As for businesses, current estimates state that about 500 businesses have been destroyed by the fires while many others have been evacuated. Large San Diego tenants such as Jack in the Box, Qualcomm, Sony and Hewlett-Packard had to partially or completely halt their operations early this week as fire officials were unable to extinguish and contain the various fires due to dry weather and high winds. These closures, as well as the closures of many retailers, post offices and tourist attractions such as SeaWorld and the Wild Animal Park, are again set to have only short-term effects on business and tourism.

"Large events create a certain degree of disruption," Thornberg says. "Next quarter we'll see a big bounce in the economy. The economy will be stimulated and businesses will be catching up. The business [disrupted] is business to be delayed--not business to be canceled. Mail will go out next month. Deals will close next month. All businesses have built in a certain degree of slack… . As for tourism, it's Southern California, it's San Diego. It will be fine."

Thornberg also notes that although many disasters of this kind can't be avoided, there are measures that can be put in place to prevent widespread damage to businesses and homeowners in the future

"Unfortunately, people are given incentive to not worry about risk because the government happily steps in and bails them out," he says. "People say, 'this is a great place to live and I don't have to deal with the consequences of a fire.' But we should be aware of the fact that when you build in canyons and wilderness areas, yes it provides a great lifestyle but it puts you at risk. We as a society condone this risk at the taxpayers' expense. How many times are you going to rebuild a business or a gated, high-end neighborhood in the middle of the San Diego wilderness before we say 'you should know better'?"