Clackamas County briefs Lake Oswego council on evacuation maps and 'Go Prepared' campaign; interactive tools, Spanish outreach emphasized

Clackamas County emergency management staff and Lake Oswego Fire Department officials gave the Lake Oswego City Council a briefing Sept. 2 on multi-year evacuation planning, community engagement and a public education campaign to increase readiness for wildfire and other disasters.

Greg Barnum, battalion chief for the Lake Oswego Fire Department, introduced Clackamas County representatives Jamie Poole, deputy disaster manager, and Emily Rickland, community planner with the county disaster management program. Rickland described a three-phase project begun in 2023 that included evacuation mapping, local refinement with partners, and a public education campaign.

Rickland said the county created 21 evacuation zones and routes after a GIS risk inventory that considered wildfire, floods and landslides. The county then refined those maps with local fire and city staff and engaged residents through six focus groups concentrated in rural areas, 920 public survey responses (including 45 in Spanish), and nine one-on-one interviews (five in English, four in Spanish). In its outreach the county aimed for equitable communications and said it conducted Spanish-language focus groups and materials.

The county rolled out a public campaign called “Go Prepared” that it described as three actions: sign up for public alerts, consult the evacuation maps (available in PDF and via an interactive address-search map), and assemble a go-kit that includes essential items for leaving quickly. Officials said they used both organic and paid media and reported about 2,400,000 impressions and 15,500 clicks to campaign content, and that public-alert signups have doubled year-over-year during the campaign period.

County staff said an interactive mapping tool is forthcoming and that the campaign will repeat annually ahead of fire season. Presenters recommended apps and alert systems (the transcript references WatchDuty and the county’s public-alert systems) to help residents receive timely evacuation information. Councilors raised questions about traffic bottlenecks during large-scale evacuations and how the county coordinates messaging across the Portland metro region; county staff said phased notifications and preplanning are part of their approach and that they coordinate with neighboring counties and city dispatch centers.

Lake Oswego officials and councilors highlighted the importance of household-level preparedness and home-hardening measures to reduce structure ignitions from windborne embers. Battalion Chief Barnum emphasized that embers—not the large burning front—cause most house losses once a fire reaches a populated area and urged residents to create defensible space close to structures. The county and city recommended home assessments and Firewise-type community action as mitigation steps.

The briefing emphasized adaptable evacuation routing (routes may change in floods, landslides or wind events), ongoing coordination across jurisdictions, and the county’s plan to refine interactive maps with local GIS teams. The county plans additional community engagement and will share data on where signups and clicks are coming from as the campaign wraps up.