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Do Effective Alerts Allow Faster Evacuation?

During the Park Fire this summer, hundreds of evacuation warnings, alerts, and orders were flying out over cell phones, through social media pages, and on the various web-based alert systems run by sheriffs and offices of emergency management in four different counties.  On the Watch Duty app, where I was volunteering, we got about 5 million views of the Park incident page during just the first week of the fire. People in our region are battle hardened and ready for wildfire, and we navigated all those evacuations during an extremely fast moving fire with no loss of life. This week in Ventura County, we saw a similar dynamic play out with the Mountain Fire, which was moving up to 70 miles per hour, throwing embers 2 miles ahead of the fire front over irrigated fields to destroy homes and neighborhoods.  For each member of the community who was able to get information quickly, make important decisions, and evacuate early, first responders saved precious time to focus on those who needed extra help. Being a citizen responder is something all of us can do. It means that we have a plan for evacuating, we’ve talked it through with our family and our neighbors, and we know the vulnerabilities of our homes and our neighborhoods and our roads. It means that we’re ready to prioritize what’s important to us, whether it’s our pets or our photo albums, but most of all that we’re going to prioritize the safety of ourselves and our loved ones.

Plumas County VOAD takes that citizen responder responsibility a step further, and it brings together the non-profit organizations, government representatives, and citizens to prepare for all kinds of emergencies and support each other during and after disaster. We live in a remote, rural community where resources are scarce and disaster funding is even more scarce.  Our VOAD is designed to work in our low-resource environment, and we won’t burden you with extra stuff, fancy newsletters, or a ton of meetings. We will work hard to build a network to the regional and national organizations who are critical to providing assistance during disaster. At our meeting next week, we’ll be planning for next year and we’d love to have you join us in person or via zoom.  I’ve attached the meeting agenda, a planning framework for 2025, and a fiscal sponsorship agreement that we’ll be approving.

November 20, 2024: VOAD Meeting
3 p.m.
Quincy Library, 445 Jackson Street, Quincy, CA
or Via Zoom – LINK TO JOIN ZOOM
Download Calendar Event for Outlook or Apple
Add to Google Calendar

Hope to see you next week.

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