Keep up to date on evacuation notices and fire safety information

information released by Chelan County

The Little Giant Fire experienced significant growth over the weekend, reaching nearly 111,500 acres as of Sunday morning.

Last week, we had several days of hazardous air quality levels throughout Chelan County. The Board of County Commissioners, as well as the state, declared a state of emergency. And we will know better this week the destruction left behind in the Entiat Valley.

To top it off, we’re not yet close to being able to say fire season is coming to an end.

We’ve gathered a few tips on how to best use the Chelan County Emergency Incidents Map, based on questions that have been coming into Emergency Management.

Most importantly, use the map’s search function, which allows you to type in your address to see if you are in an evacuation zone. The icon looks like a magnifying glass and is at the top of the page, both on our website and your cell phone.

The search function uses postal abbreviations. It doesn’t matter if you use capital or lowercase letters, but you must use the postal abbreviations:

Rd, St, Ave, Ln, Dr, Pl, Blvd, Cir, Ct, Crst, Xing, Hwy, Lndg, Pkwy, Plz, Pt, Rdg, Sq, Ter, Trl, Tunl, Vis, and Vw

Other tips when using the emergency incidents map:

  • When using the search function, do not use periods.
  • The more you zoom in, the easier it will be to see road names, cities and towns, or your home.
  • There are 18 different basemaps, all under Basemap Gallery. Use the basemap that works best for you. The map pops up as a “topographic” map, but you may want to use the “street” map or “imagery hybrid” map, for example, to get a better feel for surroundings.
  • If you are going to leave the map open on your phone or desktop, refresh it before using in case levels have changed.
  • Evacuation alerts from EM are posted automatically to its Facebook page through Everbridge. That means they will always be posted before Rivercom’s GIS technician is able to update the map. So be patient – someone is working on updating the map.

Go to the Chelan County website for a list of resources on the Little Giant Fire.