But that is exactly what happened Thursday morning. It started with an accident and resulting hazardous-material spill on Highway 44 as you cross the bridge over the Sacramento River, and followed with a multicar accident on I-5 as you approached Cypress Avenue going south. The result: gridlock all over town.

All kinds of reasons have been circulating about how this happened. With two main highways crossing the river in and out of the downtown area, and with increasing traffic in all areas and directions, a morning like Thursday was bound to happen sooner or later. Now the question is what if it happens again? Are we prepared? Can we avoid another Thursday traffic gridlock?

What was obvious was that our emergency offices, including the Redding police and the CHP, took almost two hours to react to the traffic chaos. The accidents happened shortly after 9 a.m., and as of 11 a.m. there was still confusion as to which streets were blocked, which were open and which were in gridlock. There were bits and pieces starting to hit the Internet, but little if any was said on either radio or TV. News station KQMS was broadcasting Rush. Fortunately, KLXR-1230AM was giving live updates right up until 10 a.m., when it went to the network. Virtually no local news of what was happening. Why not? That’s a good question.

Having just come through huge emergencies with a summer of fires, we all know we have the resources. Very capable and superbly trained police personnel, sheriff deputies and CHP officers are here and ready to act, but what happened Thursday? Who was in charge of the master plan of directing traffic around the accident sites? Caltrans trucks with their blinking directional arrows were more evident than the CHP. Redding police blocked Park Marina Drive, then CHP, then Redding police. Why was Cypress Avenue not blocked or signed at Pine Street (Highway 273) to eliminate the hundreds of cars trying to go east across the under-construction Cypress Avenue bridge? Athens Avenue took all of the Park Marina traffic right onto overcrowded Cypress, and so it went. Even Lake Boulevard and North Market streets were affected. Not a traffic control officer in sight.

What is the plan for the next time? None of us wants to see a repeat of Thursday morning which actually lasted until late Thursday afternoon. Granted, we have a unique city configuration with the river down the middle and large commercial areas on both sides of the river, and only the two main bridges, but what are we doing to move large numbers of cars and people from one area to another, or even out of town if needed? Where is the master plan for traffic in case of a large-scale emergency? Is there a Redding Evacuation Route Plan? And lastly, who is in charge?