The first week of September 2020 saw fires all over California and Oregon. California had it's largest acreage burned ever-over 3 million acres. The smoke was so great from western fires it carried from the West Coast all the way to Michigan, USA. I watched videos of survivors/evacuees from the Oregon fires where half a million people evacuated. I share their experiences not so you will feel overwhelmed, but so you'll be motivated. Most of these people have never experienced a disaster. I take no credit for the videos. Writer's observation: Not one time did any of them talk about their Go Bags or 72 hour kits. They only talked about how grateful they were to get out of there with their pets. A few took prized possessions, but none talked about their can of tuna, their 550 cord, their hatchet or fishing kit. Being prepared means different things to different people. Here are their words:
1:28-1:48 What she cherished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_sVkNmpY1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJg8dVwa83I
:17 Been living there for 30 years, never had to evacuate before.
:33 We’re starting to get used to evacuating…we’re always ready now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roLRvN4W2XI
4:12 We had to get in the truck and go…I’m 55 years old and never been homeless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ftNIsr978
2:17 It came in so fast, we had no idea, because that day it was clear.
4:10 We’ve only seen it on tv and then I never thought it would ever happen to me.
4:41 We’re not going to wait for someone to come in here and tell us to evacuate, I’m pretty sure that’s going to happen.
1:56, 2:17 My mom, she was probably one of the last ones to vacate, which was stressful.
2:17-2:30 She left and all she took was a blanket and a pillow, her dog and her dog bed. And I asked her why did you take that when you were one of the last to leave and you had extra time to go through things? She said she didn’t take much because she thought she was going back home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkvdWGivYaM
:12 From what we were tracking, we thought that it missed us, we thought that is stopped.
:28 I was scared…I was just grabbing things and throwing it in the car.
:47 What did you loose inside? Everything ,everything.
1:12 I remember sitting on my couch praying and crying for Australia, praying and crying for Paridise, Yeah you don’t think it’s going to happen to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDDRev1Ui8
:28 Crazy, it’s 11:15 in the morning and it’s like the middle of the night almost.
1:25 While this footage revels the total obliteration the fires left in their wake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuv3NzuBoOc This is a must watch video too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leYohdI9XEk This is a really good video, consider watching this.
:08 Names of cities a lot of people have never really associated with wildfire evacuations, but it is happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUupzhbzKeg
:10 Used their pop-up tent to contain their cats and dogs with water and food
1:26 Trying to figure out what’s valuable, what’s important to you. Clothes, get the cat, get ourselves, go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2JxNEs1aHM
1:19 We didn’t have time to think…we heard the fires were a long way off and then we heard, you got to get out now. All we had time to grab some basic stuff real fast and get out. And when we hit the door we saw black over the house coming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWjnuv-Sn-k
:11 Well, when you got fire almost to your back door, you ain’t got no time to, do anything.
Additional videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqpCHua7pB4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nvAfcQbO28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ujbLhA8UA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDzelMfzxCk (What is interesting about this video, is it isn't the normal pine tree community you think of in the mountains. When you see it, it will look like any average street in America).
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