That's because the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, prompted by the record-setting October firestorm, voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the purchase of a countywide early warning notification system. The $198,500 system is expected to be in place by late this year or early next.
The federal government is expected to cover 75 percent of the total cost of the system that would rapidly alert the masses. Riverside was one of five Southern California counties that President Bush declared disaster areas during the record-setting outbreak of wildfires and, as a result, is eligible for federal aid.
Riverside County's share of the system's cost is $49,625, county fire officials said.
The system is similar to one already in use by the city of Temecula, which warned thousands on its eastern flank last fall that the Mountain fire was threatening to race west toward the city.
Raging across Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, the Mountain and several other Santa Ana wind-stoked fires torched 750,000 acres, killed 22 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. One of the blazes, the Cedar in San Diego County, was the single largest wildfire on record in California.
Riverside County was spared the worst devastation. Still, the Mountain fire scorched 10,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes near Lake Skinner.
The next time around, affected residents may be warned by a phone call, e-mail note, voice-mail message or fax about an approaching fire and told to evacuate by taking a particular road that is still open, said Phillip Bardos, county emergency services coordinator.
That's not the only likely application.
Bardos said the terse, 60-second-or-less notifications also could warn of earthquake damage, chemical spills, unsafe water, America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response alerts, smog alerts and even jail breaks, such as the recent one at Southwest Detention Center in French Valley.
Possibilities are limited only by the breadth of services offered by vendors, he said. He added the county likely will limit notifications to the most serious events so they won't become something that is widely ignored, like car alarms.
"We don't want to cry wolf too many times because, if we overutilize the system, it will be come useless," Bardos said.
At the same time, county officials want to be careful to avoid creating hysteria.
"It (the system) will generate more fear, possibly," said Bonnie Reed, program supervisor for the county's Office of Emergency Services. "That's where the public education part comes in."
Long before any system is put in place, Reed said, the county will thoroughly explain to residents how it works. She said the board's Tuesday approval only paves the way for making formal application for the money to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The county still must obtain federal approval and select a specific system for Riverside County and its nearly 2 million residents, although officials want one that uses both phones and computers.
Whatever the final product, it will not be replaced by the current practice of sending sheriff's deputies door to door to warn people to evacuate approaching disasters, Reed said.
Riverside is not the only county going to an early notification system in the aftermath of the October wildfires. San Diego and San Bernardino counties recently decided to purchase systems, too, Bardos said.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or [email protected].
