Washoe County emergency manager highlights PerimeterMap, new alerting and evacuation study

Kelly Etabrugia, Washoe County emergency manager, told the Spanish Springs Community Advisory Board on April 8 that county emergency management has been expanding digital tools and planning to make evacuations faster and clearer for residents.

Etabrugia said the county now uses PerimeterMap (perimetermap.com) to publish real‑time evacuation perimeters and related information and has switched its alerting system to Rave Smart911 so residents can geotag their household and indicate access or functional needs. “You can also indicate if you have access and functional needs or someone in your house has access and functional needs. What that means for us is that we can run a report of the area and send you a message and say, ‘Can you get out? If you can’t get out, please notify 911, and we’ll send resources to you,’” she said.

Etabrugia said alerts will continue to be sent through every technological method available, including wireless emergency alerts, the Emergency Alert System, reverse‑dial to landlines, TTY and social media. She emphasized that alerts must be concise and that PerimeterMap lets the public “make quicker decisions on your safety whether to leave or not.”

The emergency manager also described operational responsibilities for the county’s Emergency Operations Center, including mass care, sheltering, reunification, volunteer and donations management, and damage assessment. Libraries, she said, now serve as preauthorized temporary evacuation points because they are “already a place of information and community and comfort” and county staff have keys to stand them up quickly.

Etabrugia announced a donated, third‑party evacuation study the county will use to model traffic and fire scenarios, identify top areas of concern, and recommend mitigation. “If this study says there needs to be more roads, then those are conversations that we can have with roads and CSD and planning and commissioners to say, ‘How do we get more roads here? This is what the study says,’” she said. The county plans to hire an independent vendor and to collect quantitative data — including cell‑phone movement data — to avoid relying on anecdote.

Etabrugia urged residents to prepare a “go kit,” include pet supplies and medication information (a photographed prescription label can help Red Cross reissuance) and to leave early when told. She also promoted the county sites emergencywashoe.com and readywashoe.com for preparedness templates and the Rave Smart911 app for personalized alerts.

The presentation closed with a recap of recent exercises, regional cooperation on Tahoe‑area evacuation planning and an invitation for public comment on the upcoming evacuation study.

Ending: Etabrugia said the county will publish the evacuation study and make public comment part of the process; she encouraged residents to sign up for Rave Smart911 and to view PerimeterMap during incidents to know whether they are in an evacuation area.