ad
Supported by
Evacuees along the rural central coast have fled forest fires, but more populated areas are at greater threat of coronavirus.
By Kellen Browning
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – A wildfire swept outside, but inside the evacuation centers, there were also risks.
Natalie Lyons and Craig Phillips had to make a decision Thursday morning while sitting in their ash-covered Toyota Tundra under the smoked orange sky in Santa Cruz.
After fleeing the small town of Felton on Wednesday as a series of wildfires continued to burn along California’s central coast, they sought refuge in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, an evacuation site, but construction was completed, and Lyons panicked. contracting the coronavirus in an enclosed interior space.
“There are other people coughing, with the mask hanging,” said Lyons, 54, who said he had lung problems. “I’d sleep in my car before I ended up in a hospital bed. “
So that’s exactly what the couple did. Her car served as a makeshift bed in front of the auditorium, and Ms. Lyons tried to settle into the back seat with her combination of chihuahua terrier and her scaly cat. “I slept a little,” he says.
More than 25,000 other people have been forced to evacuate rural areas in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, Cal Fire said, and many have struggled to find a place to go, especially with the pandemic that still limits meetings inside.
At least five hotels in Santa Cruz said they were complete Wednesday night, as the evacuees took safe shelter from outside smoke and, at noon on Thursday, Santa Cruz County suggested tourists and other visitors leave so that displaced citizens could find a bed to sleep in. Places specially designed for evacuees were forced to return to others due to the need for social estating, which Jessi Bond, the civic auditorium supervisor, described as “heartbreaking. “
“There are two emergencies and we want to deal with both,” he said.
The fires killed at least four people. Three bodies were discovered Thursday in a burning house in Napa County, said Henry Wofford, spokesman for the sheriff’s office. In Solano County, a man living on Pleasants Valley Road was discovered dead in a wounded assessment, Sheriff Tom Ferrara said on Facebook.
Forest fire sites, caused by an ordinary era of lightning, continued to sweep California on Thursday, burning more than 300,000 acres in the state. A group of fire sites, the LNULightning Complex in Napa Valley, reached 131,000 acres and destroyed more than a hundred houses and other buildings, many of them in Vacaville, near Sacramento. Firefighters said Thursday that they hoped to prevent the chimney site from spreading further through the city, but more than 30,000 buildings remained threatened.
East of Silicon Valley, an organization known as SCU The Lightning Complex reached more than 137,000 acres, nearly the length of Chicago, but largely stayed away from more populated areas, and firefighters contained a small portion.
ad