Sirens will wail and residents will likely see emergency vehicles headed through Ridgway, up County Road 5 on May 15.

Traffic will filter back into town, with residents headed to an evacuation center.

But there’s no need to panic. It’s just a drill – the county’s first full-scale evacuation exercise.

The practice evacuation begins at 9 a.m. that Friday, and involves more than 20 agencies, residents and volunteers to simulate a wildfire and evacuation of the Elk Meadows neighborhood southwest of Ridgway.

The drill has been more than two years in the making, and follows the Ouray County Emergency Management Department’s multi-jurisdictional evacuation plan, which defines a procedure for evacuating residents throughout the county during emergencies or natural disasters, like wildfire.

The point of the drill is to see how the plan works in action, said County Emergency Manager Glenn Boyd.

“We need to test where our holes are,” Boyd said.

The county has held other types of emergency exercises, such as rolling a school bus off the hill on Mall Road more than a decade ago, and staging an active shooter drill at Ridgway Secondary School. However, this is the county’s first full-scale emergency evacuation exercise, where volunteer participants in Elk Meadows will be asked to evacuate to a designated center. It’s also the first exercise of its kind in the region. Boyd said San Miguel County previously held a scaled-back evacuation drill that stopped short of asking people to leave their homes.

“We’re doing the whole thing,” Boyd said. Ouray County Sheriff Justin Perry and Boyd said the event has only become more relevant as drought conditions and fire risk intensify here.

“We are looking at a scary season, and it goes far beyond this one-day event,” Perry said.

What does “full-scale” mean and who is involved?

The drill is considered “full-scale” because it includes the county’s entire emergency response system. Not all residents are being asked to participate.

More than 20 entities will manage this drill, from the local to the state level.

Local entities include fire departments, all local municipalities, the sheriff’s office and Ouray County Emergency Medical Services.

Outside agencies include the Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado State Patrol and the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

What does this mean for residents?

Participation in the drill is optional and is geographically focused on the Elk Meadows neighborhood off County Road 5. Other areas of the county won’t be affected, Boyd said. The main impact to other residents will be traffic along Sherman Street. The county has asked Elk Meadows residents to sign up to participate if they are able to do so. There are currently between 10 and 20 households participating, Boyd said. Residents from outside the neighborhood are also welcome to volunteer as actors, playing evacuees or other roles in the neighborhood during the drill. They also need to sign up.

Roles range from injured evacuees to family members searching for loved ones. Volunteers are able to identify the roles they are comfortable playing when they sign up. The county still needs more volunteers and will accept registration until May 8 here.

What is expected of volunteers?

Volunteers are asked to participate for the full duration of the drill from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., including a debrief after the exercise. However, volunteers are free to leave after checking in at the 4-H Event Center and Fairgrounds, the designated evacuation center during the drill. There will be free pizza for all participants at the site.

How will it work?

The drill begins when Ouray County issues an alert through its emergency notification system, which will contact registered phone numbers and emails for residents in the evacuation area and provide instructions.

Law enforcement officers will then knock on participants’ doors to ensure they received instructions and direct any remaining participants to leave and check in at the 4-H Event Center and Fairgrounds, the only designated evacuation center for this drill. The main point of an evacuation center is to have a central location to account for people during an evacuation event, Boyd said. It also functions as the most immediate source of updates during the emergency. The location of evacuation centers during a real emergency will vary based on where the hazard or threat is, Boyd said.

Why Elk Meadows?

Boyd said the county needed to choose a remote neighborhood to test the full capabilities of the county’s emergency systems.

His department narrowed the options down to four neighborhoods and ultimately selected Elk Meadows because it’s one of the most challenging to evacuate, considering there’s only one road in and out: County Road 5. The neighborhood contains roughly 100 homes, according to Ridgway Fire Chief Chris Miller. The Ridgway Volunteer Fire Department had also been working on response plans for the neighborhood, which it can practice during the drill, Boyd said.

How will the county learn from this?

Once the drill is over, all participants will be asked to share perspectives on what worked and didn’t work. The discussion will include all participating residents and actors. Perry expects communication will be the main system put to the test.

“The key for managing any major incident is how well we can communicate with each other and know those systems,” Perry said.

My neighborhood wasn’t chosen. How can I be ready in an emergency?

County leaders hope the event motivates all residents to consider how they can prepare for an evacuation to affect their families and neighborhoods.

Boyd said it’s important that residents take accountability for themselves and their neighbors during an evacuation event, rather than waiting for officials to come door to door, when it may already be too late.

“We can knock on the doors as quickly as we can, but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to hit all of them,” Boyd said.

Residents can find comprehensive information about how to plan for emergencies on the county’s website, ouraycountyco. gov.

All residents are advised to sign up for the county’s emergency alert system – which they can do through the county website or by texting “ourayalerts” to 65513.

Residents can also familiarize themselves with the county’s three-step evacuation approach. The first step is pre-evacuation, or being alert and ready for a potential evacuation. The second is voluntary evacuation, where residents who may need more time, such as elderly residents or households with many pets or livestock, are prompted to begin evacuating if they wish. Finally, mandatory evacuation requires all people in the evacuation area to exit immediately.

Other ways to prepare include creating go bags that include food, water, clothing, medication, important documents and other essentials in case of emergency.

Residents are also asked to think about how they can help neighbors who may face challenges during an evacuation, such as those who do not speak English or elderly residents.

Separate from the drill, there are also two other wildfire-related events this month.

The newly-formed Fairway Pines Wildfire Emergency Planning Committee is organizing its first Wildfire Aware Fair on May 9 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Log Hill Fire Station No. 2, 434 Ponderosa Drive, in partnership with the sheriff’s office.

The city of Ouray is also hosting a wildfire workshop on May 17 from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Ouray Volunteer Fire Department. Both events are free and open to the public.

Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.