I've been tight lipped on this one but I thought I'd share this with you. My mom lived in Magalia - an extension of the north end of Paradise. On November 8th she got up earlier than normal as she had an appointment that morning. She turned on the TV to a news station and found out about the fire. She was fortunate as many residents living in the area did not get much warning if any. The news indicated that the power company was cutting power so she opened the garage door and packed up her car. As she was putting items in the car she thought she would be returning home in a couple of days so she packed accordingly.
The scenes shown in the 60 Minutes link below show the southern escape routes down the mountain. My mom went up the northern route that went deeper into the Sierra Nevada Mountains - the fire had not reached this route yet. She and my deceased step dad had discussed escape routes over the years. We had communication with our mom in the AM but had not heard from her for many hours. My youngest sister wanted to drive up to find her but I suggested that we wait a bit more as the drive out had to be hell. I was at work when my sister called to inform me that our mom made it to Chico safely at roughly the same time that I had to evacuate work due to fire - 500 miles from mom. This was at approximately 19:30.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/reporting-that-respects-the-camp-fire-victims-60-minutes/
Our family is so happy to have our mom safe and with us. She was on the fence about moving down south to live with us. The fence is now gone.
The scenes shown in the 60 Minutes link below show the southern escape routes down the mountain. My mom went up the northern route that went deeper into the Sierra Nevada Mountains - the fire had not reached this route yet. She and my deceased step dad had discussed escape routes over the years. We had communication with our mom in the AM but had not heard from her for many hours. My youngest sister wanted to drive up to find her but I suggested that we wait a bit more as the drive out had to be hell. I was at work when my sister called to inform me that our mom made it to Chico safely at roughly the same time that I had to evacuate work due to fire - 500 miles from mom. This was at approximately 19:30.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/reporting-that-respects-the-camp-fire-victims-60-minutes/
Our family is so happy to have our mom safe and with us. She was on the fence about moving down south to live with us. The fence is now gone.