Quote:
Originally Posted by MrPeabody
How much notice did you get? The first time we got evacuated in 2015 we got out with about ten minutes notice. I hope you were smarter than me. I grabbed dog food and left jewelry behind. It does show you what your priorities are. But dumb, because I can easily buy dog food.  |
tl;dr
I left on my own. People were being “officially” roused when the fire was still about 2 miles out, as I was leaving.
Long version:
I started getting alerts on my Citizen app about the fire when it was still in Sylmar. That was at about 9:00 PM Thursday. Didn’t think much of it because Sylmar is about 8 miles from me, as the crow flies. But then I kept getting notifications that people were commenting on it...a lot of comments. So, I opened the app back up about 11:00 and was like...wtf?? This formerly small fire was raging and people were talking about it and posting video in the app.
At that time, I turned on the news and started following along as they made the announcement that the fire had jumped the 210 freeway and the 5 freeway. Then it started coming into Granada Hills and they flat out said Porter Ranch was next.
I decided that it probably wasn’t a great idea to go to sleep.
At about 12:45 AM, the news said the mandatory evacuation was between Balboa and Topanga Canyon, north of the 118. I was like...Welp, that’s me.
Then I looked at LAFD site and they showed that my area was actually under voluntarily evacuation...and that the mandatory evacuation was a few blocks north of me. I put my go bag in the car along with some clothes and a jacket. I also staged the cat carriers.
I watched the glow of the fire get bigger and closer in the sky (behind my neighbor’s house in the distance). The wind was getting worse and worse and coming right in my direction. I packed up the cats and put them in the car. Touched base with my immediate neighbors that were also packing up. Then I knocked on my other neighbor‘s door (elderly) and woke them up. Called a few people in the area that I knew may be sleeping to try and get them up. Sent off some texts, banged on a few other neighbors’ doors. Helped load some cars.
As I was helping load my neighbor’s car, I got an Emergency Alert on my phone at about 1:32 AM. Looked at the LAFD map and saw that the mandatory evacuation had just been extended to us. Finished helping people pack up.
No one came thru until I was on my way out. The neighborhood security and a police officer were coming thru. At that time, I could see the glow of fire behind my neighbor’s house but even greater...it was filling the whole sky (the fire was actually still about 2 miles away).
As far as what I took...I learned how to pack a go bag from @
Nox. You know I had what I was supposed to have.