The technology used to evacuate 5,000 people in the Santa Cruz Mountains during the heavy storm this week will soon be put to work in Marin.
A new cloud-based mapping application called Zonehaven, which provides police and fire officials with real-time data on emergency and fire risks as well as population and traffic, delivered evacuation instructions to the residents there as the threat of mudslides loomed in the burn-scarred areas of the CZU Lightning Complex fires.
That same subscription platform will soon be used in Marin, providing better data to local authorities and better communication to residents, officials said.
It’s going to cost the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority an initial $108,000, which includes a setup fee, to bring the platform to Marin. The annual fee is $72,000 to maintain it, said Mark Brown, executive director of the fire authority.
Marin fire officials had developed evacuation maps in 2005, but those are static, non-interactive maps that haven’t been updated since 2016.
The Zonehaven application will use satellite and Internet data from third-party applications such as Google Maps and Waze, as well as information from local police, fire, public works and other emergency personnel. When authorities identify a threat, they can use the application to push evacuation warnings and orders to residents of specific zones within the five areas, Brown said. It will take three months to input all the data needed to get the system up and running.
Notifications will be sent through the county’s AlertMarin.org emergency alert system, as well as on social media and Nixle. Residents can look up their addresses online to see the map update alerts in real time.
“The goal is to get people safely out of harm’s way a lot faster, and this will help us do that,” Brown said. “Zonehaven is very dynamic. It’s going to give us instant and constant information that is viewable by the public. Residents will know exactly what zone they’re in, where they need to go in an evacuation. It will help us with traffic management, where to put traffic control.”
Charlie Crocker, co-founder and chief executive of Zonehaven, said once the county gets ready to launch, a “know your zone” campaign will commence so residents can learn which zone they live in and how to use the system.
Napa and Sonoma counties are joining around the same time, so they might conduct some cross-county exercises and drills, Crocker said.
Additionally, the wildfire prevention authority is partnering with the Transportation Authority of Marin on a study of county roads that will rate evacuation routes and provide detailed descriptions of each area. The results of the study will be fed into the Zonehaven system. The budget and timeline for that project has yet to be determined, but Brown said he plans to put out a request for proposals in the next few months.
The study will identify pinch points, signal light issues and traffic patterns. Officials will use that information for projects to improve road safety and learn how to best manipulate signal lights and traffic lanes in the event of an evacuation, Brown said.
(c)2021 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
