Yea . . . thats exactly what I am saying for those in 4S Ranch.
The reverse 9-11 system is not set up to call everyone in the area except for those in places like 4S Ranch which are shelter in place. The system does not discriminate in this detailed a manner. It just calls everyone on a designated and certain phone interconnect switch and plays a recording. Those making the decision to call a mandatory evacuation also suffer from a “well just to be safe we better go to extremes” and evacuate them all. This mindset comes from an innocent desire to just in case lets be as safe as possible. However, often this backfires and is not the case.
If you lived in 4S Ranch the proper course of action was to 1) first be informed of the advise of the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Chief . . . which is don’t evacuate due to living in a “shelter in place” community (99.3% of people in 4S probably failed at this step), and 2) ignore the order to evacuate and rationally know that such a broad order does not include you (of the 0.7% left many of those may have panicked and left anyway and 3) stay in your home and stay informed via AM Radio of what the fire is doing and be ready to leave if necessry. Thats exactly what I did. Those that left per the “mandatory evacuation” order did the wrong thing.
FYI . . . they never want you to know this but in the United States of America there is no such thing as a “mandatory evacuation” order. Its merely a strong plea to do as we ask. You are perfectly free to assume the risk of staying and stay. In my case I assessed the risk of leaving to far exceed the risk of staying. (See Hurricane Katrina and how the whole evacuation experience worked out for them. Not apples and oranges because many in Katrina had not choice because their house was unlivable.) My house was fine and I stayed. Almost everyone I talked to afterwards that lived in 4S Ranch and evacuated will stay next time . . . as they should. The danger of being harmed due to a Santa Ana wind driven wildfire in 4S Ranch is extremely low to nonexistent.
