bumper-to-bumper 復習

　すでに取り上げられていますが、カリフォルニアのオーロビルダムが決壊の危機にあるため、20万人が避難しました。

Nearly 200K evacuated near Calif. dam amid flood warning

Officials in Northern California ordered nearly 200,000 people to evacuate to safer ground on Sunday as the country's tallest dam threatened to release uncontrolled floodwaters downstream.

Motorists jammed highways as thousands of residents rushed to flee the area downstream from the Oroville Dam, about 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, after authorities warned that the emergency spillway could fail, the National Weather Service.

Hundreds of cars lined up on Highway 99, creating a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam as people streamed north, the Associated Press said.

Lake Oroville, one of California's largest manmade lakes, has been swollen by more than a month of heavy rains. Water began topping the emergency spillway on the 770-foot-tall dam, the nation's tallest, Saturday, causing erosion damage that could lead to a surge of water being released, officials said.

Officials from California's Department of Water Resources said they planned to use helicopters to drop rocks to fill in the gouge in the spillway.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/thousands-evacuated-calif-dam-danger-failure/story?id=45450195

　記事の中で気になった表現は"bumper-to-bumper"です。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第4版(大修館)で調べてみると、「(車が)数珠つなぎの(に)、渋滞の(で)」とありました。"Cars were bumper-to-bumper on the highway"で「幹線道路は大渋滞だった」となります。
　また"bump"には、「ぶつかる、衝突」などの意味があり、さらに"bumper"には「(自動車の)バンパー」のほかに「ばかでかい(もの)、異常に多い(見事な)もの、大入り満員、豊作(豊漁)(の)」という意味があるため、"bumper"を"to"で繋ぐことで「異常に多い車」つまり、「渋滞」と解釈出来ると思います。

この記事では、多くの人が避難したため、高速道路が車でいっぱいになっている状態を表しています。(Akim)