Empty streets and packed shelters across Orange County as thousands wait for toxic leak to end

With suitcases in hand and pets in tow, thousands of residents fled northern Orange County as a massive evacuation zone swallowed entire neighborhoods surrounding a contaminated industrial site in Garden Grove.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after the danger zone ballooned into a nearly 10-square-mile exclusion area stretching across Garden Grove, Anaheim, Stanton, Cypress, Buena Park and Westminster — uprooting as many as 79,000 people.

Inside the sprawling perimeter, the normally packed suburban streets looked more like a ghost town.

“I live right behind the factory. For years, we complained to the city regarding the fumes and the smell at night. They never did anything to it,” Alberto Chavez, 51, told The California Post. “Look what happened now … and who is paying the consequences? The people who live there.”

Some residents have been allowed brief returns to retrieve medication or rescue pets, but most are now scattered across shelters, hotels, and the homes of friends or relatives, waiting for answers about when, or if, they can go back.

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They had only just checked out when they stopped by the community center to look for updates.

“We don’t know yet what we’ll do,” Nakashini told the Los Angeles Times.

Most likely, he added, they would continue searching for another hotel room as the evacuation stretches on.

His girlfriend’s son, Sean Tufts, 28, said the disruption had reshaped daily life in ways that were hard to predict.

Across the region, the uncertainty has been especially hard for parents trying to explain the situation to children.

“The kids are confused, a little worried,” Tricia Quach, 38, told the Los Angeles Times after taking her daughter to an art class. “Maybe being blown up, that’s a scary situation. But we just assured them it’s for safety reasons.”

Quach, her husband, and their two children are now staying with a family friend, unsure how long they will remain displaced.

Nearby, others lingered at folding tables outside the shelter, passing time together because there was nowhere else to go.

Even in daylight, the evacuation zone itself has taken on a hollowed-out stillness, streets left without movement, neighborhoods paused mid-life, as if the entire area has been temporarily switched off.

“We kind of don’t know what to expect,” Helen Fernandez, 40, told the Los Angeles Times. “We are just winging it.”

Uber is providing Orange County residents displaced by the Garden Grove chemical emergency with two free rides.

These rides, capped at $40 each, are available for travel to and from designated shelters through Monday.