JACKSON, WY — Teton County implemented Ready, Set, Go! evacuation procedures in 2017. But until just two weeks ago, nobody in town had ever had to use it.
The Museum Fire was an almost perfect example of a disaster gone right — the emergency response was immediate, the fire was quickly contained, no person or structure was injured or damaged. But when emergency responders are busy responding to emergencies, access to information can be tough.
Teton County Emergency Management released a website to try to address that. TCIncident.org is Teton County’s one-stop-shop for access to information when disaster strikes. It houses information on what “Ready, Set, Go!” evacuation stages mean, and also when they’re in effect.
Technically, the website launched a week before the Museum fire, but it was more of a soft launch, said Emergency Management Program Assistant Jenny Kruger. The fire was actually perfect practice for the new site — and it worked. Even if not many people knew to check it.
The site includes an interactive incident map. (Luckily, no incidents on it right now!)Kruger came up with the idea while researching other emergency management sites, mostly in California. With one exception in Ventura County, emergency information was hard to find. “Between going to emergency management sites, sheriff’s office pages, there’s really not a single source to go for information.”
And Teton County’s website is clunky, admits PIO Kristin Waters. “You can fiddle around for hours trying to find emergency management information. It’s just confusing.”
TCIncident.org is designed to be easy to remember and to navigate. It will function kind of like Nixle, but on a larger, more on-going scale, especially for long-lasting disasters like the Roosevelt Fire. Teton County Emergency Management will update the page whenever resources allow and new information is available. And instead of waiting for the next Nixle update (which will likely direct you to this new website anyway), the public can go straight to the source.
TCIncident will not post about every landslide, accident, or road closure in the valley. What makes it onto the site is up to Emergency Management’s discretion and available resources, says Emergency Management Coordinator Rich Ochs. The site’s biggest priority is evacuation information — “do I have to evacuate and if so, where do I go?”
“We’re trying to steer people to critical information,” Ochs says.
TCIncident.org. Commit it to memory. Bookmark it if you don’t trust your memory. Hope to never need it, but rest assured knowing it’s there.
