Damn South Lake Tahoe Under Evacuation Warning

Most friends of ours left yesterday, some are still scrambling. If this fire reaches the ridge at echo summit, the likelihood of spotting anywhere/everywhere all over the Tahoe basin is very high. Christmas valley is not a very defensible place, terrain-wise.

:shudders:

memories of the angora fire (and others) still pretty fresh here

Yeah Bss, my friend packed up her massive art collection a few days ago and had it moved to Grass Valley.

Whoops. Had to scramble and got all the stuff to Reno.

The Angora fire burned right up to her back yard.

Very scary, dangerous situation there.

Sierra-at-Tahoe live Cams:

https://www.sierraattahoe.com/live-cams/

vibes to those affected

It seems spot fires have reached the Tahoe basin now. This is the infrared camera from the top of gunbarrel at heavenly. The green arrow looking thing on the map is the line of sight and field of view of the FLIR camera. Here facing just south of echo peak: https://weathernode.net/flir/caldor
 

A Sierra patroller friend of mine in strawberry believes their (only, year round) cabin home most likely burned today, again based on hotspot mapping and the Tahoe telegraph. 
 

Genuine caring thoughts for all.

Damn lot's of shit everywhere. 

This is such tough stuff... best wishes to all.

Sierra ski ranch burning. Phillips, strawberry burning.

firefighters pulled out of Sierra and regrouped the heavy equipment at the top of echo at the old ski area; the only other place to turn a semi around for about 10 miles.

on Carson pass; kirkwood and silver lake now being evacuated door to door. cell towers have burned. Ever try and evacuate a town of 20,000 at night on a two lane road down from the mountains with like a 500 Aqi? Is that even possible?

most of the air attack has still been grounded because no visibility, firefighters lost a lot of ground today. This is populated, complex, heavily forested, mostly vertical terrain being fought almost all by hand.

red flag warning starting tomorrow. 10-15 sustained and gusts up to 35 all week. Many, many residences under direct threat here. This is going to be very ugly. God bless these firefighters, almost 4000 of them now. And all these poor people in the hurricane....

That's terrible Bss. I hope you and yours are ok.
 

My friend doesn't expect her home of 25+ years to survive.

Heartbreaking....... they got everything out they could and realized 5 days ago that they'd probably never see it again.

All the best to everyone, whatever you are going through.

Hope the weather changes soon.

Is CALFire the best website to track Tahoe fire news?

What about ways to help from afar?

Last night all the patients from Barton hospital were evacuated out to the valleys on school buses. Emergency response teams (communications, veterinary, elder care, etc) that have shown up to town aren't even unpacking, that's how imminent this seems to be bearing down right now. This fire is currently burning on echo lakes and has crossed the PCT. Not much help can be given here, unless you have some firefighting equipment to give away. I understand calfire are even are filling water tenders from house hoses. Sierra (which is a HUGE fire break) burned through but I understand all of the structures were saved. Blowing water out of the snow cannons up there on the mountain last night. All the caltrans cameras on the west slope of 50 have either burned out or taken offline. Crazy. this area is where I am from not where I live anymore, so no personal danger here FYI. Ultimately this is why we left the area, though. I grew up in these mountains and cut my young teeth climbing, swimming, backpacking, fishing, skiing on this same ground burning right now. Evacuation is always looming, sometimes two or three times a season and I could feel it putting years on my life too fast. Even faster than adventure sports. Climate change FTW.

As far as online info, inciweb, Twitter (ymmv) and probably the Reno gazette journal 

Thanks for the news tips and updates BSS, it's such a huge loss of habitat, very saddening.  
Glad you are safe. 
Hang in there.

Truly heartbreaking. 

This dude sure has the spirit

https://twitter.com/JoshEdelson/status/1432431380588228608
 

outbound traffic on US 50 basically at a standstill for over an hour now. Gridlock. Some folks hitchhiking out. Bicycles moving faster than cars. This is actually slower than the Fourth of July. Ppl gonna start losing their shit pretty soon. You can view this on caltrans highway cameras at 50/89 jct and also at ski run blvd. https://cwwp2.dot.ca.gov/vm/iframemap.htm

Snotel plots show wind the really starting to whip now. meyers camera looking extra eerie this afternoon

So many place I have enjoyed for so many decades will no longer be the same, but I feel much more heartbroken for all the people in the area.  I have a friend in Meyers who built their family 'cabin' (2 story house) with his father and brothers back in the '70's.  I really hope they can push this thing around them.

At least 50 is moving a little now.

Sketchy situation.