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Home My WebLink About2/4/2025 Item 7a, Metcalf (2) Lynn E. Metcalf <lmetcalf@calpoly. To:E-mail Council Website Subject:2nd Email | February 4th agenda item 7a | Higuera Complete Streets Project Attachments:NYT_11Nov2018_ParadiseFire.pdf; Who they were_ Victims of the deadliest California wildfire _ AP News.pdf This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. To: San Luis Obispo City Council I am writing to register additional facts that highlight the risks to San Luis Obispo residents that the proposed Higuera Complete Streets project plan presents. City Council approval of projects that squeeze down lanes on city streets creates increased risk of death in emergency situations.  The # of dead from a single catastrophic event will far surpass the 21 deaths due to tra?ic collisions in San Luis Obispo over the previous 6-year period. Paradise, CA is a good example. Please see the New York Times & AP News pieces attached.  The literature shows that increased congestion on city streets results in excess deaths. People die either before emergency medical services personnel arrive, on the way to the emergency department, or in the emergency department. A few minutes makes a di?erence. Given the wildﬁre risk proﬁle of SLO, City Council should be working on  approving infrastructure projects that increase automobile access and throughput on city streets  creating safe egress for everyone in SLO and access to routes to safety  wildﬁre mitigation in all of the open spaces that the City has actively promoted 1 Thank you. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: February 4th agenda item 7a | Higuera Complete Streets Project Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2025 17:05:17 -0800 From: Lynn Metcalf < To: emailcouncil@slocity.org To: San Luis Obispo City Council I am writing to register concern about the proposed Higuera Complete Streets project plan. The plan calls for reducing the number of lanes on a major thoroughfare.  p.7 and p.10: both refer to decreasing Higuera to three (3) lanes  p.8 and p.9: both refer to protecting bike lanes with concrete barriers 2 Traffic has increased on all major streets in San Luis Obispo, as a consequence of  A growing population in San Luis Obispo (47,000+)  A growing student body at Cal Poly (22,279 students)  At least four new developments in the area (Prado Road, Madonna Road, Tank Farm & Orcutt, Buckley Road) At the same time, the city has made significant modifications to major streets in San Luis Obispo that have reduced their capacity to accommodate the increased traffic resulting from a growing population. Examples are South Street, Osos Street, Chorro Street, Johnson Avenue, and Grand Avenue. The city's decision to reduce capacity of major thoroughfares by eliminating lanes and introducing concrete barriers and additional bicycle infrastructure puts up to 70,000 people at risk in the event of a major wildfire. This risk is high. Before the city makes additional changes that reduces capacity on yet another major street, we need to see a realistic plan to restore and to build up capacity on San Luis Obispo's major thoroughfares, so that safe evacuation of a population impacted by wildfire is feasible. 3 Thank you. -- Dr. Lynn E. Metcalf Professor Emeritus, Entrepreneurship, Orfalea College of Business Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA _____ cell 805-748-8589 4 apnews.com Who they were: Victims of the deadliest California wildfire 9–12 minutes SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing 84 of the 85 victims of a 2018 wildfire in Northern California. A report released by the Butte County district attorney listed the names of all but two who have not been identified and how they died. ___ Joyce Acheson, 78, of Paradise, was found inside her home. She had limited mobility and lived in an area closed off to public access, preventing any caregiver from getting to her. Herbert Alderman, 80 of Paradise, had a severely sprained ankle that limited his mobility at the time of the fire. He made several phone calls to friends seeking rescue but was found inside his home. Teresa Ammons, 82, of Paradise, died attempting to flee the fire. She was found outside her trailer with her purse nearby. Rafaela Andrade, 84, of Paradise, needed a walker to get around and did not have the ability to evacuate on her own. She was found inside her home. Carol Arrington, 88, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Julian Binstock, 88, of Paradise, was found with the remains of his dog in the shower of his home. David Bradburd, 70, of Paradise, was near a power line knocked down by the fire outside his home. Cheryl Brown, 75, of Paradise, was found in a recliner next to her husband, Larry Brown. Larry Brown, 72, of Paradise, was found in a recliner next to his wife, Cheryl Brown. Richard Brown, 74 of Concow, was found outside his home under his pickup truck, where he tried to hide from the fire. Andrew Burt, 36 of Paradise, was found just outside the front passenger side door of a minivan with his dog. He was trying to escape in the minivan when it was overcome by flames. Three other vehicles with the remains of four other victims were nearby. Joanne Caddy, 75, of Magalia, was found inside her home. Barbara Carlson, 71, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Her remains were commingled with those of her sister, Shirley Haley. Vincent Carota, 65, of Paradise, a partial leg amputee who did not have a vehicle, was found inside his home. Dennis Clark, Jr., 49, of Paradise, was found in the passenger seat of a car with his mother Joy Porter in the driver’s seat. Their car was in a line of three other vehicles with remains inside. Evelyn Cline, 81, of Paradise, was physically immobile and unable to leave her home without help. She was found inside her home. John Digby, 78, of Paradise, was found inside his home. Gordon Dise, 66, of Chico, was found inside his home. His daughter, who fled the house with him, said he went back inside for something and never made it back out. Paula Dodge, 70, of Paradise, was found between two cars in the carport of her home. Her husband, Randall Dodge, was found deceased next to her. They were trying to flee. Who they were: Victims of the deadliest California wildﬁre | AP News about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2F2b5a4... 1 of 4 2/3/25, 9:13 PM Randall Dodge, 66, of Paradise, was found between two cars in the driveway of his home with his wife, Paula Dodge. Andrew Downer, 54, of Paradise, an amputee who used a wheelchair and was unable to drive, was found outside the front door of his home. Robert Duvall, 76, of Paradise, was found in the passenger seat of his truck a third of a mile (half a kilometer) from his home. A second vehicle registered to him was nearby with the remains of his girlfriend, Beverly Powers, inside. Paul Ernest, 72, of Paradise, and his wife tried to escape by driving their ATV off road through a canyon. When their escape route was blocked by a rock formation, they were overtaken by the fire. Both were severely burned and airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center Burn Unit in Sacramento. Ernest died at the hospital nearly 9 months later. Rose Farrell, 99, of Paradise, was found on the front porch of her home, her wheelchair nearby. Jesus Fernandez, 48, of Concow, was found on the ground between two vehicles. Jean Forsman, 83, of Magalia, was found inside her home. Ernest Foss, 63, of Paradise, was found with his oxygen tank outside his house. He had limited mobility and was attempting to escape. Elizabeth Gaal, 80, of Paradise, was found in her apartment. Sally Gamboa, 69, of Paradise, was found in a clearing behind her home. She died while attempting to flee the oncoming flames. James Garner, 63, of Magalia, was found inside his home after calling his sister and nephew multiple times. Richard Garrett, 58, of Concow, was running from the fire when he was overtaken by the flames. He was found among trees. William Godbout, 79, of Concow, was found inside his home. Shirley Haley, 67, of Paradise, was found in her sister’s home, her remains commingled with those of her sister, Barbara Carlson. Dennis Hanko, 56, of Paradise, was found in his home. Anna Hastings, 67, of Paradise, who couldn’t drive because of severe scoliosis, was found inside her home. Jennifer Hayes, 53, of Paradise, was found inside her house. Christina Heffern, 40, Ishka Heffern, 20, and Matilde Heffern, 68, of Paradise, were found in their bathtub. The three generations of women had called 911 as the fire approached. Somehow the phone line remained open as the house, and the three women, burned as helpless fire dispatchers listened to their screams. Dorothy Lee-Herrera, 93, was found inside her home with her husband, Louis Herrera. Louis Herrera, 86, of Paradise, was found inside his home with his wife. Evva Holt, 85, of Paradise, was found in a burned vehicle, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from her home. TK Huff, 71, of Concow, was found inside his home. He only had one leg and generally used a wheelchair, which was found about 10 feet (3 meters) away. Evidence shows he tried to escape the flames by dragging himself along the ground. Gary Hunter, 67, of Magalia, had limited mobility because of a stroke. He was found inside his home. James Kinner, 83, of Paradise, was found inside his home. Warren Lessard, 68, of Magalia, was found on the front porch of his home. Dorothy Mack, 88, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Sara Magnuson, 75, of Paradise, wrapped herself in a wet carpet and sheltered in the bathtub but she died there. Dolores Joanne Malarkey, 90, of Paradise, was found in her home with her husband, John Malarkey. John Malarkey, 89, of Paradise, was found inside his home with his wife, Joanne Malarkey. Who they were: Victims of the deadliest California wildﬁre | AP News about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2F2b5a4... 2 of 4 2/3/25, 9:13 PM Christopher Maltby, 69, of Paradise, was found in his home. David Marbury, 66, of Paradise, was found in his apartment. Deborah Morningstar, 65 of Paradise, was found inside her home. She was unable to drive. Helen Pace, 84, of Paradise, who had medical issues that made it difficult to leave her home. She was found inside. Joy Porter, 72, of Paradise, was found in the driver’s seat of her car with her son, Dennis Clark Jr., in the passenger seat. The car was in a line of three other vehicles with victims inside. Beverly Powers, 64, of Paradise, was found in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck owned by her boyfriend, Robert Duvall. It was in a line of three other vehicles with victims inside. Robert Quinn, 74, of Paradise, was found inside his home. Joseph Rabetoy, 39, of Paradise, was found inside his home. He had no vehicle to get away from the blaze. Forrest Rea, 89, of Paradise, was found in his home. Vernice Regan, 95, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Ethel Riggs, 96, of Paradise, spoke with her grandson on the phone at least twice that day, telling him because the power was out she couldn’t get her car out of the garage. She said she could not reach the manual release for the garage door, and even if she could, she was not strong enough to raise the door. Lolene Rios, 56, of Paradise, was found in the basement of her house with the remains of her four dogs and two cats. Gerald Rodrigues, 74, of Paradise, was found in her home. Frederick Salazar, Jr., 76, of Paradise, was found in his home with his wife, Phyllis Salazar. Phyllis Salazar, 72, of Paradise, was found in her house with her husband, Frederick Salazar, Jr. Sheila Santos, 64, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Ronald Schenk, 74, of Paradise was found inside his home. Berniece Schmidt, 93, of Magalia, was found in her home with the remains of her cat and a kitten. John Sedwick, 82, of Magalia, was found on the front porch of his home. Don Shores, 70, of Magalia, was found in a recliner in his home. The remains of his wife, Kathy Shores, were found in an adjacent recliner. The remains of two dogs and two cats were also there. Kathy Shores, 65, of Magalia, was found in her home with the remains of her husband and their pets. Judith Sipher, 68, of Paradise, was found in her home. Larry Smith, 80, of Paradise, died of his injuries at UC Davis Medical Burn Center 17 days after the fire. He was found severely burned in the driveway. Russell Stewart, 63, of Paradise, was found in his home. Victoria Taft, 67, of Paradise was found in her home. Shirlee Teays, 90, of Paradise, was found inside her home and appeared to be holding or hugging a framed photo. Joan Tracy, 82, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Ellen Walker, 72, of Concow, was found inside her home. Donna Ware, 86, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Isabel Webb, 68, of Paradise, was found inside her home. Marie Wehe, 78, of Concow, was found inside a burned truck on the side of a lane near her home. Kimber Wehr, 53, of Paradise, was found inside her home. She was unable to drive due to a neurological disability, and was unable to flee the fire on her own. Who they were: Victims of the deadliest California wildﬁre | AP News about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2F2b5a4... 3 of 4 2/3/25, 9:13 PM David Young, 69, of Concow, was found with the remains of two unidentified animals inside his minivan, which had crashed into a tree about a 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from his home, as he fled the fire. An autopsy found he survived the crash, but was killed by the fire. The remains of two unknown victims were found commingled in Concow. Officials are still trying to identify them. Who they were: Victims of the deadliest California wildﬁre | AP News about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2F2b5a4... 4 of 4 2/3/25, 9:13 PM Forced Out by Deadly Fires, Then Trapped in Traffic Nicas, Jack; Fuller, Thomas; Arango, Tim ProQuest document link ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) The infernos raging at both ends of California have created a double nightmare for residents. Many who fled fires found themselves stuck on traffic-clogged roads. Some died in their cars. FULL TEXT For the latest on the California fires, read our Monday live updates here. PARADISE, Calif. —Thousands of residents in the wooded town of Paradise did what they were told to do when the morning skies turned dark and an inferno raged across the hills: They got in their cars and fled. What happened next was the vehicular equivalent of a stampede, packing the roads to a standstill. In the hours after the devastating wildfire broke out around Paradise on Thursday morning, tree-lined streets in the town swiftly became tunnels of fire, blocked by fallen power lines and burning timber. Frantic residents, encircled by choking dense smoke and swirling embers, ran out of gas and ditched their cars. Fire crews struggling to reach the town used giant earthmovers to plow abandoned vehicles off the road as if they were snowdrifts after a blizzard. By Sunday night, the Camp Fire had matched the deadliest in California history , the Griffith Park Fire of 1933, with 29 fatalities. Seven of the victims in Paradise died in their vehicles. Farther south near Los Angeles, where another vast fire continued its destruction, a mass evacuation was also all but halted at times by snarled roads. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that two bodies had been found severely burned inside a stopped vehicle on a long, narrow driveway in Malibu. At a news conference late Sunday, Sheriff Kory L. Honea of Butte County said that 228 people were still unaccounted for in Northern California; state officials said they were not aware of anyone missing in connection to fires in the south. Statewide, about 149,000 were still under orders to leave their homes. Again and again in California’s battle with wildfires, roads have emerged as a major vulnerability for those escaping. There was only one way out of Paradise for residents fleeing the fire, the four-lane road known as Skyway, which quickly became paralyzed by traffic, a situation similar to what residents of Malibu endured along the Pacific Coast Highway, another choke point. [ Watch : New York Times climate reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis answers questions about climate change and its relationship to the California wildfires.] Lauri Kester, a caretaker for the elderly in Paradise, said it had taken an hour to drive three miles on Thursday as the firestorm ripped through the town. “There were cars behind, cars in front and fire on both sides,” Ms. Kester said. A police officer running past her told her to abandon her Subaru. So Ms. Kester, 52, ran down the road with her dog, Biscuit, in her arms. “I thought, ‘This is not how I want to die,’” Ms. Kester recalled on Sunday morning in Chico, smoking a cigarette on a folding chair outside a gold- domed church sheltering refugees. “It was hot, it was smoky and —this sounds like such an exaggeration, but —it was apocalyptic.” California was still battling three major fires on Sunday: the Camp Fire, which exploded across 111,000 acres and is still raging in the forests near Paradise, and two fires west of Los Angeles. With Santa Ana winds gusting through the hills of Malibu and toward the coast, firefighters battling the Woolsey Fire in Southern California were preparing for it to get worse over the next few days. The Hill Fire, which is farther inland, was about 70 percent contained. PDF GENERATED BY PROQUEST.COM Page 1 of 4 “We are really just in the middle of this protracted weather event and this fire siege,” Chief Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said at a news conference on Sunday night. During a drive north on Sunday on the Pacific Coast Highway, which is closed in both directions to nonemergency personnel, the shimmering waters of the Pacific could be seen on one side, and on the other, steep cliffs and rocky hillsides with patches of black, charred earth. In other sections of the highway, brush was scorched on both sides and power lines and burned fence posts were down where just a couple of days ago the fire had jumped the roadway and run up to the beach. As wildfires have grown in size and ferocity in recent years, identifying escape routes has become a priority. The mayor of Paradise, Jody Jones, is a traffic specialist who spent years working as a regional manager for the California Department of Transportation. After a wildfire tore through the area in 2008, Paradise put together a detailed plan, hoping to make emergency evacuations swift and orderly, with residents leaving according to their neighborhoods. “We actually practiced this about a year and a half ago,” Ms. Jones said. Yet on Thursday morning, when the fire approached with intense speed, any idea of an orderly evacuation fell apart. “I don’t know that you could build the infrastructure to evacuate an entire town that quickly,” Ms. Jones said. “I just don’t know if that’s possible.” Ms. Jones was running an errand in the northern end of Paradise, and her own escape was a transportation planner’s nightmare: The drive to Chico, which normally takes 20 minutes, was a four-hour crawl to safety, with flames engulfing both sides of the road. And it is not just Paradise that is in this situation, the mayor said. Many California towns, especially those near wildlands, are vulnerable. “It could happen anywhere,” she said. “It seems like we have more natural disasters now that come at us quicker and affect large numbers of people at the same time. There’s no easy solution for it.” Firefighters said they were dumbstruck by the speed of the fire. “Everything was igniting at once,” said Scott McLean, the deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “Swirling winds, swirling embers, fire on both sides of the roads. I lost count how many times I ran over downed power lines.” “These are signs that the fires we are dealing with are so ferocious,” Mr. McLean said. In Paradise, the evacuation was further complicated by the large number of older residents. Paradise is a popular retirement destination, and many had a more difficult time getting out. Thomas and Gloria Selby, a couple in their 80s, rushed to pack up their dog, medicines for a grandson who suffers from seizures, and their prized belongings, including Mrs. Selby’s sewing machine. Yet as soon as they left their home, they found gridlock. The traffic continued as they made their way through Paradise. At times, they stalled in traffic as flames menaced and other motorists panicked and abandoned their vehicles to try to escape on foot. Propane tanks exploding around them added to the atmosphere of doom. “It sounded like a war,” Mrs. Selby said. “It was very scary, very intense.” The evacuation was also complicated by the topography of the town. In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Paradise’s main connection to the outside world is Skyway, a highway that runs along a ridge, making escape even more dangerous. The Paradise police chief, Eric Reinbold, who lost his home in the blaze, said the terrain and traffic flow had played a role in several of the deaths. Four people were found dead in their cars in a neighborhood of Paradise with steep terrain. “The particular area is out on a finger of a ridge, where there is a canyon on both sides,” Chief Reinbold said. “It’s dense brush, dense trees. It’s one way in, one way out, so it’s very possible that the fire was just so intense that there was no way of avoiding that when trying to leave.” The Butte County Sheriff’s Office said on Sunday that it had brought in a truck where family members of those PDF GENERATED BY PROQUEST.COM Page 2 of 4 missing in the Camp Fire could provide DNA samples to identify the remains of those killed in the blaze. On Sunday, Paradise was ringed with miles of scorched earth. Inside the town were the charred remains of gas stations, hair salons and tattoo parlors. The Paradise Inn was mostly debris, save for a sign, and one restaurant was recognizable only by the arrangement of metal-frame chairs left standing. Hundreds of abandoned cars filled parking lots and the sides of the road. Sheriff Honea of Butte County said that search-and-rescue teams were scouring the areas they could reach —some were still inaccessible because of fire danger —and gathering more human remains. “We are very early in our efforts,” he said. “There is still a great deal of work to do.” Sheriff Honea said the region was still reeling from a high number of missing-person reports. The Sheriff’s Office had received more than 500 calls and, after searching local shelters, had located about 100 people. Harris Miller, 83, standing in the parking lot of the upscale Vintage Grocers in Malibu, its doors shuttered, said he had defied the evacuation order and stayed behind. “I survived all this,” he said. “But there’s no electricity. And there’s no plan for electricity for a week, they say.” Much of the damage from the fire in Malibu is in Point Dume, a section of the coast that has typically been safe because it is on the ocean side of the Pacific Coast Highway. But this time, the fire jumped the road and tore through the canyons, destroying many homes. “Some big beautiful homes that have been there forever,” Mr. Miller said. In a parking lot in Point Dume on Sunday was the charred husk of a 1982 Ford pickup truck, with an American flag draped over it. Frank Kerze, 58, lost his truck, but he saved his home, he said, because he stayed behind and fought the fire with “no water pressure” but “a couple of garden hoses.” “I made it, dude, because I stayed,” he said, jubilant as he drove around in a golf cart. Many of his neighbors were not as lucky. A number of homes on Dume Drive burned to the ground, some of them upscale mansions that would be expensive anywhere, others homes that elsewhere would be ordinary but in Malibu had cost millions. The fire was indiscriminate, torching some homes and leaving others, next door or just across the street, intact. Jed St. Henry, a 62-year-old construction contractor whose home survived, said the fire had been “incomparable to any fire I have lived through on this side of Malibu.” “I didn’t expect my house to be here,” he said. “The grace of God.” Credit: Jack Nicas, Thomas Fuller and Tim Arango DETAILS Subject:Transportation planning; Automobiles; Forest &brush fires; Evacuations &rescues; Roads &highways; Vehicles Location:California; Los Angeles California; Southern California; Malibu California Identifier / keyword:Paradise (Calif); Deaths (Fatalities); Wildfires; California; Evacuations and Evacuees; Roads and Traffic; Malibu (Calif); Jones, Jody Publication title:New York Times (Online); New York Publication year:2018 Publication date:Nov 11, 2018 Section:us PDF GENERATED BY PROQUEST.COM Page 3 of 4 LINKS Get It @ Cal Poly Database copyright Ó 2025 ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions Contact ProQuest Publisher:New York Times Company Place of publication:New York Country of publication:United States, New York Publication subject:General Interest Periodicals--United States e-ISSN:15538095 Source type:Blog, Podcast, or Website Language of publication:English Document type:News ProQuest document ID:2131720566 Document URL:https://calpoly.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts- websites/forced-out-deadly-fires-then-trapped-traffic/docview/2131720566/se- 2?accountid=10362 Copyright:Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company Last updated:2018-11-26 Database:Global Newsstream PDF GENERATED BY PROQUEST.COM Page 4 of 4