LA County Sheriff Department posted this photo of the evacuation with smoke from the Woolsey Fire over Malibu. Credit: Grant Denham
Palisades Rated One of Southern California’s Worst for Wildfire Evacuation Routes
Always nice to be the top of most lists. In this case, certainly not.
An April 25 NBC Los Angeles story (“California Cities with the Worst Wildfire Evacuation Routes”) listed Pacific Palisades 90272 as one of 13 neighborhoods that could experience problems. (Visit:nbclosangeles.com/news/local/California-Wildfire-Evacuation-Routes-Analysis-509083321.html)
According to a USA Today report, “A California Network analysis of California communities and evacuation routes shows that some areas in the state are far outside the norm when it comes to the number of lanes of roadway available for the size of the population.”
Pacific Palisades was identified as being roughly within the worst one percent in the state when it comes to population-to-evacuation-route ratios.
The data was figured by checking the number of major thoroughfares in an area, the population, and the community’s location to Cal Fire’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone. That analysis provided an estimate of how many people there are for every lane of major road leaving an area.
Pacific Palisades residents have long worried about possible evacuation routes, especially for those who live in the Highlands or on the hillsides and in the canyons next to brush-covered Santa Monica Mountains. Now, we have further evidence that the fear is warranted.
Start evacuation early. Don’t stop to look. Know where you are going. Let relative, out of state, know you are o.k. Take food, water, pets and important papers, pictures, money, credit cards, etc.
Remember, electricity and water pressure will not likely be out.
Sunset Blvd will not stop a good fire. It can go all the way to the beach.
Yet ANOTHER reason against building a senior residence facility in the Highlands!! Climate Change and Common Sense says NO.
Yet another good reason the Highlands shouldn’t have been built in the first place…