Sadly, a lot of neighborhoods only have one access, but if you have more than one, you should definitely be familiar with it.

I think you probably have to have high altitude mountains to have a tree line. That doesn't work everywhere. I know where I grew up, if we had to drive out, there was only one road. The other option would have been to head for the backyard pond and stay wet and hope you had a layer of breathable air near the surface.

Having some sort of warning system and plan in place where you know there is a regional disaster is probably the best deterrent. I've found in the emergencies I have been in, that you can't hang around the area and wait and see. By the time you need to evacuate, it's too late.

We knew with Hurricane Harvey that we were on higher ground than many and we have a two story house. Many of the the people who had to be evacuated had to be taken out by boat. I knew we could have driven 2-3 miles in a couple of directions, but I don't think we could have gotten on the interstate which was flooded in places too.

Living in a mountain town, this is something we do think about especially as the summer fire season aproaches. We actually had our first small fire yesterday. Some idiot left an outdoor burn pile going unsupervised and it spread into the vegetation. Luckily, things are still fairly green and moist and the fire was quickly put out by the fire department. Its amazing that there are still peolle out there who are this careles, but there are.

Many of these small mountain towns have only one or two roads going in and out and they are often narrow two lane roads. All it takes is one broken down car or one small traffic accident or a couple of abandoned vehicles and those roads become blocked. Because of this, I think more about where I would go to wait out a fire - the high school football field, the softball field at the park, the cemetery, a large parking lot - somewhere that is a firebreak and that has no fuel to support a fire.

Breathing toxic, choking smoke would most likely be an issue; it's possible that one could survive the flames only to be killed or injured by the smoke that is created by these large out of control fires. Last year we bought masks that filter out the particulate, but I don't think that having a couple of masks with oxygen supply, such as those used by firefighters would be a bad idea.

I do not live in an area with a high risk of fires - I am not close to any forests. When I lived in Venice, there were signs to tell me which direction to go to evacuate in case of tsunami, but that was about it. I was near sea level there and about 2-3 blocks from a beach, but now I am now 33 feet above sea level, which is above the tsunami danger zone. The biggest danger here is from earthquakes, which can cause fires, but my immediate neighborhood is almost all single story houses. I live on top of a very minor hill, which I notice because when it rains, all water drains away from my house, although minor amounts may accumulate in the back yard.

The closest place to me that has mudslides or fires is Pacific Palisades or Malibu and that is at least 10 miles from here. Griffith Park is about 12 miles from here, and the Getty Museum is about 10 miles away also

I think the biggest problem for me would be traffic congestion, if I had to go somewhere.

The comment about interstates is one of the reasons I mentioned "Things like what side streets if any could be used." Many times people only think of one route/the interstate when there maybe other roads going in the same direction that are not main thoroughfares. In some areas there are only one road. To save my life I would drive though whatever is there, yards, fences, then comeback and fix any damage I caused but that is just me. During bad winter storms if I had relied on the main streets to get home it would be time to return to work before I got home. During regular rush hour it was quicker for me to avoid the freeway. But you have to know about and where those smaller arteries are before there is a need.

Think about what would be within a 5 mile radius of where you are as a walking area rather than just a few feet. In some areas 5 miles would not be much but in others it might be over a hill

Having lived through a somewhat recent flood, I can tell you there was no way out. We'd never had a flood before and that the rain would come down that quickly was a complete shock. When it began coming in the house I wanted to leave. I have no idea where I was going to go. The car stalled, but even if we'd gone on foot there was no place that wasn't flooded. Exit route would've only been by helicopter had it gotten any worse.

I have learned recently that in the SoCal wildfires, one of the biggest impediments to getting out safely was that the air was so thick with smoke and embers, drivers couldn't tell whether they were on a street or a driveway, and couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of their car, even with the headlights on. If the wind is blowing the fire your way, it's blowing the smoke ahead.

I have attached a video, widely viewed, that is not for the faint of heart. It's a young woman driving through Kanan-Dume in Malibu during a fire. This road is a well-travelled commuter road from Malibu. Just know before viewing that this brave woman made it out okay. But it is truly so frightening. Warning: you may find it disturbing.

This is what people faced in the Calif wildfires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzBiXiQP-E4

The interstates are part of the flood plan to collect and direct the water to keep it out of more desirable places. The thing with the interstates and roads around here is that they are sometimes dug down below 'street' level. When it starts raining heavy or flooding, these areas flood. The interstate goes in one direction. If you have a line of cars behind you, you get stuck and can't back out. There are other roads, but there was an interactive map during Harvey so we could see places to drive. There was no way to get around in certain areas.

rob333 did the weather service mention that there was going to be heavy downpours? While sometimes it is just not possible to escape that has nothing to do with what I posted. It is planning an escape route just in case.

No one had an inkling it would do what it did. Heavy rain would've been a massive understatement. It's been called a thousand year flood with four months rain torrentially pounding for twelve straight hours instead of over four months. There was no way to get anywhere. Even if you thought of route, to get ready ahead of time, there was no way out. The entire city was impassible????

A crystal ball would've had us all evacuate. No amount of planning would've averted what we suffered.

I do try to consider escape routes. In CT I lived next to a gas pipeline and kept my options open (although I fear cat-collection time might have cut into escape time, especially since either route out was parallel to the pipeline). In case of other sorts of events, I did know the best and barely-trafficked route up to the land here in MA I eventually built on.

But you really can't plan for everything. I know for me that due to the lay of the land here I'm unlikely to flood, and here there is no gas pipeline. But there are so many other potential hazards - a rare tornado (they do happen in MA occasionally), fires, and so forth. Hurricanes and ice storms are not uncommon events one needs to deal with, and perhaps evacuate from, too. I know the routes out of here, but some of those are marginal, if there's been a lot of rain.

We have an escape route in town. I can't imagine threat by fire - this is timber country. Most logging companies have their own tankers, crews with experience, along with DNR and our fire department. And, lots of green not dry. A strong combined effort entirely possible.

Our house isn't located where flood would affect our home, although it could, and has, held us hostage with roads under water. Until the tide changes and flushes things out. Our flooding tends to be short lived (not that any water for any length of time isn't a crisis for anyone living low, some of this town is essentially sea level).

Our marked escape route is tsunami. And again, a tsumani wave wouldn't reach our home, property, or that of any family unless they happened to be at SILs beach house. ( No one lives there full time, but I have thought of what shape we'd be in if tsumani reached the shore while we were. One would need more than a few minutes warning to achieve high ground.) The local tsunami route ends just above our house. There wouldn't be reason to go up there unless it was with coffee and sandwiches for evacuees.

We did have an instance in 2007 where all roads leading away were blocked with either water or downed trees (some of them taking power lines with them). Leaving wasn't possible for anyone not knowing forest roads and having 4-wheel drive. We had those things, and chose to stay closer to elderly neighbors. We suffered major inconvenience - but without threat of danger.

Mrs S,

That video shows a very scary scene but for me, not enough is known to come to a conclusion.

The fire was spread by strong winds from North to South and that road, except for a few segments, runs that way too. The flames seemed to intensify as the video runs. Was she driving into the trouble or away from it? Had she heeded the evacuation warning when it first went out or did she wait? The video shows several tunnels and some comments on the YouTube page asked - why didn't she wait in a tunnel?

I don't think enough information is known about her situation or those of others to conclude "This is what people in California faced". Do you know more about it?

Sure, there are side roads one can take, but all they do is lead one to the same two lane road that is the only way out of town. The two lane road is bordered by a steep embankment on one side and long drop on the other side. If that two lane road becomes blocked by abandoned vehicles, broken down vehicles or a traffic accident caused by panicked people trying to leave town they are trapped.

That's why my plan is to wait it out by sheltering on the HS football field, the softball field at the park, the cemetery or a large parking lot, whichever is closest at the time. Hopefully, it will never come to that, but I think my chances would be better if it does.

As far as warnings and evacuation orders go, fires are different than hurricanes in that the warnings for hurricanes are issued several days before they make landfall. With fires there is no warning until after the fire starts especially when a fire quickly increases in size. Sometimes all people have is a few minutes to grab the kids and the pets and get out. With the Camp fire, there was no warning because the fire was on the town of Paradise before officials were aware there was a fire.

I saw an interview with a Camp survivor the other day. She's currently using a wheelchair due to the damage the fire did to her feet and legs. She had to flee in her bare feet as there was no time to put on her shoes. She survived by sheltering between two cars and sucking air from the valve stem of a tire.

I don't disagree that one shouldn't heed an evacuation order when there is time to comply. People who decide to stay behind and take their chances not only put themselves at risk, but they put emergency responders at risk too.

EF, I only know what I read. I believe (haven't checked) that she had headed up Kanan to help rescue some horses (?), and had to get back out. I recall that she was headed down to PCH.

I was also told about the man and woman who died in Malibu. I really don't want to repeat what I heard, because it's hearsay, and I shouldn't put it out there, but it was the same sort of thing where the smoke was so thick they couldn't tell exactly where they were :(

I'm not an expert on fires; I'm an early evacuee, whenever I hear a fire might come. But I just heard about the thick smoke and thought "Not for me!!"

Each fire is different. We had a wildfire in my last neighborhood. Some neighbors were evacuated and just got themselves out. I had my kids, my dog, (couldn't find the cat who was hiding because of the commotion), grabbed the photos, albums and hard drives and loaded the car. We were not evacuated and I stayed. Another neighbor saw my loaded vehicle and asked about it. Truly, when you know it is time to leave, it is too late to pack.

I was evacuated when my kids were little due to a poison air emission situation. I had a little warning because I saw the police roadblock when I came home and called a neighbor to find out what was happening. I had a diaper bag packed and that was it when the fire truck came down the street to tell us to leave. I left home with a cat in one arm, a 4 month old baby in the other and two little toddlers I had to herd.