San Juan County launches Ready Hub website to centralize emergency preparedness information

San Juan County fire officials introduced a new Ready Hub website intended to centralize emergency-preparedness information for residents, including interactive evacuation maps, wildfire threat data, stream-gauge forecasts and guidance on evacuation planning.

Deputy Chief John Gilbert and public information officer Devin Neely presented the Ready Hub, built on an Esri hub template and hosted at sjcounty.net/ready. Gilbert said the site will display current events such as large-scale evacuations, road closures and map features for operational partners. The site includes tabs for evacuation readiness, fire-ready guidance (home hardening, defensible space), river-ready stream-gauge charts and links to burn permits and reverse-911 sign-ups.

Gilbert said the system will not be integrated with the county’s emergency-alert vendor; Everbridge continues to be used by the San Juan County Communications Authority for alert sends. The Ready Hub will include a link to the Everbridge sign-up and county staff plan a media campaign using a logo and QR codes to drive public access. Gilbert said the site includes an emergency manager dashboard for staff to add events and view demographics, and officials have begun outreach to local jurisdictions, schools and other partners about hosting or sharing relevant maps and evacuation layers.

Commissioners asked about how alerts and sign-ups work; Gilbert demonstrated the ‘‘sign up for emergency alerts’’ link in the site’s quick resources. The board encouraged outreach to schools and municipalities. Officials said the hub is operational and that a public media push will be scheduled soon.