The city of Sedona held the last of its of planned meetings at the Hub at Posse Grounds Park on Monday, April 15, to discuss the “Know Your Zone” program that the city hopes to use to manage neighborhood evacuation and re-entry plans in the event of an emergency like wildfire, flooding or other disaster.

The event coincided with the start of the wildfire season and the speakers emphasized the importance of being prepared ahead of time and learning emergency plans to ensure the safety of citizens during emergencies.

“We put on the cover of the plan ‘all hazards life safety response,’ and that was really important,” Ashleigh Makuch, a consultant from EM Partners, said. “‘All hazards’ is a term we use quite frequently in emergency management. And what that means is that we’re planning for capabilities and resources and relationships that can be brought to bear for anything that might happen in the city of Sedona that might cause an emergency.  So this plan is not a wildfire evacuation plan or flood plan or terrorism plan. It’s an all-hazards plan that can be used by your city officials and supporting officials for anything that might happen. In that way it’s flexible and adaptable for officials to implement.”

The “Know Your Zone” plan breaks the city of Sedona into 12 zones that are based on the Sedona Police Department’s three beats and the city’s traffic study.

“What we did was break down each of the zones and based on the traffic study information, our traffic engineering firm came up with best route evacuation maps,” Makuch said. “The caveat is these are [the] best routes. You never know what’s going to happen and where the threat is going to be. We emphasize in the plan that listening to your officials and the direction that they’re giving is No. 1. But understanding and looking at these best route maps can help.”

City of Sedona

The city plans to schedule yard waste pickup days in accordance with the emergency zoning and Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey said that he would like other city services to do the same.

“Ultimately, our goal is for anything we do servicewise for the community that we try to refer back to zone,”

Dickey said, adding that the city is looking for ways to “drill in that information” to manage resident behavior.

“The Uptown parking garages [would be] a benefit for evacuation,” Dickey added, arguing that a garage would allow for better management of traffic in the event of an emergency.

Public Works has placed signage designating the evacuation zones at the major intersections along State Route 89A. Dickey estimated the cost of the signage at “probably a few hundred dollars” because the signs were created by the city’s sign shop and anticipates adding more signage in fall 2025.

Yavapai County

The Yavapai County Office of Emergency Management announced the launch of YavapaiReady.gov, its new website for its emergency plans, on Tuesday, April 16. The website applies the “Know Your Zone” scheme across the county and links it to Genasys Protect, a new computer program the county is testing for emergency alerts in addition to the current Everbridge system. Genasys was approved by the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors during its Dec. 6 meeting with the meeting agenda noting that “the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of Emergency Management conducted a trial run of [Genasys] during the Racetrack and Grapevine fires this past summer, finding its functionality effective and user-friendly.”

“We want the public to understand that, while I’m never going to force people to leave their home … there are consequences to not evacuating under a mandatory evacuation order,” Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes said on March 26. “One of those [is] you may not be able to get emergency services to respond to your location if it’s been evacuated. Two, those areas get de-energized … they [may] turn off electricity, and [you] may not be able to charge phones.”

Coconino County

Coconino County Emergency Management director Wes Dison said that Coconino County is considering installing loudspeakers in Sedona to direct residents. “They’re incredibly loud,” Dison said. Locations for the speakers are still being investigated and installation is at least a year away.

“The funding is a congressional grant that was awarded to Coconino County in December of 2022 under the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, so that’s the funding,” Dison said. “I feel pretty comfortable in saying to you [that it will be] zero cost to the city of Sedona.”

Dison said that the state of Arizona was also looking at having a three-zone evacuation process that would divide the state into Southern Arizona, Maricopa County and Northern Arizona. Officials reiterated when asked that law enforcement cannot compel residents to vacate their homes against their will in an evacuation.

“In the event [we] have a go order, if we have time on our side, we’re going door to door, we are going to advise people, if they choose to stay, we’re going to let them know that there is the potential that we can’t come back,” Sedona Police Chief Stephanie Foley said. “So unless there’s impairment, or some type of endangerment based on [a] child’s age, then unfortunately, we’re not spending our time and resources to enforce having to get them out.”

However, speakers also said that they can and will prevent residents who choose to stay from returning to their homes if they leave.

“The sheriff’s department and police department officials don’t give that order lightly,” Dison argued. “So if you get that [order] please go and go next door and grab your neighborhood.” Dison cited the Tunnel Fire in 2022 being fanned by high winds as “moving faster than [our] fire trucks could move” as a major reason to sign up for emergency alerts.

Residents are encouraged to sign up for emergency alerts. To sign up for alerts from the city of Sedona, visit SedonaAz.gov/alerts or text REDROCKS to 888777; for Coconino County, visit coconino.az.gov/ready; and for Yavapai County, visit ycsoaz.gov/ens. To read the Sedona Evacuation & Re- Entry Plan, visit SedonaAz.gov/evacuation.