The Zonehaven Evacuation Platform
Know Your Zone – myzone.zonehaven.com
I attended a recent presentation of the Zonehaven Evacuation Platform used in the August CZU fires as well as the recent Debris Flow advisories and evacuations in the South Coast burn areas. The information was presented by CalFire Deputy Chief Jonathan Cox and Charlie Crocker, CEO of Zonehaven.
Two years ago, fire chiefs in San Mateo County agreed they needed to do something to reduce the time between a call for evacuation and when the public becoming notified or started moving. In consultation with other counties and jurisdictions, they found Charlie Crocker and Zonehaven. Fires have been getting worse in recent years, and evacuation planning was in need of revisions because of how fast and differently these fires are behaving. Traffic congestion emerged as one of the most critical aspects of evacuations.
Previous evacuation decisions were made ad-hoc standing around maps, but the information didn’t translate well to the public and didn’t get out quickly. They went to the Board of Supervisors for funding to prove the viability of the Zonehaven platform. The goal was to automate the process of getting information out through all channels immediately once a decision has been made. Key components for the software were: agency coordination, a single real-time map, compatibility with existing communications channels, input area for local knowledge, speed, and community accessibility.
The result was to put all of San Mateo County into zones. Zones are managed by first responders as to number of people, where they can travel, traffic congestion, etc., can print plans for firefighters and first responders, and status can be changed and communicated to the public.
- “Smart” Zones are scaled to handle a certain amount of population based on ingress/egress, number of structures, type of fuel, and risks in the region.
- Supports collaboration with other counties and jurisdictions.
- Single Source of Truth: the same information is put into news releases, Twitter, WAZE, community.zonehaven.com, Google, firefighters managing assets in the field and others.
- Allows first responders to prepare and build pre-plans, and understand the unique aspects of each individual zone. They can use it to train, run fire simulations, and during an actual event change information regarding shelters, road conditions, etc. The information is immediately available through a variety of channels.
- Continuing outreach to the community: Billboards, Know Your Zone (write it down!).
There are two versions of the application, one for first responders, the other for the public. The public will not see all the information available to first responders. First responders can see what’s going on in other counties – how they are dealing with traffic control points, what’s their progress, and how to prepare to support them.
For First Responders: Information is available about schools, hospitals, temporary evacuation points, traffic control points, and more. The most current information can be made public to reduce confusion about old data. They can look at individual zones or combine zones to get a bigger picture of traffic congestion for example. Pre-plans with special considerations and other important info can be downloaded as a pdf to their phones or other devices. Work that used to be done with phone calls and someone sitting at a desk can now be done in the field.
For the Public: Zones are color coded as to normal, advisory, evacuation warning or order, shelter-in-place, or clear to repopulate. Temporary Evacuation Points are indicated with a flag. The platform was developed for San Mateo County, but is now providing similar support to Marin, Sonoma, Alameda, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and other counties.
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