After Maui wildfires, Sky Valley locals look warily at US 2

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SULTAN — The Skykomish River valley is breathtakingly beautiful: crystal streams, jagged peaks and majestic scenery that often finds its way to Instagram.

But in a wildfire, it could be a potential death trap.

With only one arterial route to safety, U.S. 2, locals are sounding the alarm, following the one-two punch of the Bolt Creek fire last year and the deadly Maui wildfires last month.

“All infrastructure can fail,” said Chuck Lie, a Gold Bar City Council member.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/after-maui-wildfires-sky-valley-locals-look-warily-at-us-2/

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1. I've been in this area when I was visiting my sister and her husband (lived in Seattle, we went out

for a scenic drive). The scenery was beautiful, but it was steep. Yikes. Puts the Ozarks I've lived in for so long to shame. I can imagine a raging forest fire in this area, and just perhaps how devastating it would be on residents there. And proposals to reduce fire danger runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Of course, the standard clear cut or burn the undergrowth before it gets out of control stands as an option, but gee, seeing how steep this terrain, I think, leaves this option pretty well out. If anything, w/ the possibility of so many accidents w/ so much traffic already probably has presented some sort of fire dangers. I wonder how they dealt w/ those.

If they can't get ahold of this issue, then those that write insurance will not write insurance anymore (like in FL or CA). I guess in a way, this is somewhat of a good thing, that the insurance companies are forcing decisions to be made to basically (1) Build in such areas OR (2) not build, period.