Emergency Alert Tests Slated In Sonoma County

SONOMA COUNTY, CA – The County of Sonoma, City of Santa Rosa, and the National Weather Service Bay Area will conduct an emergency alert and warning exercise Tuesday comprised of two separate tests, officials said Thursday in a joint news release.

The first is a countywide test of the NOAA Weather Radio — NWR— warning alarm system; the second is a targeted text message, email and/or phone call alert test to select subscribers of SoCoAlert in the City of Santa Rosa's Montecito Heights and Fountaingrove 2 designated evacuation zones.

At noon Tuesday, a test emergency message will be broadcast to all NOAA weather radios throughout Sonoma County. The NWR warning alarm will sound one time, a short test message will be sent and then a closing alarm tone will sound.

The test message will be transmitted as a Civil Emergency Message; the words "Civil Emergency Message" may scroll across the displays of compatible radios. The NWR test cycle will play through only one time. NWR owners who want to take part in the test need to enable warning alarms for Civil Emergency Messages in order to take part in this test. The NWRs distributed by the city were reprogrammed with this feature enabled.

The second test, a targeted email, text message and/or phone call alert, will be directed to those who have addresses within the City of Santa Rosa’s Montecito Heights and Fountaingrove 2 designated evacuation zones.

At 1 p.m., a test emergency message — a short text message, email and/or phone call — will be sent to all contacts associated with an address in the city's Montecito Heights designated evacuation zone.

At 1:15 p.m., a test emergency message will be launched in the Fountaingrove 2 designated evacuation zone and will also consist of a short text message, email and/or phone call to all contacts associated with an address within the zone.

Residents are encouraged to prepare ahead of the exercise. Santa Rosa residents who are unsure of their designated evacuation zone can look it up at Socoemergency.org/evacuation-map or by calling 211.

"While only select Santa Rosa residents will be included in the text, phone, and email alert test, it is important for all residents to know their evacuation zone to be prepared for an emergency, and all community members are encouraged to take a few minutes to do so," County communications Specialist Doug Bunnell said.

All Sonoma County residents who own an NOAA Weather Radio should make sure their device is plugged in, with backup batteries installed, and set up per the radio manufacturer instructions. To be prepared for an actual emergency at any time, officials said all Sonoma County residents should register for emergency alerts at Socoemergency.org/sign-up, and existing subscribers should review and update contact information as necessary.

The tests will compare two separate alerting systems that utilize the County’s SoCoAlert subscriber base: Everbridge will be used for the 1 p.m. test and Code Red will be used at 1:15 p.m. By comparing the alerting systems side-by-side, emergency officials can evaluate how two separate warning system providers perform in reaching targeted residents.

The State of California selected Sonoma County as a pilot county to test the Everbridge system.

The test of the non-weather emergency message system using NOAA weather radios will provide the opportunity to test an expanded use of an existing alerting tool. This summer, the City of Santa Rosa used FEMA grant funds to give out approximately 12,000 NOAA Weather Radios to leverage an additional emergency alerting opportunity.

More information about Tuesday's Joint Alert and Warning Exercise is posted at SoCoEmergency.org/July20Exercise.