And we have nowhere to go.” Her neighbor, longtime resident Ron Hartman, was also stuck without a car. “We are all packed up and ready to go, we just have to figure out a way to get out. “It is me and my fiancé and my cat,” Duncan said. “It’s messed up, the evacuation for people who don’t have cars” she said, adding that she’d heard there were going to be shuttles for people but was told they’d stopped running earlier in the day. Reel Duncan, a resident of more than 15 years, doesn’t have a vehicle. It will probably take most of the day to get back through town.”īy mid-afternoon many streets were silent and empty as evacuees cleared out, save for a few folks still feverishly loading cars, trucks and RVs with their things.īut for some, that just wasn’t an option. “My boss called me and said to make this one delivery and get the hell out of there. “Everyone was gone,” he said of his last stop in the Tahoe Keys. He had one more delivery to make, distributing linens to local resorts, but many were already closing. Photograph: Gabrielle Canon/The Guardianįarther down the line, Robert Adamson waited in his delivery truck. Gridlock as South Lake Tahoe residents flee the Caldor Fire. That time, he escaped with only the clothes he was wearing – and of course, his grandfather’s car. He’s been in the area since 1977 and has only had to evacuate once before. Up until that morning, Kline said, he didn’t think he’d have to leave. “I am sitting here watching all this ash come down on it but at least I am getting it out of here,” he said. Behind him he towed his grandfather’s classic car in mint condition, the sole major possession he wanted to ensure would get out safely. “I haven’t moved in half an hour,” said South Lake Tahoe resident Dick Kline, leaning out of the window of his truck. Occasionally, sirens rang out and red lights flashed into the distance.Īnxiety mounted with each gusty breeze, strong enough to shake the trees, reminding evacuees that the inferno was heading their way. Cars inched along through the smoky haze, some piled high with belongings and others towing trailers with bikes and other recreation equipment. “For the rest of you in California: every acre can and will burn someday in this state.”Īsh rained down on long lines of cars gridlocked on the roads exiting South Lake Tahoe, a popular vacation town home to more than 20,000. “There is fire activity happening in California that we have never seen before,” said Thom Porter, director of the California department of forestry and fire protection, known as Cal Fire. By late Monday the fire had been pushed by strong winds across highways 50 and 89, burning cabins as it swept into the Tahoe Basin. Monday’s fresh evacuation orders, unheard of in the city, came a day after communities several miles south of the lake were abruptly ordered to evacuate as the wildfire raged nearby.
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