Emergency Alerts and Communications Toward a Culture of Preparedness

Conclusions 2

• CL1 Page 26
  The Grand Jury initiated this investigation with a set of questions that sought to understand how well County agencies had adapted emergency communications to lessons learned during recent wildfire, flood, and pandemic issues. Additionally, the Grand Jury sought to understand how well the public understood these adaptations. It adds the question: did the public take to heart the
• CL2 Page 27
  recommendations for all emergency preparations such as home hardening? What was initially a rather specific question of whether Nixle and SoCoAlerts communications have been best used by agencies expanded to whether there has been enough outreach and education by the county on how to prepare for emergencies. We have used the date of October 8, the anniversary of the Tubbs and Nuns Fires, in our Recommendations under Evacuations, to underscore the threats and the need for urgency by Sonoma County for this fire season. County agencies were very responsive to our questions, and had made significant progress on communications and preparation for emergencies over the last three years. Revision and release of core documents—i.e., the County’s Emergency Operations Plan—is expected be completed this year. It should thereby provide greater confidence in the County’s ability to deal with future emergencies, and may produce better results. It will guide city plans and evacuation zone revisions. The County must continue its public education efforts about evacuation zones. This information is essential in preparing for future large-scale events. Next, the County should take steps to “harden” and update critical communications infrastructure, to assure that responders can communicate in emergencies. Finally, if the County takes steps to improve citizen preparation through education and through establishment of citizen volunteer groups. it will be in a stronger position to mitigate the harm from future emergencies that overwhelm responders. The Grand Jury was impressed by the improvements that have been put in place for emergency communications and the broader emergency response since the Tubbs and Nuns Fires. There are, as one would expect, items that can be further improved, and there are areas that are deemed to be inadequately addressed to date (perhaps in some cases because County and district agencies have been busy with repeated emergencies). The use of Nixle, SoCoAlerts, and IPAWS communication tools has been demonstrated in recent events to be largely effective to alert the public and to guide evacuations. However, the County and cities may still have a long way to go to ensure all notifications are getting out.

No Responses Found 2

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.