California towns at risk from fires often have few ways out
Source: Associated Press
California towns at risk from fires often have few ways out
By MEGAN DISKIN, Ventura County Star; and EVAN WYLOGE, Palm Springs Desert Sun
April 25, 2019
PARADISE, Calif. (AP) — Californians got a deadly wakeup call when more than 27,000 Paradise residents trying to escape the Camp Fire got caught in a nightmare traffic jam. The 2018 catastrophe illuminated the grim reality that road systems throughout the state are not designed to handle a sudden evacuation.
A new USA TODAY Network-California analysis reveals the extent to which a fundamental problem in Paradise — too few escape lanes for too many people in vehicles — applies to other cities and neighborhoods at great risk of wildfire across the state.
About 350,000 Californians live in areas that have both the highest wildfire risk designation, and either the same number or fewer exit routes per person as Paradise. From the mountains, lakes and forests of northern California, to the San Diego suburbs, some residents in the most fire-prone areas have far fewer evacuation routes than the vast majority of the state.
The ratio of people to exit routes doesn’t account for all the complexities of an actual evacuation, experts say, but it does serve as a shorthand for evaluating evacuation efficacy.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/e856b9efef7b426a90fd175510cd54dd
= new reply since forum marked as read
we see this in Tahoe during the winter too. Overtourism and too many cars trying to exit the area causing HOURS of delays both in getting out of town and IN town for locals.
We have Hwy 50 over Echo in South Shore/Meyers...and Luther Pass over Hwy 89 also goes out of Meyers toward Hope Valley/then splits toward Kirkwood or Carson Valley via Woodfords
Then at Stateline, Nevada we have Hwy 50 over Spooner that leads to Carson City, or SR207 over Kingsbury toward Minden
To GET from Meyers to Stateline, there's only Hwy 50 thru town 2 lanes each way - or Pioneer trail a back road of sorts...One lane each way.
If you could get around the Lake on the CA side by using Hwy 89 it's still only 2 lanes, one each way.
Same with Hwy 28 on the NV side toward Incline Village.
Add the number of summer/fire season visitors to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster... no way a million people could get out on a one lane road...
