I hope most of you are settled back are settled back in your homes with power restored.
Anybody care to share a story of your evacuation experience and/or lessons learned and/or kindnesses bestowed? :newangel:
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I hope most of you are settled back are settled back in your homes with power restored.
Anybody care to share a story of your evacuation experience and/or lessons learned and/or kindnesses bestowed? :newangel:
Lessons Learned
The police came by at 3:30AM. We tried to drive south on 116. It was a parking lot. Took a half hour to go 2 blocks. Slept for 3 hours in Hopmonk's parking lot and then went home. Why wasn't North on 116 used for going South? Was there any thought or planning for such an emergency? Lesson Learned: Public officials are not to be trusted!
Grouchy Old Granddad
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
Main lesson learned: If you're going to run about frantically at 4:30 a.m. packing stuff out to the car, catch and cage your two cats FIRST before they freak out.
But kinda nice to realize that we're among the elite of the world's refugees, our own major complaints being (a) very slow traffic and (b) long lines at the coffee shop. No bombs, no starvation, no concentration camps. And I guess we should thank PG&E for their help in motivating us to spend some time with friends.
that's a pretty broad lesson learned. I was actually pleasantly surprised that people didn't move into the opposing lanes. I'm sure that the first responders are more than that.. it's got to be terrifying to drive into an area being evacuated while wondering if someone will get impatient and suddenly appear in your path. We weren't under any danger, there wasn't any need to optimize our exit.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by OldGranddad:
Whether we actually needed to exit is a different question, and whether it could be better planned is another one. I think this was an overreaction to the incorrect decision they made last time -- if you recall, they didn't trigger evacuation because they thought people would unnecessarily panic. Well this time, no panic but probably an unnecessary evacuation. If they staged it at intervals for us who weren't near flames, it'd be a smoother trip out. But don't blame them - what were the people at the front of the line doing that took so long??
Since we live in West County and were well over 10 miles from the fire perimeter, we packed the cars and stayed put. We planned to evacuate if the fire jumped 101, which it never did. We had a generator and obsessively monitored the fire maps on the internet. Heavy smoke would have been another sign to evacuate. Given that almost everyone else in our valley ran for it, there would have been no jam getting out if needed. We had easy access to both Graton and Occidental Roads, so there were multiple escape routs if needed.
We live in west county too and far away from the fire's perimeter and also decided to stay put, considering under the circumstances the hazards of trying to move livestock, pets and people with shelters reportedly full. We had a propane stove top and a gravity well, and a battery operated radio, and an old freezer that we'd neglected to defrost which was a wonder at keeping things cold. Our stove top filter coffee maker became our community hearth for us the tenants on the farm.
For the most part we bonded in cooperation and commiseration, though in the last day or so when promised power wasn't turned on, tempers occasionally frayed. I drove all the way to Rohnert Park to get wifi and cell service at first. Thanks to Fircrest Market and Valero Gas, we were able to replenish supplies and fuel.
One "lesson" was that some people can be unthinkingly selfish in a crisis. The lines at Valero were frequently slowed and tanks further emptied by folks with multiple giant portable gas tanks which they filled...and filled without a thought to the needs of the other folks in the long, long lines.
Disasters always seem to bring out the best and worst in people. Those who are heroes helping others, and the ones who are selfish, only thinking about themselves. We learn a lot about our neighbors that way.
I was previously signed on for a 5 day retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre that started the very day of our evacuation, so I got in my car (West County) after getting the evcuation notice, drove down Hwy one with a line of slowly moving cars and arrived at Spirit Rock by 6:30! Settled into my room at the center and spent the day wandering the beautiful land and being fed lunch until the rest of the retreat participants arrived and we had our first sit at 7. We lost power so the retreat was dark and cold almost the entire time, which made for a powerful spiritual experience of great depth. I was surely blessed!