Washoe County Evacuation Study vs. Seven Magic Mountains

Commissioner Mike Clark sent us this exchange with Washoe County staff after he made a comment on the dais on October 22, 2024 during the Washoe County Commission meeting.

A Washoe County resident, Doug Flaherty, had made a comment at the meeting, “regarding the study that he had done which indicated evacuations from the Tahoe area would be more problematic than the county anticipates.”

Candee Ramos investigated Clark’s request to learn more regarding an evacuation study at Incline Village/Crystal Bay. When reached Commissioner Mike Clark said, “Candee Ramos is a wealth of information, diligent, digs to get the facts, gets along with everyone, and I can’t say how much she helps the commissioners. The information Candee is relaying in this email is what she has been told and it is not her job to question what “facts” she is given by other county employees.”

Email Commissiner Mike Clark forwarded to Picon and other media on November 8, 2024. 

Picon applauds any residents who wants to dig in and attempts to do a study out of concern because Washoe County is too busy donating $500,000 in ARPA funds to aid the Nevada Museum of Art move the Seven Magic Mountains from Las Vegas to Reno. They seem to not be able to find “$140,000 for a year long study based on the multiple vendors and jurisdictions Washoe County Emergency Management Program has conversed with” for an evacuation study in Incline Village/Crystal Bay.

What Picon didn’t understand is why wouldn’t Washoe County’s Emergency Management team embrace Mr. Flaherty and perhaps he could help them find this elusive $140,000 the EM team needs for a study. Instead, they took the path to question his study, and Flaherty’s expertise to have the study done.

We often hear Mr. Flaherty at Washoe County Commission meetings, and he is very passionate about this study, the county he lives in, and after the Davis Fire we believe he has a right to be. Tahoe Sierra Clean Air Coalition released the study wrote of concerns that evacuations could take upwards of 9-13 hours. The $100,000 independent study was paid for by Doug Flaherty. The San Francisco Chronicle seemed to have taken this study seriously, they wrote about it.

Why would any county employee feel empowered to say, “Mr. Flaherty presents himself as the subject matter expert on all things fire and evacuation and is quick to discount the information and direction offered by any current fire personnel or emergency management professionals.” How do any of us know that is true statement. It is one county employee’s opinion, EM Administrator Kelly Echeverria.

Perhaps Mr. Flaherty’s study is the “fly in the county’s ointment” to date EM Administrator Kelly Echeverria has a proposal for a study but no money. What good does that do any Washoe County resident?

Washoe County’s Road to Resilience proposal - the county need $140,000 to complete this study. 

Or could it be Commissioner Alexis Hill didn’t want an evacuation study done at Incline Village/Crystal Bay until she had secured her reelection because she didn’t want residents to freak out how long an evacuation would take. EM Administrator Kelly Echeverria could be following the Washoe County directive to tamp down any questions regarding Mr. Flaherty’s study.

2024 Evacuation Study Proposal (1) by documents on Scribd