App that Can Help Evacuate Residents Threatened by Disaster

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The evacuation of residents threatened by natural disasters such as wildfires, flooding and debris flows is challenged by psychological and logistical obstacles. People typically are reluctant to leave the perceived safety of their homes especially if they’ve been ordered to do it time and again. Even in the age of the Internet and smartphones, alerting people to the impending danger and getting them to respond appropriately is no simple matter.

The Santa Barbara county, especially the South Coast, has been put to the test repeatedly in the past two years by multiple large vegetation fires and dangerous winter storms that have produced deadly flooding and debris flows, which prompted widespread evacuation orders.

Search and rescue teams are now equipped with the Fulcrum, a smartphone app that replaces a cumbersome manual system for tracking evacuations. The app, developed by Spatial Networks, allows officials to delineate an evacuation zone, address by address, and put that information in the hands of the people sent out to notify residents about an evacuation order, according to noozhawk.com.

At each address, deputies and SAR members use the app to input whether they were able to contact the residents and whether the residents said they planned to leave or stay. They also can make note of special needs — such as a person who is bedridden or in a wheelchair. Likewise, they can indicate whether pets that are left behind will need to be tended to during the evacuation period.

All of this information is uploaded in real time and is accessible to incident commanders who can follow the progress as an evacuation order is implemented. The new tool can inform first responders how effective are the warnings and alerts.

Fulcrum is a cloud-based data collection and storage platform designed to simplify the process of creating customized data collection apps for conducting field surveys. As a cloud solution, the Fulcrum platform runs on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. It serves various sectors, in addition to search and rescue missions.

The system was first used in Santa Barbara in January this year and since has been refined.

While effecting evacuations during a wildfire is, in some ways, easier, because the threat of approaching flames is more visible and immediate, getting people to leave ahead of a “possibly” dangerous storm is more problematic, especially if what is often termed “evacuation fatigue” begins to take hold in the community.

The county uses various messaging systems to alert the public to evacuation warnings and orders, and has transitioned to a procedural hierarchy that begins with an “advisory,” then progresses to a “warning,” and finally to a “mandatory order,” as needed.

Among other changes that have been made in the county is a smaller number of properties and people who are ordered to evacuate for potentially dangerous storms. In recent cases, evacuation order have remained in place for 24 hours or less, until the danger has passed.

The Fulcrum app can be used offline in fully disconnected environments to collect data. Data is stored on the device and is synced back to the cloud once you reach wi-fi or cellular coverage, according to the company website.

It can be used on hundreds of device models for collecting data. Everything that is collected with Fulcrum is automatically tagged with a GPS location coordinate, allowing users to see all the details on a map, as it’s happening.