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More than 20 towns and cities in Oregon don’t have enough evacuation routes, report says

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    Portland, OR (KPTV) — Fleeing from a disaster could be an issue for some Oregonians, according to a report that shows many local towns and cities don’t have enough evacuation routes.

In 2018, the Camp Fire claimed the lives of more than 80 people in California. The devastating fire called attention to small communities with limited evacuation routes.

“What we decided to do was look at this relationship between population and the number of exits, as well as the load on the top exit, which ends up sort of being the road that gets the most loaded in an emergency situation,” said Martin Morzynski, VP of Marketing and Product Management for Streetlight Data.

The company looked at 30,000 different communities across the nation, with populations of less than 40,000 people.

According to their analysis, around 800 cities and towns don’t have enough evacuation routes, including more than 20 in Oregon.

“What ends up happening is everyone gets on at the same time and causes traffic and, you know, folks end up being stuck, potentially you know, literally in the line of flames,” said Morzynski.

Some of the Oregon cities and towns the report claims could be at risk include Astoria, Columbia City, Bay City, Cornelius, Dundee, Willamina and Lincoln City.

The FOX 12 Investigators went to Columbia City to talk with city administrator Mike McGlothlin about the study.

“Well, it just reaffirmed what we already knew,” said McGlothin. “With our community, we are somewhat landlocked.”

He continued, “We have, you know, the Columbia River to our east, limited access to roads, county roads to our west and Highway 30 being our major arterial.”

McGlothlin said with Columbia City’s geography, adding more exit routes is nearly impossible.

“That’s what makes it incumbent upon to really have good partnerships and relationships, specifically within the emergency management community, and we’re really fortunate here in Columbia County that we do have those good, robust relationships and partnerships and communication lines that help keep each other informed,” said McGlothlin.

Cornelius’s city manager, Rob Drake, has a different take on the study.

He believes they do have enough exits to handle their population.

“We have been a sleepy farm community for decades, and we’re wedged in the north and south with protective rural reserve farmland, so you can’t just add roads,” said Drake. “At this point, we think the outlets, although the main outlet is Highway 8, we think there are sufficient outlets if there were some kind of emergency, people could get out.”

Drake also said people in the town are aware of the different routes and they have emergency plans in place.

“I don’t think there needs to be a sense of panic and anytime there would be a disaster, it’s going to be a nervous time, but there’s a lot of coordination, especially in this county and I can speak with some authority to that,” said Drake.

FOX 12 also reached out to the city manager in Astoria. He also said locals know the backroads.

But he said if the natural disaster is something like the Cascadia Earthquake, he’s more worried about roads being able to withstand it. He added that looking at improving the exits is what’s most important right now.

“So, we hope this has a prioritization tool,” said Morzynsk with Streetlight Datai. “Whether it’s about bolstering roadways or creating communication mechanisms that let people know it’s not safe at that top roadway so instead take another one.”

Some Washington areas also showed up on the study, like Kelso and West Side Highway.

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