2 Things to Do TODAY amid the California Fires
Before any more time passes, experts say there are two things Golden State residents should do to protect themselves and their loved ones.
1. Know your "zone" to prepare for an evacuation.
The best way to do that is to go directly to your county and find out which tools it uses to communicate evacuations to residents. For example, most counties in the Bay Area are now using the online platform ZoneHaven, which hosts maps that allow you to find your zone.
2. Sign up for your county's alert system so timely evacuation information is sent directly to your phone.
Keep in mind that counties will often ping people's cell phones in major disasters — even if they're not signed up for an official alert system — but to ensure you get those messages, it's wise to sign up beforehand. Here's the information that you need to identify your zone and sign up for alerts in the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties.
Alameda County: Sign up for AC Alert and look for your zone on ZoneHaven.
Contra Costa County: Sign up for the Community Warning System and look for your zone on ZoneHaven.
Marin County: Sign up for AlertMarin and identify your zone on ZoneHaven.
Napa County: Sign up for Nixle alerts and look up your zone on ZoneHaven.
San Francisco County: Sign up for AlertSF. The county posts evacuation information on SF72.org, though wildfire evacuations are rare in San Francisco since there's limited open land that's at risk for fire.
San Mateo County: Sign up for SMC Alert and look up your zone on ZoneHaven.
Solano County: Sign up for AlertSolano. The county posts evacuation information on the Solano County Office of Emergency Services Facebook page.
Sonoma County: Sign up for SoCoAlert and look up your zone on the county's evacuation zone map or type your address into the tool.
To find out more read the full article here.