With the Caldor Fire bearing down on the Tahoe region, the Tahoe Weekly has published a detailed guide to evacuating safely and quickly.
A NASA satellite image of the Caldor Fire burning east of Sacramento. NASA / Lauren Dauphin / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
With the Caldor Fire already forcing the evacuation of thousands from the South Lake Tahoe area, and destroying 622 structures while continuing to threaten 32,387 others, residents who have yet to evacuate are faced with the urgent prospect of needing to get ready to clear out.
The Tahoe Weekly on August 31 published a guide to wildfire preparation, including a checklist of steps toward a successful evacuation. First on the list is communication among family members who are involved in the evacuation.
“Meet with household members. Explain dangers to children and work as a team to prepare,” the Weekly’s checklist suggests. “Discuss what to do about power outages and personal injuries. Post emergency phone numbers near phones.”
The guide also includes a list of items that should be included in a family “go bag,” to be assembled in advance to be ready for a quick evacuation. Among those items, clothing, face masks or coverings—keeping in mind that an evacuation would take place in the middle of a pandemic—and an “inventory of home contents and photographs/videotape of the house and landscape,” which will facilitate filing insurance claims.
The Weekly guide also recommends keeping a “a sturdy pair of shoes and a flashlight near your bed” in the event of sudden, middle-of-the-night evacuation.
