California fire approaches Lake Tahoe after mass evacuation

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SAM METZ and JANIE HAR

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — A ferocious wildfire swept toward Lake Tahoe on Tuesday just hours after roads were clogged with fleeing cars when the entire California resort city of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to evacuate and communities just across the state line in Nevada were warned to get ready to leave.

The popular vacation haven normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists emptied out Monday as the massive Caldor Fire rapidly expanded. Vehicles loaded with bikes and camping gear and hauling boats were in gridlock traffic, stalled in hazy, brown air that smelled like a campfire. Police and other emergency vehicles whizzed by.

“It’s more out of control than I thought,” evacuee Glen Naasz said of the fire that by late Monday had been pushed by strong winds across California highways 50 and 89, burning mountain cabins as it swept down slopes into the Tahoe Basin.

Additional strike teams arrived just after dark and many of the new firefighters were immediately dispatched to protect homes in the Christmas Valley area about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from South Lake Tahoe, said fire spokesman Dominic Polito.



This Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, image provided by Maxar Technologies, shows a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), a true-color image overview of the wildfires at Lake Tahoe, in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists. (Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/fires-environment-and-nature-california-evacuations-b61cea7e0a57bc1670f502a980f4deda

[CentralMass]

1. :-(

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. I guess our December stay is canceled.

We will make other plans for the last leg of our trip before coming home.

My heart goes out to those in the fire's path.

[PatSeg]

3. That is terrifying

It is like there is hardly any place that is safe in California.

[The Mouth]

4. There is no single acre in California that can't burn

or isn't going to someday.

Drought and fire are normal things for this part of the continent, and have been for thousands of years before we put 30 million people on it.

[PatSeg]

5. I lived there for ten years

There were some fires every year, but nothing like we've seen the past few years. My daughter is in the San Bruno area and last year the fires got very close to where she was living. The photos she took were surreal, like she was living on Mars.

[The Mouth]

9. Lived in this house since 1969

These last few years have been scary in Sonoma County. Although historically, I think the drought of the mid 70's was worse. We just have 20 million too many people in this state for the water, infrastructure, and safely buildable land.

[PatSeg]

10. It feels like the economy and population of California

are unsustainable, unless there are drastic changes made rapidly, though I think it may be too late to make a big difference. Humans don't seem to be very good at living on this planet. They take more than they put back and eventually the bill comes due.

How is it this year where you are at? Have any fires gotten close to you? I was in Sacramento and I remember a time when we couldn't see the sun for almost two weeks. The air quality was horrible.

[The Mouth]

11. The population is *WAY* beyond unsustainable

We need to get people to leave California, and Sonoma County. There isn't enough water for even 2/3rds of the people here. It's dry as hell this year; historically it probably will be worse next year and start getting batter after 2025, that's just how it rolls here. But last drought there were half as many people living here, it was tolerable, it's terrible this year.

Between vineyards and the idiots who think we can build our way out of an 'affordable housing crisis' (which is about like drilling our way to clean energy or fucking our way to virginity) I don't see it getting better any time. Wife and I didn't reproduce, so doing my part, might move away after I retire, although I've lived here since I was 7 and am now 60; too damned many people, by a factor of 2x to 3x.

It's hot, dry, and filled with lots of exceptionally stupid and entitled-feeling people of all races, ethnicities, and economic classes.

In short, a tinderbox in a room full of idiots playing with fireworks.

[PatSeg]

13. That is so depressing

So few people can see the big picture until it is too late, if even then. It would be so sad to leave the place you've lived in since you were seven, but I can see why you feel you probably have to.

"In short, a tinderbox in a room full of idiots playing with fireworks." Excellent analogy.

[NickB79]

12. The current drought dwarfs anything in over 1,000 yr

That's been established with a high degree of scientific certainty.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/climate/drought-southwest-climate-change.html

[The Mouth]

14. Probably

I certainly won't argue. Thanks for the link! Scary.

My only point is that we built 200K more houses and apartments than we can sustain in the last 50-60 years and now we are heading into another drought. And that's just in the northbay. Millions in California.

I feel for the people who 'can't afford to live here', but if costs actually reflected the true costs to the ecosystem no more than a few thousand could, but instead they are pushing to build *more* housing; this will not end well. Some ignorant and short sighted people call opposing that 'NIMBY', but I'm going to be getting out of here in a few more years so they are welcome to their misguided foolishness.

In 2017 we had entire neighborhoods wiped out. Guess what happened? People rebuilt (and our elected officials let them) right in the same places, with the same materials, often even bigger. When those flames come whipping at 40mph over the Mayacamas, they don't care if you have a 2.5 million dollar mini-mansion or are renting a room in a tract house; you are somewhere you are a fool to be.

I'll let the folks with the academic credentials speculate (or predict) that it's going to be worse than anything before; I sure as hell don't consider it unlikely.

I know that mid 70's were pretty damned bad and the old-timers said so were the 30's. So maybe what we are heading into is going to be even worse, that really doesn't change my point- drought and wildfires were here before any humans. Hell it makes the point even more clear; if it was bad in the 1970's how bad will it be with a WORSE drought and 3 times as many people? If the fires of 2017 were terrible, why are people still building, and building even more densely, in the same areas? (Greed is the answer, that and ignorance, IMHO).

Hell, look at how the Mexicans built - adobe, tile, even though there was plenty of wood!

It's California; all kinds of idiots see all the open spaces and beauty, figure it's a good place to build, and then they or their descendants have to deal with lack of water, regular fires (many plants here can't even reproduce without wildfires) and such.

[Bayard]

6. I have a friend in the Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks area

Where I used to live. He said, so far, so good. But I worry about him.

The first night I lived there, I walked out and the whole mountain range above us was on fire. Scary as hell. We had fire crews and news vans camped out on our road for weeks. Turned out to be from some woman burning old love letters that took off--at least that was the story.

[jeffreyi]

7. For accurate info on the Dixie and Caldor fires

Check out "the Lookout" web site https://the-lookout.org/, and his associated youtube channel. I look at the Twitter for these fires for current info, but the noise vastly drowns out the authentic information. Zeke provides accurate maps based on the latest infrared flights, with non-sensationalized analysis.

[mopinko]

8. a du'er on fb shared a pic of the sierra at tahoe resort in flames.

my brother worked there as a ski instructor for years, and just built a paralympics training camp right near there.
i dont much care for my brother, but i had to tag him today and let him know that i shared his grief. cuz that's how my family rolls.
i dont know what happened at his place, as he hasnt posted.
i'll share if he does.