In the event of a fire, flood, or other serious emergency, Coconino County will issue a series of directives to residents who must evacuate their homes for their safety. go.
of about location The system has just been improved, partially informed by the violent and proper spread of tunnel fires.
“The ignition source had 75 mph winds and was moving very fast,” said Tim Carter, assistant director of emergency management for Coconino County.
Carter is one of the people in the county who creates and issues emergency alerts. Last summer, he worked directly with field agents to determine where evacuation orders needed to be issued and coordinated with first responders to ensure residents were safe.
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According to Carter, the fire was moving at an incredible speed.
“There was a fire burning at 30 miles an hour. where?” because, [the area] It should basically be square or polygonal. We need a perimeter around it,” explained Brett Axland, deputy commissioner of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.
Field lieutenants and emergency managers have to stop work, refer to maps to sketch evacuation sites, and relay that information to someone like Carter. Alert.
“At one point it was 12 seconds between [sending out] set and go. We should have just kept on calling,” Axlund said, recalling the speed with which the tunnel fire was forcing the hands of the communicators.
Emergency warning systems need to set geographic boundaries before they can communicate, so evacuation sites need to fit neatly into polygons.
Carter uses a technique called geofencing to ensure that only people in relevant areas receive alerts. Basically, he draws a shape around an area on the map to create emergency alerts that will be pushed to people who live in or are currently in that particular area.
Instead of hand-drawing each notification area when an emergency is occurring, Coconino County Emergency Management said it has created a simpler and more automated way to make the process.
They created maps predesignating evacuation zones for most of the populated areas in the county. All zones have a name and a unique number.
“Instead of saying you need to evacuate from this street to that road, from this driveway to there, it’s zones 1, 2, 3. It makes decision making much easier and streamlined,” says Carter. says Mr.
Axlund said streamlining those decisions could be important in an emergency.
“This is one thing I’ve heard from the community: The sooner you message them, the better for everyone, but it comes down to personal preparation,” Carter said. “I’ve heard a lot of people who have livestock, especially large animals, say, ‘Once you’re on set, you’ll start thinking about evacuating.'”
Coconino County is the first county in the state to have this type of evacuation map. The idea came after she was commissioned by the city of Sedona to develop an evacuation plan for the area in January of this year.
Wes Dison, Director of Emergency Management for Coconino County, said: “Northern Arizona is doing well”
map available online public viewingand Dison wants community members to check it out.
Predesignated zones may not seem as precise as a makeshift shelter, but Axlund is confident that no one will be evacuated unless absolutely necessary. I said yes.
“We don’t evacuate unnecessarily. That’s one thing we don’t like to do. Last summer he helped evacuate an area affected by a tunnel fire.
Even if emergency management needs to draw more accurate evacuation sites on the map, the same manual process can still be used. Carter emphasized that the new zone was designed as an add-on to his kit of tools for added convenience.
Disson pointed out that the map was designed to apply only to unincorporated areas. He noted that in more rural parts of the county, people may not have their addresses associated with a zone.
“There are people living off-grid. If you don’t, it’s not because we don’t think you’re important,’ said Disson. If you live in or live outside one of these zones, find out which zone you live next and print out a map of it. If so, there is a good chance that you will need to consider evacuating.”
Coconino County uses two communication systems to warn people of dangers in the area.
One system works like a 911 in reverse. Find phones in a specific area and send alerts that way. Another of his systems, called “RAVE,” allows residents to register for alerts using their addresses.
If residents were not registered to receive emergency alerts and were not physically in the evacuation area during the fires this summer, they may not have known they were being evacuated. There is.
“During these last fires, we let agents into the homes and let people know their gardens were on fire when they didn’t know,” he said.
In the near future, alerts will include neighborhood boundaries in addition to zone names, Dison said. Still, he encourages county residents to review the new evacuation zone map and familiarize themselves with it.
“We have a very enthusiastic public. When this becomes a normal issue, they will start to know their zone and say to their neighbors, ‘We are in Zone 71.’ I hope they learn it. In the future, it will become more important,” said Dison.
To sign up for Coconino County Emergency Notification, please visit: https://www.coconino.az.gov/2612/Emergency-Notification-System
To view the new interactive evacuation map, please visit: www.coconino.az.gov/evacmap.
Sierra Ferguson can be reached at sierra.ferguson@lee.net.
