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I live in Alberta (Calgary) so have obviously been following this closely. Two things stand out in the videos. 1. People are still very courteous while evacua
by giarc 11y ago
I live in Alberta (Calgary) so have obviously been following this closely. Two things stand out in the videos.
1. People are still very courteous while evacuating. I imagined it would be people driving across lawns and through parks. Instead most people are driving on the proper side of the street and letting others in.
2. We shouldn't take forest fires for granted and we should evacuate earlier. Tuesday morning this fire was a non story, then without warning people are driving down their street with 60m flames on the sidewalk. And not just a few hold outs, majority of the population came very close to injury or death. Fort McMurray has basically one way in and out (Hwy 63). If it had been blocked in both directors, this would be a much different story.
- abrookewood 11y agoIn regard to point 1, I think people were TOO courteous. Seriously, everyone is evacuating and heading in the same direction, so drive on BOTH sides of the road. In some of the videos I've seen, I'm really surprised that people didn't get trapped and die because the orderly evacuation that only uses half the possible road bandwidth.
- howlingfantods 11y agoEmergency vehicles need to go the other way.
- Ma8ee 11y agoAnd people driving to pick up e.g. grandma, who can't drive, at her house.
- abrookewood 11y agoFair point.
- Teever 11y agoAs there were only two fatalities in the entire evacuation of nearly 80,000 people I think your assertion that people were "TOO courteous" is incorrect. They were as curteous as needed to ensure a timely evacuation with a minimum of loss of life. If someone had started being 'less courteous' chaos would have broken out and many more would have died. As much as I hate the cliched phrase it would appear that 'keep calm and carry on' was the prudent thing to do in this situation.
- abrookewood 11y agoYou're probably right. I'm guessing my fear at being confronted by that situation would have led me to behave inappropriately. It's like being stuck in the slow lane, but the consequences aren't being late to work, they consequences are your entire family dying in the car beside you. I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for everyone involved.
- mig39 11y agoFort McMurray evacuee here. I was in the Thickwood neighbourhood, and we were in complete gridlock. This only changed once the RCMP did exactly what you suggest -- they used both sides of the highway. Both sides on the north side of the city were used for traffic heading north. Same on the south side. Once they did that, traffic started moving again.
- abrookewood 10y agoGlad you got out .. those videos were truly terrifying.
- tsieling 11y agoEmergency vehicles often need the other lane to go either direction. Maximizing capacity is a more nuanced thing than one use/direction.