We've been downgraded to Level One, which is Get Ready. We can't go to sleep on this yet, but there will be mail and trash collection, and I can order drugs from Amazon. I think I'm going to hold on Amazon until I see if the mail is getting through. Our post office is often erratic. I can't remember how they ship, USPS or Amazon drivers. Update: Drugs came UPS, which is good.
Anyway, air quality is still awful, but we can leave the neighborhood without worrying about not getting back in. AQI is at 209.
This is an excellent article about what the fire fighters were up against. The fire fighters were in the left most clump of houses during the time frame of the article. Red dots are houses that were destroyed. We are not on the map, we're a little north and east, and about two miles (as the crow flies) from where it happened. It gives one pause to contemplate the distance.
There have been a couple of essays (what do you call people who write long form on Facebook?) on Facebook about the level of development along Indian Trail. The Spokane City Council has approved a multi family development that will house 300 families just below my neighborhood. That's 600 more cars that will be on a two lane road. Indian Trail was our evacuation route, and for many others. The first time we tried to leave it was gridlocked, we went home and tried again later. If that fire had come up the hill towards Indian Trail, we all would have been incinerated. The over arching theme of what people have been writing about is infrastructure. It does not appear that any thought is being given to moving the traffic that is being caused by untrammeled growth along Indian Trail.
Yesterday we saw fire trucks from California going up our street, Menlo Park and Half Moon Bay. They were up checking for hot spots. They drove all the way up here for this. Fire fighters are good.
That's it! That's all I've got.
I'm glad to hear the danger has been slightly reduced. Hopefully the last of the wildfire will soon be contained and stopped completely.
ReplyDeleteTake care!
kind of reminds me of Hurricane Ike which hit Houston in 2008. The authorities told people to evacuate and for some reason this time they did. Total gridlock, people ran out of gas idling on the highway and ended up riding out the storm in their cars. It was a pretty devastating storm.
ReplyDeleteThankfully things are improving.
ReplyDeleteIt is great that fire fighters from other states are there to help. Currently, checking for hot spots and keeping things under control is important.
The new construction is concerning. It appears people are not thinking about the roads required to support 300 families. Hopefully there will be a public hearing, and the issue(s) can be put forth.
Florida has struggled with similar questions of evacuation infrastructure for years, given the hurricanes there. The state has worked to widen a lot of roads and make former drawbridges into fixed spans so they won't have to be raised or lowered, which costs precious time. Of course these new facilities are a lot less quaint and scenic but they are practical.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this latest evacuation will give some of the city planners pause when it comes to unbridled development along already crowded evacuation routes. Scary indeed. I'm so glad you guys are safe! The only time we've ever had evacuate was not mandatory; Hurricane Irma was approaching Florida, including the Orlando area where we were in our RV, so we hightailed it up north (LOTS of traffic on I-77 but not at a standstill, thankfully). Landed at a fantastic campground in Mississippi until the danger was past. As it turned out, the RV park we left in Winter Garden never even lost power, but some trees came down, and in the town, lots of homes were without power for over a week, trees on houses, and the like. You just never know who is going to be spared and who won't be so lucky.
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