Sonoma Grand Jury Strongly Criticizes County’s Evacuation Plans

A Sonoma Grand Jury Report calls attention to deficiencies in Sonoma County’s Evacuation plans. The report notes that Sonoma County has endured four major wildfires and several severe floods in eight years. Each incident exposed the same weaknesses: narrow highways with inadequate capacity, sparse alternate routes, patchy communications capability, and limited shelter planning. The County still lacks detailed, scenario-based evacuation plans and has not met new state mandates that require them.

Sonoma County has not yet fully complied with state mandates. Updates to evacuation route definition, traffic capacity analysis and simulation, and shelter planning are not expected until 2030, far later than comparable jurisdictions. Other meaningful findings:

• Infrastructure is the biggest vulnerability. Many roads and bridges cannot carry simultaneous outbound traffic and inbound emergency vehicles; choke points repeat fire after fire
• Planning is “ad hoc.” Unlike the City of Santa Rosa, which pre-assigns traffic control resources and shelter sites, the County relies on on-the-fly decisions during an incident.
• Technology gaps hinder readiness: Sonoma County lacks modem evacuation modeling tools used by peer counties. Zone-specific evacuation planning isn’t possible without better tools.
• Cell outages are common, especially during power failures, and alert systems SocoAlert, WEA, and Nixle won’t work in rural areas without cell service. Radio repeaters that would improve public communication during widespread emergencies haven’t been completed. Community radio networks need stronger integration with the County’s Emergency Operations Center.

To read the full Grand Jury Report CLICK HERE