With more than 300,000 reported evacuees, San Diego residents and visitors are coping with more than a dozen wildfires that have taken over Southern California, marking the largest evacuation ever in San Diego County, the area mostly affected.
Many hotels have been occupied by evacuees. While working to assist tourists and business travelers, David Peckinpaugh, president and CEO for the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, evacuated his house and is how staying at the Lowes Coronado Bay, at the end of Coronado island where other CVB staffers also are staying.
"We evacuated about 4:30 on Monday morning," said Peckinpaugh. "The family, two dogs, and a hamster are safe. Property can be replaced, but lives can't. That is the spirit that you sense around San Diego."
According to the CVB and the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, several hotels have been accommodating evacuees, offering attractive rates and making inventory available.
As of Tuesday morning, the CVB was working with the San Diego Hotel and Motel Association and the Lodging Association to compile a list of the affected properties, which will be available at the CVB’s website (http://www.sandiego.org/article/visitors/922). "Most of the hotels are in the Rancho Bernardo area and now it looks like [there are affected hotels] in the Del Mar region," said Peckinpaugh.
Even so, there are about 80 conventions expected to take place in San Diego over the next couple of weeks, said Peckinpaugh.
The San Diego Convention Center states on its website that it is open and operating, and is not threatened by area fires or impacted by smoke or winds. In addition, the site says that center is not a designated evacuation location. Today, the American Society of Human Genetics started its five-day annual convention at the center. Hotels used by the association, expecting about 6,000 attendees, are reaching out to potential guests to verify if they are coming to the event.
"The goal is to try to make sure that the rooms be made available for evacuees from around the region," said Steven Johnson, vice president public affairs for the San Diego Convention Center Corporation, about hotel rooms that might be freed up by attendees that have changed their plans in face of the wildfires.
Visit mimegsite.com for timely updates on the wildfires as the situation develops.