Local hotels impacted

COSTA MESA — Susan Mackay picked up the phone shortly after the crack of dawn Wednesday and dialed the number for her home in Fallbrook. She knew no one would answer, but that wasn’t her concern.

The recent evacuee just wanted to know whether her house was standing. When the answering machine sounded, Mackay felt relieved. She and her husband, Ken, had snatched only a few possessions before fleeing their San Diego County neighborhood Monday afternoon, and one of them was a laptop that the couple used to check for updates on their area. The news was sporadic, though, so the Mackays sought information any way they could.

“I’ve been trying to talk to everyone I see just to find where they’re from and if they have any news, because it’s hard to get up here,” Susan Mackay said Wednesday in the lobby of the Vagabond Inn in Costa Mesa, where she and her husband had stayed the last two nights. “I’ve said hello to everyone I’ve seen and asked, ‘Are you an evacuee?’ Normally, I’m shy, but you can’t be shy on a day like this.”

The Mackays were among hundreds of residents who took refuge in Newport-Mesa this week while wildfires blazed around their homes.

As the 5 Freeway packed with cars Monday, hotels throughout the area began offering reduced rates, breaking their no-pets rules or supplying water to the evacuees.

The Hilton in Costa Mesa, one of the most expensive hotels in town, cut its price for a two-bed room from $309 to $165. The Vagabond, the Marriott-Costa Mesa and the Best Western Newport-Mesa Inn lowered their rates as well, while the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa brought in cases of water to distribute to guests who had been outside in the smoky air.

By midday Wednesday, nearly every hotel in the area had filled to capacity. Laraine Lewis, a receptionist at the La Quinta Inn in Costa Mesa, said the hotel had sold out Monday and Tuesday and would likely do the same Wednesday as wildfires continued to rage.

“We have a lot of people coming in who are crying and upset and trying to figure out when they can go back,” she said.

The Newport-Mesa area, with a number of Holiday Inn, Marriott and Hyatt locations, has a wide selection of places to stay, though it wasn’t enough to meet all the demand for evacuating families. Ernie Montalvo, the assistant general manager for the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa, said a number of people had trekked on to the Disneyland area in Anaheim when rooms were full.

Susan Mackay said she and her husband had first gotten off the freeway in San Clemente, but pressed on to Costa Mesa when they couldn’t find a hotel with vacancies. At the Vagabond Inn, she said, she had met other people who had taken her same route.

“It took us seven hours to get here from Fallbrook, which is normally an hour-and-a-half trip,” she said.

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.