Yosemite Blog

What’s the Real Story Here?

So yesterday I got 2 emails and 3 twitters about evacutaions in El Portal. Being the responsible, not yelling fire in a crowded theater person I am, I naturally called the National Park Service fire information line. I mean, hey, it was their bar b que. I was told by the person staffing the line that El Portal had NOT been evacuated and was NOT in any immediate danger. Ok, cool.

So today the Modesto Bee ran a story claiming the Mariposa County Sheriff had ordered the evacuation of the Yosemite View Lodge just outside Yosemite in El Portal.

“The Mariposa County sheriff’s office ordered guests and staff at the Yosemite View Lodge, just outside the park’s western gate, to evacuate Friday afternoon. People without lodging were offered beds in a shelter in Mariposa staffed by the Red Cross.” (ModBee)

If El Portal wasn’t in any danger, why was the Yosemite View Lodge evacuated and all the guests forced to stay in a shelter in Mariposa? If El Portal WAS in danger why was I told it wasn’t when I called in? Why wasn’t more of the town evacuated if there was a danger? Is the Modesto Bee wrong? What’s the real story here?

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4 responses to “What’s the Real Story Here?”

  1. Suzie Avatar
    Suzie

    Old El Portal was evacuated last night. There was the community meeting at 6:30 pm. We had been on pre-evacuation notice since approx 4:30 pm. By 8 ish the actual call for evacuation came out and we had a half and hour to leave. The Rancheria portion of El Portal was NOT evacuated at that time. We haven’t had any other updates yet.

  2. Michael Frye Avatar
    Michael Frye

    Yosemite View Lodge and old El Portal were definitely evacuated last night – I was there at about 8:30 pm and the roads were blocked off, people were leaving, and no one was being let in. I heard that they were setting a backfire on the hill above town and wanted to get people out of the way first.

    Rancheria Flat (new El Portal) was not evacuated. I talked to someone there this morning. They told me old El Portal is still under a mandatory evacuation order, and people have not been let back in yet.

  3. Lynn Upthagrove Avatar
    Lynn Upthagrove

    Very interesting stuff here. I called Yosemite View Lodge this morning and asked them and she said they were still under evacuation orders but that the road was open. Eerily quiet from the communication team on the fire.

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I received this email from the the Mariposa Gazette this morning:

    At least on the surface, it appears the community of El Portal may be saved from the destruction of the Big Meadow Fire in Yosemite that started last Wednesday.

    This morning (Saturday, Aug. 29) CAL FIRE Division Chief Roscoe Rowney, who is on the front lines of the fire, said the winds that have driven the fire the past two mornings, didn’t materialize. There was a steady breeze, but not the strong gusts that fire officials feared would drive the fire into the Crane Creek drainage, which runs through El Portal.

    Immediately following a community meeting in El Portal last night, residents of the portion of the community known as “Old El Portal” were ordered to evacuate. According to Undersheriff Doug Binnewies, at about 7:30 p.m. the order to evacuate Old El Portal was issued. An evacuation center was established in Mariposa at Mariposa Elementary School, but officials say that most residents must have stayed with family and friends because the facility was hardly used.

    It is believe that most of the previously-evacuated Foresta residents and other guests who were at the Yosemite View Lodge that was evacuated yesterday afternoon moved down Highway 140 to the Cedar Lodge.

    Rowney said that although the overcast skies that may have allowed the fire to cool yesterday didn’t appear this morning, the blaze had calmed down enough that fire fighters and equipment were able to access south Foresta, which is just over the towering ridge above El Portal. Early this morning crews and bulldozers began cutting a substantial fire line on the top of the ridge to prevent it from reaching the Crane Creek drainage. Even though the entire situation is unpredictable, Rowney said the evacuation order remains as a contingency, but he expects the incident commander may lift the order at some time today.