Most people have not signed up for emergency alerts from Santa Barbara County, with a reported 14% opt-in rate for the ReadySBC.org system countywide, according to the Office of Emergency Management.
County staff at OEM and other departments rely on multiple methods to push out information about wildfires, flooding and other incidents, OEM Director Kelly Hubbard told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
She presented a report on the county’s emergency alerting process and said that about 14% of county residents have signed up to receive targeted alerts from the county. About 39% of South Coast residents have signed up for the alerts, Hubbard said.
“These averages, unfortunately, are very common across California and the country,” she said. “But again, it just emphasizes that our registrations are not inclusive of our entire community, and that’s why we use so many communication tools and processes.”
As of late 2018, the county reported that about 12% of county residents had signed up for the emergency alerting system.
The strategy for county-issued alerts is to get messages with “the right information, to the right people, at the right time,” said Hubbard, who has been OEM director since 2019.
The Board of Supervisors voted to receive and file the report, and Supervisor Steve Lavagnino noted that he signed up for the ReadySBC alerts during the meeting.
Sheriff’s Office dispatchers send out alerts for new threats, such as a wildfire, and then an OEM duty officer is activated and can take over, depending on the incident, Hubbard said.
OEM staff will write and send out pre-notification messages for issues such as power shutoffs and reiterating weather-related warnings from the National Weather Service.
The Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department often create a unified command for wildfires and collaborate on emergency alert messaging for evacuation orders or warnings, Sheriff Bill Brown said.
First responders need to size up the emergency, decide what protective actions might be needed (such as evacuating nearby areas), relay that to the dispatchers or Office of Emergency Management, get those messages created in English and Spanish, draw maps of the affected area, and send it out through the alerting systems, Hubbard said in summarizing the process. The county also will post information about incidents on its websites and social media channels.
Challenges in alerting include creating bilingual alerts quickly, Hubbard said. Bilingual dispatch and OEM staff members create the highest-quality and fastest bilingual emergency alert content, but they are not always available.
Some communities that are difficult to reach for emergency alerts include people in geographically isolated and rural communities, where there may not be good cellphone reception for Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA)-type alerts; commuters, travelers and tourists to the area who need to know about an emergency but have not signed up for any local alert system; and unhoused people, Hubbard said.
The top priorities for alerts are immediate action to protect life and property, such as an evacuation order or shelter-in-place order, Hubbard said, and preparing people to take an action, such as an evacuation warning.
The third and last priority is awareness messaging informing the broader community about the incident, the area impacted and the actions the county is taking. Sometimes county staff members don’t have time to do that kind of notification, Hubbard said.
It’s a lower priority for OEM and dispatch staff, but community members hunger for information about nearby wildfires and other major incidents, even if they do not expect to need to evacuate themselves.
Alerts Sent for Recent Wildfire Near Highway 154
In the 8-acre Bridge Fire that started June 5 near Highway 154 and Cathedral Oaks Road/Highway 192, the county sent out ReadySBC alerts to people who registered with addresses in the affected area (about 900 people) and a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA), which sends alerts to cellphones connecting to towers in the affected area — usually a much broader notification.
Search and Rescue team volunteers also went door to door and were able to contact about half of the 257 homes and businesses they attempted to reach, according to OEM.
The evacuation orders were reduced to warnings and then lifted a few hours after the fire started, according to the County Fire Department.
During wildfires, there is community interest in getting information even if someone doesn’t expect to be directly affected by evacuation orders or property damage.
The Bridge Fire caused a full Highway 154 closure, and the firefight was highly visible with air tankers dropping retardant and helicopters dropping water on the flames.
Noozhawk’s breaking news story on the fire had about 23,000 readers.
How to Get Emergency Information from County Agencies
Register and update registration information for ReadySBC.org emergency alerts from Santa Barbara County. Include your address and multiple methods of alerting, Hubbard said.
Check county websites and social media pages for information, including:
» Santa Barbara County website: countyofsb.org/
» County Office of Emergency Management website: ReadySBC.org
» Santa Barbara County Facebook page
» Santa Barbara County OEM Facebook page
» Santa Barbara County Fire Department Facebook page
» Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page
Call the 2-1-1 information line or the nonemergency phone number for the dispatch center at 805.683.2724.
Check local news websites and television stations for information.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.