MENDOCINO CO., 3/22/26 — “Do you know your zone?” is a frequent question asked by the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services during this time of the year when wildfires are top of mind as summer heat blankets the region.
However, it’s not just during wildfire season when an emergency requiring an evacuation is required.
Evacuations may be issued during floods, earthquakes, gas leaks, hazardous material spills, and other events in which lives, or safety, are at risk.
To help make evacuations more efficient, the OES has assigned a zone code to every part of Mendocino County.
By breaking the county up into zones, evacuations can take place more efficiently by helping people evacuate more quickly and decrease the likelihood of dangerous traffic-related bottlenecks.
When emergencies threaten an area, OES and law enforcement might issue warnings for specific zones, encouraging residents to evacuate early. Knowing one’s zone can help with early evacuations, especially with residents requiring longer evacuation times due to mobility challenges.
For example, Laytonville High School is in zone 1LAY06; Mendocino College’s main campus in Ukiah is in zone 2UKV14; Manchester Rancheria is in zone 3PTA03; and Noyo Harbor is in zone 4FBA03.
The OES, in partnership with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and local fire agencies, has an interactive map at mendoready.org where residents can type in their address and find their evacuation zone information.
When an emergency is taking place, zones will be updated with information about what the emergency is, current evacuation orders, shelters, road closures, and more.
Residents are also encouraged to sign up for MendoAlert, a tool used by law enforcement to notify residents of emergencies and evacuations. Alerts are sent via text message.
Additional emergency readiness information can be found at CalFire’s readyforwildfire.org and FEMA’s ready.gov.
Animals also need help evacuating. The Sonoma County-based nonprofit HALTER Project has a guide for animal disaster preparedness here.
This notice says to go to the “know your zone ” map to type in your address to get the emergency number for my zone. There is no such box to click on on this page or the following pages.
The interactive map is at mendoready.org. Just type in your address, and it will tell you your zone.
1025 East Oak Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437
Please send my Zone information to my email below. Thank you!
Why are the zone names so funky? Simplify them! Make it easier to remember! This is info for an emergency situation not a password to a device or app we all forget. So stupid.