City manager discusses emergency preparedness
Atascadero City Manager Rachelle Rickard.
News from the City
By City Manager Rachelle Rickard
Know your Atascadero Zone
–Atascadero residents will soon be hearing a lot about “Know Your Atascadero Zone!”
The city’s highest priority, above all, is the safety of our community and its citizens. A vital part of emergency preparedness is having accurate and timely communication with members of the community. The City of Atascadero is very excited to introduce “Know Your Atascadero Zone” and Zonehaven, an online program that will provide rapid, accurate communication to residents that may be threatened by various types of emergencies or natural disasters, including wildland fire.
We’ll begin by urging everyone to look up their property address to learn their zone, and then to enroll in the alerts that will provide instant information about any emergencies that may occur within their neighborhood, along with detailed instructions on what steps they should take and how to safely avoid danger.
To implement this new emergency information service, our community has been divided into zones based on geographical features, population, and evacuation needs. This information will be used to identify areas that might need to be evacuated during an emergency. Additionally, traffic flow studies will help to ensure that any necessary evacuation traffic moves quickly and safely. Real-time information provided by this program will also allow emergency responders to make the best decisions quickly, enabling them to limit property damage and save lives.
The city constantly works towards ensuring the safety of our community and we’re happy to implement our new “Know Your Atascadero Zone” program to help further that effort. Our goal is for every resident to know their property’s zone, to sign up for the emergency alerts so that they’ll be prepared, will have the information they need when it’s needed, and will know what actions they should take at the time of an emergency.
We plan to have this new program available for access to our residents this month, so be on the lookout for more information, coming soon!
For more information about this particular topic, please contact our Fire & Emergency Services department at (805) 461-5070, or feel free to contact me at [email protected].
