hoping the power doesn't go out before I can get you an update about companies based in San Diego that might be affected by the fires.
To the best of my knowledge -- and I've been watching a lot of news over the past three days -- no major companies have been directly affected by the fires (which are also in the Los Angeles area). However, most companies such as Qualcomm
It's estimated that well over 500,000 people have been evacuated during the fire, and most of those people, as you can imagine, aren't going to work. Even people not evacuated -- knocking on my wood desk -- haven't been going to work because of the mayor's plea for people to stay off the roads. Even when businesses do stay open, production can be difficult. For instance, in its earnings conference call on Tuesday, Illumina
Ironically, the companies that may do best after the fires are the homebuilders. You have to look no further than all the direct mailers in my mailbox every week to realize that there's a surplus of new homes in San Diego County.
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Overall, I think that San Diego is going to come out of this disaster relatively OK. Business should get back to normal starting next week; it seems there shouldn't be any major hits to businesses.