Monday, July 16, 2018

Red Bud Lodge and Savage Trading post have been evacuated West of El Portal near Yosemite

The body of the firefighter who was a bulldozer driver near Yosemite they will try to recover on Monday. This is very rugged terrain by the way so it isn't really surprising that a bulldozer would turn over in this area. However, I stayed in one of the El Portal Hotels along the Merced River within the last month  so I hope those hotels don't burn down too and that they can protect them. With the river running by they will at least have plenty of access to water likely to put out the hotels if they catch fire.

For example, one area has created a landslide so they had to put two bridges across one area because the road could not be repaired near this area. So, they moved the road across two military bridges to the other side of the river for about a mile and all traffic is one way here and has to be rerouted through traffic signals. So, this traffic signal one way traffic could become a problem with a fire nearby.

Note: I had erroneously put East of El Portal but these places are actually to the west of El Portal. As you are driving up Highway 140 first you reach Mariposa and then eventually you reach El Portal. What I was saying was that to the west of El Portal the mountains are very dangerous and rocky and you see often old mining areas as well in this area. So, this kind of terrain could be very dangerous for bulldozers as large rocks on steep hillsides can easily overturn a bulldozer when they move down the hill suddenly without warning for the driver and then the driver likely could be crushed under the weight of the bulldozer turning over and over down a  steep hill. This is what happens often in cases like this. Because if the tracks are moving when this happens it is almost impossible to jump free over the upper end of the turning over bulldozer. You would need the tracks still when this happened to get free over the upper end side. And so if you were wearing a seatbelt you wouldn't survive because there would not be time to get free because all this happens very quickly.

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