[M T]

It does seem that gridlock of escape routes was a problem in SoCal.
The BBC reports

As residents of Pacific Palisades fled their homes on Wednesday, the Pacific Coast Highway, the main road towards Malibu, quickly became gridlocked. Some people abandoned their cars, opting instead to try to escape the blaze on foot. Bulldozers had to clear abandoned vehicles to make way for firefighting crews. One resident told the BBC that he was stuck in a traffic jam for two hours while trying to escape the Palisades fire.

Members of my family got stuck in the 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation when 3M people tried to leave the Houston area.  Evacuations can be very difficult as they create situations that have never been tried before.

I once read an early 1960s document that was intended to be a guide if a nuclear attack was anticipated in the Bay Area.  My opinion was that the purported evacuation routes would have been immediately jammed, leaving people quite exposed and without resources.

[M T]

It does seem that gridlock of escape routes was a problem in SoCal.
The BBC reports

As residents of Pacific Palisades fled their homes on Wednesday, the Pacific Coast Highway, the main road towards Malibu, quickly became gridlocked. Some people abandoned their cars, opting instead to try to escape the blaze on foot. Bulldozers had to clear abandoned vehicles to make way for firefighting crews. One resident told the BBC that he was stuck in a traffic jam for two hours while trying to escape the Palisades fire.

Members of my family got stuck in the 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation when 3M people tried to leave the Houston area.  Evacuations can be very difficult as they create situations that have never been tried before.

I once read an early 1960s document that was intended to be a guide if a nuclear attack was anticipated in the Bay Area.  My opinion was that the purported evacuation routes would have been immediately jammed, leaving people quite exposed and without resources.