Why was the evacuation routes so choked? Why were roads closed off that could have relieved that pressure? Why where roads not made one way to ease evacuation?
There’s so much that needs to be addressed, including decisions made by distant boards and judges that do not face reelection before the voters who are most affected.
The endless legislation from the bench is but one massive cause of death in Paradise & the other towns around it. The other is depending upon far off rule makers in deciding life preserving actions are prohibited to protect random creatures.
All of this goes back to the 1980s when decisions were made in the area of Santa Monica, and boundaries were drawn with five or six state parks to the west of Bel Air, Palisades, and Brentwood. These areas were all being treated as ‘holy lands’ (note: NOT Hollywoods).
The ultra rich and ‘shakers’ of the entertainment industry bought the exclusive area...demanded moves by the boards and judges, and got most of what they wanted....an exclusive neighborhood with limited roads. Trimming back on brush and shrubs? Never was going to happen because it’d ruin the rustic nature of the landscape.
In the end, they wanted ultra-risk living conditions, and they accepted that risk as being normal. Maybe in the 1920s, we had this opportunity to trim off a huge amount of Santa Monica and most of that region as a national park and prevent the urbanization. But we are where we are...because of people and the dry conditions.
Malibu is ON THE Pacific Ocean. The highway- US 1, is 2 lanes each direction. Evacuees were going southbound, bumper to bumper-—many of which COULD have left earlier. FIRE EQUIPMENT was heading Northbound & moving as quickly as possible.
From an eyewitness who talked to me yesterday.
Over 27,000 people in Malibu area were trying to leave all at once-—almost the same number as trying to leave Paradise in N Calif. Too many people wait until they are forced to leave by mandatory evacuation.
Paradise was different-—the fire overran the town that fast-—even with traffic moving the same direction, people actually got out of their cars & started running down the hil towards Chico.