If people need to leave home because of the threat of a natural disaster, they can generally get a hotel room from the county or Red Cross in order to stay away from other people.
But, of course, not everyone chooses to do that.
Some stay with friends or family and that can lead to transmission of the coronavirus.
"That is a distinct possibility," said Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel. "We definitely saw that after the (CZU Lightning Complex) fire evacuations. Numbers are much smaller for the debris slow evacuations than they were for fire, fortunately."
She does not expect a big bump in cases this time around.
"Hopefully, there wasn’t as much exposure as we had possibly feared," she said. "With the decreasing case rates overall and people more used to practicing social distancing requirements, perhaps we won’t see much of a bump. I hope that’s the case."
She believes the county is also in a much better place to deal with new cases after moving into the purple tier this week with most of California.
"It feels like a like time since we’ve had good news."
Meanwhile, Santa Cruz officials said Thursday they’re fortunate to have come out of the latest storm activity relatively unscathed.
