Emergency evacuation zones within fire hazard severity zones have been established within the “Know Your Zone” campaign announced on Wednesday by the office of L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
“Know Your Zone” is a campaign that was the result of a collaborative effort by Los Angeles County public safety agencies and Barger. It aims to prepare residents and businesses for emergencies or evacuations and includes the city of Santa Clarita, the communities of Agua Dulce, Castaic and Stevenson Ranch, and the unincorporated areas of the Santa Clarita Valley, among other areas.
According to Maria Grycan, community services liaison of Los Angeles County Fire Department Division 3, within the SCV there are 90 zones.
Barger cited the wildfire incidents in Maui as evidence of the importance of the new campaign.
“Being able to evacuate residents efficiently is a critical task that our public safety officials must perform and the public need to be a partner in those efforts by knowing their zones,” said Barger in a news release.
“We are most concerned with wildfires at this moment,” said Grycan.
The campaign will utilize the Genasys Protect platform, formerly known as Zonehaven, which is a mapping tool that is used in combination with public alert and warning systems such as ALERT L.A. County and local city emergency alerting systems. Evacuation warnings or orders issued for zoned areas will include zone designations, major streets and intersections.
Residents and first responders alike will refer to the same set of zone maps in the instance of planning and conducting evacuations.
“This does not replace everything else we already do,” said Grycan. “It is an additional tool. It puts everyone on the same page — law enforcement, the Fire Department, residents.”
The zone map will be updated in real time, allowing for regular status updates of information. Information will be readily updated almost as soon as it is reported.
Zones will be utilized in emergency alert notifications. Zone changes will be color-coded according to the level of action that needs to be taken, such as yellow for warnings and red for evacuations.
Grycan said that “Know Your Zone” will be applicable for a variety of emergency situations.
“Our hope is that people will depend on this,” said Grycan.
Residents can view which zone they are located in, have access to information about emergency services in their zone, view real-time zone status updates and shelter options via an interactive map at protect.genasys.com.
Residents can also download the Genasys Protect app and “follow” their zone to be alerted of any status changes to their zone.
