LEPC hears concerns about evacuation maps, emergency text alerts and radio gaps; FCC engaged

Forrest, the Denali Borough emergency manager, walked the committee through draft evacuation polygons developed after the Bear Creek incident and said the borough plans a layered approach: larger general zones with smaller, named subsectors for targeted messaging. "I think...we could get the messaging in the process, but I think it's just a little bit easier to visualize when we have the whole shape," he said while showing draft maps.

Committee members and incident commanders who worked the fire recommended smaller, more surgical polygons so fewer residents are displaced for longer than necessary. Several members favored retaining broad "zones" as a fallback but issuing narrower "alpha/bravo/charlie" subsets for active evacuations.

Forrest and others raised problems with the commercial emergency-text alert system during the Bear Creek response: some residents and staff with different carriers did not receive the evacuation push messages. The emergency manager said he contacted the Federal Communications Commission. "The FCC is very much aware of this," he reported, and staff held a follow-up meeting that included an FCC attorney and local stakeholders to pursue carrier compliance for imminent-threat alerts.

Public comment and the fire-service representatives also flagged persistent radio-interoperability issues on response channels: critical transmissions were reportedly missed by some units during recent calls. Chief-level speakers said units sometimes could not hear one another due to digital/radio-system issues and intermittent coverage; one fire chief described a recent call where critical information reached some crews but not others. Committee members agreed the borough should follow up with communications engineers and regional partners to identify whether the problem is overloaded towers, hardware, channel configuration, or new equipment interference.

The committee also directed staff to pursue ePlan accounts for Chief Sparks (LEPC lead) and encouraged fire chiefs to request first-responder access from DEC. The borough committed to incorporating address counts (known sites) into evacuation-map pop-ups to improve situational awareness.

"Imminent threat alerts have to go out regardless of who the carrier is," Forrest said; the FCC contact told the committee the agency would coordinate with state emergency operations and carriers to improve coverage for future incidents.