Chaos reigned as Plumas evacuees told to leave Lassen evacuation center

By Debra Moore

dmoore@plumasnews

Confusion, terror, danger … those were just some of the words used to describe what unfolded at the evacuation center established at Lassen Community College for Dixie fire evacuees.

During this morning’s Plumas Board of Supervisors meeting, District 4 Supervisor Greg Hagwood dialed one of the individuals caught up in the attempt to escort Plumas County evacuees from the Lassen shelter on Aug. 16, and asked him to tell his story. The man, who was reached at the shelter, described trying to pack up his four children and three dogs with no warning, and was told that if he didn’t, he would be cited and arrested.

The man and his family became part of the caravan that made its way to Highway 395 en route to the Portola evacuation center. But they were forced to turn around and arrived back in Susanville at 11 p.m. He said his children were in tears and terrified during the ordeal.

When the man had finished, Hagwood thanked him and said, “Lassen County if you’re listening, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Understand, we would never, ever treat anyone in the way these people have described.”

Plumas County Sheriff Todd Johns said he would like to comment on the situation. He said he has been in law enforcement for 31 years and “what I experienced last night is the hardest that I have dealt with.”

Johns reported that Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon called and requested that Plumas staff come to Lassen County to help with the immediate evacuation of Janesville. (Lassen staff had aided Plumas deputies when Chester was evacuated.) There was also a call to the Plumas Emergency Operations Center indicating that Plumas County evacuees needed to leave the Lassen College facility as it was now needed for Lassen County evacuees, and the Plumas citizens could go to Portola.

Johns said that he heard from his staff that they were trying to “evacuate our folks to Portola” but they needed fuel. Johns said he arrived at the college to find chaos in the parking lot. According to Johns, the Red Cross told him that with essentially “almost no notice” the citizens from Plumas were told that they needed to evacuate to Portola or they would be arrested. “It is a large area with a large amount of people,” Johns said, and he was trying to calm everyone down.

He said he knew that there were people inside the gym who needed medical assistance and he didn’t think they should be moved. Johns was faced with a tough choice because he had just arrived via Highway 395 and he knew that the fire was approaching and that was the route to Portola. “There were already some folks leaving,” he said.

Johns said that if he began evacuating people, eventually the fire would die down and they could be escorted through the fire. If they evacuated now, they could be in the vicinity. First they did a caravan to downtown Susanville to get gas. In addition to private vehicles, two buses were used to transport those without their own cars. Ultimately it was determined there was no way they could get to 395, so there was a choice — take them back to the shelter or send them on a circuitous four-hour trip to reach Portola. They returned to the shelter. Johns said there was an obvious break between Lassen County staff and the Red Cross.

So for now, he said, “I am working hard to repopulate Chester” which could be as soon as tomorrow, or as soon as this weekend. Johns said he is working with Growdon, to relocate the Plumas residents, but, “We keep having spot fires where normally it would have been safe ” to bring them home.

Johns said that the entire situation  “was a very difficult experience for me and I wasn’t even in their (the evacuees) shoes. It shouldn’t have happened.”