Interesting ride today.
My biking group does a regular Wednesday ride often from Montclair in Oakland to Moraga and back. Today, several of the
group opted to extend the ride to Danville, although 3 of us stopped in Alamo (which is on the route to Danville).
While in downtown Alamo (if there is such a thing) we saw a water main
break along Danville Blvd, gushing like a big fountain, a couple feet
across and a foot high. This was accompanied by the strong smell of gas!
Robin, Gail and I had intended to get coffee at the Alamo Starbucks but the
smell of gas was TOO STRONG and we opted to backtrack a block or so to PEETS
where we got coffee and snacks. We sat outside and were treated to a serenade by a huge black dog in the back of an SUV that pulled up next to the patio seating (Arrrrrru..).
I think the dog was trying to tell us something , because we had just finished our
coffee when a fireman came through telling everyone that it was time to leave, they were
evacuating an area of several blocks in Alamo due to the gas leak. He told us to HEAD NORTH, NOW! We
hopped on our bikes and easily rolled past the massive stream of cars trying to get out of the parking lot, and headed north along Danville Blvd, zipping past the solid line of cars trying to evacuate. We continued to get whiffs of gas all
the way up to Newell Ave in Walnut Creek (3-4 miles).
Here is a link to the news story
On the return ride we stopped to get water at
the convenience store at Olympic and Tice Valley
Rd. There we saw the emergency broadcast
network come on TV calling for evacuation!
We also met up with the others of our group
who had gone on to Danville (actually to the bakery described in my blog om July 8). They circumvented the evacuated zone using
the Iron Horse trail. The trail actually passes quite close to the
location of the leak, but the authorities deemed it ok for travel ( maybe
walkers, joggers and cyclists have supernatural powers in such situations). Actually, one of our group contacted me later to say that the park service did close the Iron Horse trail and that two employees were there as he went through but did not stop him.
The evacuation order was lifted at 3:20
pm
Never a dull moment...