People in a rural neighborhood in Benton County have a new evacuation route they can use in case they need to flee a fast-moving fire.
The route will serve around 350 homes in the Oak Creek Valley near Corvallis, which lies in the Wildland Urban Interface. Because the community is so close to the forest, they’re at a high risk for wildfires.
Two years ago, concerned residents spoke to the county because they only had one road to evacuate the valley during a potential disaster. Their concerns launched an effort to connect the neighborhood to a gravel road that runs through Oregon State University’s sheep farm.
To build the route, Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, had to draft new legislation that permitted the local fire district to assist with the project.
“It just makes me think about all the things in our community that we take for granted, and all the people that are behind making that happen,” Gelser Blouin said.
Benton County intends to apply the model for this project to other at-risk communities.
