Evacuees From CA Fires: What We Can Learn From The Paradise “Camp Fire” of 2018

Devestation has swept through LA County, and it is not a question of whether Californian Evacuees are heading to North Idaho – but a question of how many. In 2018 the “Camp Fire” of Paradise, California similarly forced people out of the state, many of whom just didn’t have time to wait for CA’s long and drawn out building permit process while they paid mortgages on piles of rubble. In 2020, The California Report studied the migration patterns of the Paradise evacuees. The link to that article is included below. Majority of the evacuees who moved more than 30 miles away were retiree age. 54% of people 65 and older moved away. Working age people tended to stay closer to home, with less than 1/3 of these younger age groups leaving the area. According to what they could track, around 30 households moved to the North Idaho area. That is roughly 2 or 3 households for every 1.000 that burned. Many other states across the nation also received similar numbers of evacuees. Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Colorado, Texas, and Oregon all received similar influx. If the fallout for this fire follows the same pattern, we should see similar numbers. Link to Paradise Fire Migration Patterns Article: https://www.kqed.org/news/11797124/where-did-all-the-camp-fire-survivors-go