Traffic backs up on Highway 50 as people evacuate ahead of the Caldor Fire on Aug. 30, 2021, in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
As fire crews battled dangerous winds on the Davis Fire last week and advancing flames forced the shutdown of Mount Rose Highway, Tahoe residents in Incline Village grew increasingly nervous. The 24.5-mile road is a crucial link between Incline Village and Reno and is one of six entry points into the Tahoe Basin. With Mount Rose Highway closed, drivers had no choice but to reroute onto Highway 28, pushing more traffic onto the two-lane mountain road that circumnavigates the north shore of Lake Tahoe. But on Highway 28, traffic was compounded by multiple road construction projects.
The gridlock and detours were exactly the kind of stacked scenario — wildfire, road closures, traffic, construction — that many people who live in Tahoe fear if they were to get a call to evacuate suddenly.
A recent report commissioned by a nonprofit, Tahoe Sierra Clean Air Coalition, validates those fears and concerns related to wildfire evacuations, which are shared among a number of Tahoe residents. The $100,000 independent study was paid for by Doug Flaherty, an Incline Village resident who leads the coalition and is a vocal critic of Tahoe’s decision-makers.
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“I went ahead and funded this because time is of the essence,” Flaherty said. “We’re facing the summer season, and I didn’t want another season to go by without informing land-use planners and the public — including visitors and residents. We’ve got a safety crisis on our hands here.”
CHP officers are parked at a roadblock on Highway 89 stopping northbound traffic at Emerald Bay State Park, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021.
Bailee Evans makes a call while stuck in gridlock on Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., as the town evacuates from the approaching Caldor Fire, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021.
The report, titled “Independent Lake Tahoe Basin Wildfire Evacuation Analysis,” is shocking in its numbers, showing frightening scenarios of explosive wildfires that occur without notice, on the busiest days in Tahoe in the middle of the summer. Two parts of the final analysis were released last month, and Flaherty says the remaining segments looking at south Lake Tahoe and the west shore will be published later in September.
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Evacuations depicted assume at least one road is shut off, funneling thousands of panicked tourists, commuters and residents onto remaining exit routes. For........