Exploring our local evacuation zones

T. Lee Brown | Last updated Jul 30, 2024 9:6am0

The land of Deschutes County, like other counties, is divided up into interesting shapes. A school district here, a parks and recreation district there, a House of Representatives district that might change from District 2 to District 5. Maps for land use zoning determine whether folks can develop their properties, whether they must grow trees or agriculture, or whether it's suitable for industrial use. What about evacuation zones?

This reporter made five web searches and seven phone calls to various fire departments, ranger stations, and county departments before finding the answer to the question: How can a Deschutes County resident look up their evacuation zone? The easiest way seems to be a third-party website called Genasys Protect (see "Resources for Evacuation Zone and Fire Awareness," below).

Genasys states that "all zones in Genasys Protect are published by the county and are authoritative. Genasys works directly with each county we serve and all information for a zone or county listed on the site has been approved by the county."

Adapted from a Genasys map by TLBrown

Sisters Country is divided into a multitude of evacuation zones.

The first three letters represent the name of the city, in this case SIS for the city of Sisters and surrounding areas. The last three numbers form a unique code that distinguishes one evacuation zone from the others in the same area.

"This system is consistent across your county and makes it easy for first responders to plan and execute evacuations," according to Genasys Protect. Similar to how airports are named, "the zone identifier system provides each zone with a globally unique ID so there is no confusion about which zone is being referred to."

Occasionally, usually during an active emergency, authorities will split an existing evacuation zone into smaller parts. One Sisters Country zone, SIS-056, might be split into SIS-056-A and SIS-056-B, for example.

Recent searches on Genasys showed evacuation zones for Deschutes, Jackson, and Josephine Counties in Oregon, along with a tiny slice of Jefferson near Panorama Park and a considerable chunk of Klamath County.

The maps on Genasys are accompanied by descriptions. For example, Zone SIS-033 includes "areas Northeast of Sisters including the airport, Eagle Air Estates, & Barclay Meadows." Much of Southwest Sisters is designated SIS-056, including areas south of Hwy 242, west of Elm Street, and north of Brooks Scanlon Logging Road. Between the maps and the words, determining the evacuation zone of any given location is fairly simple.

Some outlying areas have their own evacuation zones: if we leave off the "SIS" appellation, Tollgate is 028, Crossroads is 052, and Whychus Creek Canyon Estates comprises most of 023. Black Butte Ranch encompasses a whopping three zones of its own: 004, 006, and 007.

In Sisters Country, evacuations are carried out by Deschutes County Sheriff Office (DSCO) and the United States Forest Service (USFS). According to Ian Reid, Sisters District Ranger, DSCO handles evacuations of most private land in the county.

Reid said on July 25 that this season, "There have been no evacuations in Sisters Country up to now."

As for Deschutes National Forest itself, in an evacuation situation USFS "would close a section, then do sweeps" to ensure that people in the forest got out.

Evacuations require a flexible dance between DSCO and USFS.

Reid said, "It's complicated. It kind of all depends." He described the process as integrated, saying that the two agencies "work really well together."

"We work closely with DSCO to evacuate areas such as campgrounds," he added.

Photo provided

Watch Duty allows users to overlay various sources of information, such as current fires, air quality, and air currents. Drilling down or zooming in will show more fires and include information such as each fire's name and evacuation status, if any.

Even if you know your evacuation zone and receive alerts on your phone, it's important to note that evacuation routes-the specific roads people should take as they evacuate their danger zone-change during fire events. For additional resources and alert signups, see "Resources for Evacuation Zone and fire awareness" below.

Resources for Evacuation Zone and fire awareness

T. Lee Brown

Many websites and other resources exist, helping people prepare for fire season and potential evacuation. What follows is not an exhaustive directory, but a selective list of useful sites and apps, some specific to the issue of finding your evacuation zone.

Genasys Protect — https://protect.genasys.com

Find your evacuation zone and get familiar with other zones that may correspond with your escape route or simply where you like to travel. This service, formerly known as Zonehaven, is limited to several Oregon counties including Deschutes. The Camp Sherman and Suttle Lake areas in Jefferson County are not included.

Oregon Wildfire Response & Recovery — https://wildfire.oregon.gov/evacuations

A State of Oregon resource, this site includes a live fire map and estimates of how many people and addresses are currently under evacuation alerts at levels 1, 2, and 3. Links include emergency alert signup, wildfire prevention, emergency preparedness information and checklists, and wildfire recovery resources.

Watch Duty — https://app.watchduty.com

Watch Duty is an incredible tool that may raise your anxiety level steeply—but at least you’ll know what’s going on around the state. It may also increase your respect for our firefighters and the agencies that deploy them, as you come to realize just how many small fires start up and are snuffed out on any given day.

Select the Layers menu to choose what information will be overlaid on your interactive map: current fires, current air quality from PurpleAir, red flag warning areas, air currents, and historical burn perimeters among them. Live wildfire cameras add to the suspense and dystopian allure.

It is possible to find your evacuation zone through Watch Duty, but it’s oddly hidden. Genasys (above) provides a more straightforward approach. Just so you know: on Watch Duty, you can drill down by clicking on an active fire. Its information will pop up; at that point, you may see solid black lines on your map, indicating evacuation zones. From there you can scoot the map around to find your home or other relevant location.

See app.watchduty.com from a web browser, or download the app to your phone. Don’t forget to set Notifications for Deschutes County; you can choose to be notified only when new fires are first reported, or to receive alerts for all updates on all fires.

In addition to Watch Duty alerts, be sure to sign up for the county’s evacuation and emergency alert system.

Deschutes County — http://www.deschutes.org

The county’s website is clunky to navigate, particularly if you don’t happen to know the exact title of the department that would handle the concern you’re trying to research. For emergency preparedness, try http://www.deschutes.org/health/page/emergency-preparedness.

Clicking on deschutes.org/emergency forwards users to a third-party service with a long URL that begins with https://experience.arcgis.com. This is a legitimate web address, not a fraud attempt. Current incidents are listed, along with evacuation information and links to DSCO.

The county’s 911 page enables residents to sign up for emergency alerts to their phones. Find it at http://www.deschutes.org/911. Here you’ll also find information on scanners, reporting non-emergency situations, and online reporting resources regarding incidents to Bend Police, Redmond Police, and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DSCO).