I live in Los Angeles and just happen to have a grocery store within easy walking distance. Like 0.5 km. But I don't, because the old nice little convenience store got turned into stupid Whole Foods. Or Mold Foods, as we started calling it after trying some of their groceries. Now I drive a mile to where I can get fresher produce and dairy, and paper towels that don't disintegrate with the first touch of liquid. Or we get our groceries delivered.
True, and maybe it would make sense for the county (or a cellphone company?) to invest in strategically located towers so that cell service would be less spotty in general there? Not just for this kind of emergency but also lost hikers etc.
Oh sorry, family word maybe? A child cheater is a flexible spatula (rubber or silicone) rounded on one side, that scrapes all the yummy cake batter out of the bowl and into the baking pan, leaving not enough to lick.
Please don't disable the alerts just because they're irritating. They have saved so many lives, even though they fuck up sometimes.
Just, instead of panicking, do a quick internet check if you don't have other evidence of the danger. You might find that you're not in the danger zone yet but might be soon if the wind changes or whatever. Then you can monitor the situation.
You can also consider them a message from the Universe to check up on your emergency stuff: How much drinking water and food do you have and is it expired? Do you have a bug-out bag and do the pants in it still fit? What would you use to carry all your regular meds? (Don't store just a few pills, scoop up all the bottles of what you're normally using, because it might be awhile before you get refills) Do you have a litterbox and food for your cat, as well as a carrier? What about any important documents, know where they are? And where would you go?
After we all knew the hurricane-force Santa Anas posed a big danger of fire, because of both news stories and phone alerts, the whole city accidentally got a major "evacuate now" warning, with the big WOOPy noise from our cellphones, that was only supposed to go to residents in a particular area.
I had my quadriplegic husband dressed and out of bed and our old go-bags and medical equipment thrown in the car in the 20 minutes it took for the retraction to come out. I also had a bit of a panic attack.
Some people decided to turn off their alarm settings because of that error. But I took it as a warning that we were not ready enough.
I went into the bags and made sure, for instance, that the pants fit me, as I'd gained weight in a year. I stashed the fridge meds in a cold carrier, handy in the fridge. And put the right cat food for the new cat in the cat-kit/litterbox. And created a go-box for the box turtle.
Then I stowed as much as possible in the actual car, including the Important Paperwork file.
All along, we were monitoring as the fires started to pop up and spread.
At 9 pm, we got another WOOP alert. Our address had become part (the far edge) of the Yellow Zone. Not the Red Zone. But as you said, who's going to catch a warning at 2am? (Well, me! But it's a lot harder to react at that hour) In fact, I'm sure that's why CalFire expanded the zones so wide at 9 pm, because they wanted to be sure they wouldn't have to issue a new one overnight.
So we bailed immediately but calmly. Spent 5 days at a hotel near LAX.
Fortunately we had no damage, but had to dip into our emergency drinking water for a few more days until they lifted the Boil Water notice.
Super glad we had and heeded those early warnings about how dangerous those hot dry winds were going to be, and the 9 pm evacuation zone warning.
The relatively low death count in the Palisades fire came from the accurate weather forecast.
First thing they teach first responders: don't become a second victim, it helps nobody. Look at your big-ass self, you think cat can save you? And if cat goes running for help, who's gonna listen? Maybe they'd give cat some salmon but you'll still drown.
Cat loves you and will sit with you while you finish drowning. Then when you get your next life you can go together for some salmon. You still have some lives left, right?
You can look at a cat and do the Slow Blink a few times to say "I'm not threatening you, nor threatened by you." Which is the closest cats get to "let's be friends."
Article says the camp has been there for a century, and the water washed away the cabin while the girls were asleep... Sounds like climate change to me. Even though the building is surely newer, they'd know where the river had risen to in the past.
I live in Los Angeles and just happen to have a grocery store within easy walking distance. Like 0.5 km. But I don't, because the old nice little convenience store got turned into stupid Whole Foods. Or Mold Foods, as we started calling it after trying some of their groceries. Now I drive a mile to where I can get fresher produce and dairy, and paper towels that don't disintegrate with the first touch of liquid. Or we get our groceries delivered.