During natural disasters, quick evacuations can be the difference between life and death. The recent fires in Los Angeles highlighted the difficulty of effectively evacuating large numbers of people in a short period of time. Many residents of the Pacific Palisades area were forced to and bulldozers had to be brought in to clear the roads for emergency vehicles.
But the city of Ashland is no stranger to evacuations. In 2020, much of the city was evacuated during the Almeda Fire. Numerous preventable issues delayed the process, including bottlenecks at highway exits and low signup rates for emergency texts from the city and county. Since the fire, the city has The JX spoke with the City of Ashland's Emergency Management Coordinator, Kelly Burns, about the plans Ashland has put in place to ensure more streamlined evacuations for future disasters.
Also joining the conversation is Randy Johnson from . He is a senior transportation engineer and expert in how communities can create effective evacuation preparedness plans.
