Yes, and you won’t always have the luxury of advance warning to sort things out. When we had that false nuclear missle attack a while ago here in Hawaii, I assumed it was factual, and could only think I had to get to my partner NOW, to protect her (right, from a nuclear blast…). I drove 80-90 mph (along with a few others…) for 16 miles to my home in time to hit the front door as the “all clear, sorry” was given (to find her blissfully knitting on the couch…). Reflecting on my reactions to the non-event is kinda painful. I could have killed myself or others. I didn’t even turn on the car radio to check updates when driving home. I hope I never have to go through that again. I hope I’ll be able to think more clearly if I do…Aloha, Steve.
To a certain extent, wildfires are a natural part of California ecology. They are very common during the fall and happen almost exclusively on rugged dry hills and canyons: https://databasin.org/maps/new#datasets=bf8db57ee6e0420c8ecce3c6395aceeb.
That being said, I’m a California native and I’ve never seen fires this widespread and intense. What’s happening is probably some combination of climate change, mismanagement and development creeping up into these fire corridors, famous examples being Malibu and Sonoma County vineyards.
But bottom line, the vast majority of California’s population is not at immediate risk and probably never will be. I suspect in the future certain areas will become off limits to development or at least un-insurable. We’ll be confined to the flat areas, if not by fire then by gas prices. Again, this is where most people live already.
BTW, I’m not trying to diminish the threat, the very real losses people have incurred or Adam’s valuable lessons. I’m just trying to add a little context because I see a lot of hyperbole about California’s problems that I don’t see applied to similar, if not more extreme, natural threats in the rest of the country.