South Lake Tahoe, California: As wildfires rage across parts of California, thousands of people living in the affected areas have been forced to evacuate their homes. Many evacuees found themselves stuck in traffic on Monday.
While many just waited and worried, some found themselves having a source of entertainment – a man playing the violin.
Mel Smothers, a resident of South Lake Tahoe, was on his way out of the town when he got stuck in the deadlock traffic jam. While he waited, he decided to take his violin out and play it.
Watch the viral video here:
Mel Smothers of South Lake Tahoe plays the violin to pass the time during the #caldorefire evacuation, Monday afternoon. @NorthBayNews pic.twitter.com/VnyE9izFuf
— Kent Porter (@kentphotos) August 30, 2021
People rolled down their windows to listen to Mel’s music as he played the instrument as a long queue of cars is seen standing still behind him.
A 16-second clip of Mel playing the piano has gone viral on Twitter, garnering more than 1 lakh views. Netizens said that the video gave them “Titanic feels.”
One user said, “Beautiful and sad, especially given the circumstances.” Another wrote, “Watching this made me think of the scene from Titanic. Where they are playing music while the ship is sinking.”
A tweet read, “This brings up so much emotion. It makes me feel like our country is the Titanic & we’re going down in this sinking ship.” Yet another user added, “It’s a rough time in Tahoe right now. But, there are a lot of people making it just a little sweeter. Thank you, Mel.”
Over 53,000 people have been placed under evacuation orders, a spokesperson for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services told CNN.