Understanding Tuolumne County’s Wildfire Risks

Roadside fire

Sonora, CA – Tuolumne County wants to hear from the public regarding wildfire risks while compiling a study on evacuation strategies.

Tuolumne County Transportation Council (TCTC) and Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services (OES) have joined forces to offer three Evacuation Needs Assessment Community Meetings to discuss a Tuolumne County Evacuation Needs Assessment and Communication Strategies study. It identifies locations and communities at higher risk from wildfire.

“There have been some great modeling done by the consultants to kind of model the what-ifs if we have wildfires in our community and what the impacts to the road infrastructure will be as well as recommendations,” detailed Tuolumne County OES Coordinator Dore Bietz.

The meeting topics include understanding wildfire risk across the county, identifying opportunities to increase evacuation traffic capacity, and enhancing communication strategies for more effective and resilient evacuations in the event of a wildfire.

TCTC and OES offered these goals for the meetings:

• Reduce evacuation congestion
• Enhance emergency communications
• Increase wildfire risk awareness
• Support vulnerable populations during evacuations

The graphic to the right gives the dates, locations and times for the meeting, which includes one meeting via Zoom. Click here for more details on the meetings and the online Zoom meeting.