Coronavirus complicates wildfire evacuations on West Coast

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as destructive wildfires roar across the West Coast, and many of them could end up in shelters, raising potential health risks during the coronavirus pandemic.

The shelters' impact on public health is “an unusually important and under-researched topic,” said Karl Kim, executive director of the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, which trains first responders. “People are really scrambling right now to figure out how this affects the guidance and messaging and so forth.”

Large disaster response organizations like the American Red Cross are requiring masks and trying to keep evacuees at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart, but it can be difficult for people already reeling from a disaster to consistently follow the rules.

Kathy Gee, 68, has diabetes and other conditions that make her vulnerable to the virus, but that didn't kept her from evacuating from her farm in Molalla, Oregon, to a shelter in Portland.

“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. I’m tough,” she said. “I’ve survived lots of things. I can survive that.”

At the Oregon State Fairgrounds in the capital of Salem, groups of maskless evacuees gathered in a parking lot and a barn Friday, talking about the unprecedented wildfires that have destroyed an area greater than the size of Rhode Island. Volunteers wearing disposable masks walked from group to group, taking down their information and asking what they need for the days ahead.

Signs plastered the doors of the exposition center, where cots were set up, with safety guidelines for both wildfires and the pandemic. Inside, nearly everyone wore masks, likely because volunteers manning the door reminded them to do so.

The fires in...