05/30/2025
Knowing your evacuation routes is critical in successfully evacuating during a wildfire. Have you driven other routes out of your neighborhood or community? Now is the time to refresh your memory on what options are available to you.
There are two key pieces of local OFFICIAL information during an evacuation:
📢 Make sure you are signed up for El Dorado County Emergency Alerts by following the links on ready.edso.org. These alerts are sent directly by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Services. Knowing if your home or business is affected by an evacuation order or warning is a critical piece of the puzzle. Don't you want a direct phone call, text or email...even an app alert? By signing up, YOU CHOOSE how you get notified! What would wake you up at 2 a.m. if your property was threatened? You cannot rely on Facebook groups or wildfire apps to deliver this critical information. Please, please, please sign up for El Dorado County Emergency Alerts!
📍Know your evacuation zone by using Perimeter Map (perimetermap.com). Search your address in the 🔍Search bar to locate your property on the map. Information on evacuation centers, animal resources and more will be available when there is an active incident. This map information is directly put out by the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Services. You do not need to sign-up for this resource, but it is a good idea to bookmark it on your device.
FAQs - We have received many questions pertaining to signing up for El Dorado County Emergency Alerts.
Q. When I sign-up, it goes to smart911 . com or is referred to as "RAVE", is that a credible website?
A. Yes, EDSO uses a third-party program from RAVE that runs the smart911 . com website and hosts "El Dorado County Emergency Alerts". They are a subsidiary of Motorola, Inc which has long been a trusted brand of communications equipment for public safety agencies. Go through ready.edso.org directly and be assured that the linked sign-up is 💯 legit.
Q. The website asks for a lot of "extra" information related to pets and a risk persons living in a home etc...do I need to provide this info?
A. No. You only need to provide essential contact information such as an email and the address of a place you want to receive alerts about. It is very similar to signing up for a PG&E outage alert. You can provide info to get calls, texts and even emails with critical evacuation information. EDSO does not have access to the additional information about pets etc. currently as it is an optional module to be used by dispatch centers. If you do provide that information, it is secure and only accessible by emergency dispatch centers that use Smart 911. It is not shared by Motorola with any other entities.
Q. If I use Watch Duty, isn't that the same thing?
A. No. Watch Duty is a great source of information but it relies on "reporters" to update the information. It is also not specific to your exact location, so you may receive alerts for areas not under evacuation orders or warnings. Will their app alerts wake you up in the middle of the night or if you don't have data/cellular service? You can use Watch Duty, just don't be entirely reliant on it alerting you. Hedge your bet and get information from the source as soon as its released by signing up for El Dorado County Emergency Alerts.
