We received the following from the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services:
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services (OES), in collaboration with local governments and public safety partners, has established over 300 emergency zones throughout Humboldt County utilizing Zonehaven, an evacuation management platform. Residents are encouraged to "Know Your Zone" before the next emergency occurs by visiting the new interactive map on Zonehaven AWARE.
What is an evacuation zone and why is it important?
Pre-established evacuation Zones help fire, law, and emergency service agencies prepare for, streamline, and reduce confusion around the evacuation process so that roads are clear for those who need to evacuate quickly. By evacuating the most at-risk Zones first, emergency personnel are able to manage the traffic flow and more easily prevent the traffic jams that occur when an entire town or city tries to evacuate all at the same time. It also provides a common reference system for all first responders and the community.
How to find your zone
In order to find your zone, residents should enter their address into the interactive map at community.zonehaven.com using the search bar in the upper left. This will open a pop-up window, which includes your zone’s name and information about the zone and its emergency services. Residents are encouraged to look up and record the names of all the zones they frequent--such as home, work, school, or homes of loved ones--and keep them in an easily visible place. The map is updated in real-time, so residents should check it regularly for zone status information.
What will happen once it’s time to evacuate?
Zonehaven AWARE is not an emergency alert system. During an emergency, first responders will alert you to the threat through Humboldt ALERT, the County’s emergency alert system and may also post updates on social media. If you have not registered for Humboldt ALERT, do so now to ensure that you are in the loop. Zones names will be used in county emergency alert notifications, so knowing your zone is critical to the evacuation process
In the event of an emergency, first responders and emergency service officials will use Zonehaven to determine necessary evacuations. From there, officials communicate evacuation orders and zone statuses to the public through Humboldt Alert and the Zonehaven community site. The map will be updated real-time to reflect current evacuation orders and warnings for impacted zones. Local cities utilizing other emergency alert systems such as Nixle or Code Red will also issue alerts to their respective zones should an emergency occur in that area