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Summary of Wildfire Evacuation Meeting on 7/9/26

July 11th, 2026



Thank you to everyone who attended the NWACA-sponsored Wildfire Preparedness and Evacuation Planning Presentation on July 9. We appreciate your time and participation in learning more about wildfire risk and preparedness for our neighborhood.
You can review all the slides that were used in the presentation, and you can access a lot of other information using the list of links and resources below.

Here’s a quick summary of the key points of the evening’s presentation and discussion:

  • Ensuring that your home is hardened against wildfire is essential; embers from a fire are the primary reason homes burn during wildfire. The slides explain what you should do, and having a home wildfire risk evaluation will give you key tips. (see last link below)
  • Preparing your household for a wildfire emergency is a wise move – prepare a “go bag” with the essentials and a list of the other things you will grab in case you need to evacuate. See suggestions in the Neighborhood Guidebook in the link below.
  • Handling a disaster like a wildfire emergency involves a coordinated effort, with a unified command including Austin Emergency Management and Travis County Emergency Management, Austin Fire Department, Austin Police Department, EMS, and other agencies as appropriate. They are coordinated through the Emergency Operations Center located near Mueller.
  • Emergency messages, including those for evacuation, will come from two main sources: Warn Central Texas and FEMA’s IPAWS system. You need to register with Warn Central Texas (see below), but IPAWS uses the existing cellular networks and other communication vehicles to get information to you. With Warn Central Texas, you choose which types of messages you want to receive, and whether they should be text, phone, and/or email. It’s very important that your cell phone has notifications enabled for emergency, though; check those settings.
  • Those with special needs should sign up with the STEAR and/or the AHAS system, as appropriate. See the links below for more information.
  • During a disaster such as a wildfire event, you may be asked to shelter in place. That order could mean that you have no access out of the area because of how the disaster is unfolding; or it may mean that for now, you are not at risk and should not hamper others from leaving.
  • You may be directed to a Community Refuge Center, a place like a school or recreation center, which has a large space to accommodate people for a brief time.
  • You may be given an Evacuation Warning, which means you should prepare to evacuate, but not yet leave.
  • When you are given an Evacuation Order, there is an immediate danger to life, and you should leave immediately (one car per household… no more). There will be peace officers guiding you out of the area, so you will know in which direction to go.
  • The Evacuation Order will also give you information about a web site you can use to let first responders know that you are leaving, or you will be able to provide that to first responders at a Temporary Assembly Point as you are leaving.
  • The presentation slides give you details about what the various agencies do during an evacuation, one of which is to maintain a database of who has left the area and who is still unaccounted for. This provides guidance to the first responders, who will go house to house in the evacuation area to be sure everyone has received the message. One or more Temporary Assembly Points will be set up along the evacuation route, to ensure the database is current.
  • Safety of the people in the disaster area is the first priority for the teams; in a wildfire event, the second priority is controlling the fire and preserving structures.
  • You can see an example scenario in the slides that outlines how a wildfire event might evolve over several hours.

Presentation materials from the session are available here: Slides

Here are additional links and resources to support your preparedness efforts:

Preparedness is a shared responsibility, and your engagement helps strengthen our neighborhood’s ability to respond safely during emergencies. NWACA coordinated the logistics for this event; joining NWACA supports this kind of programming and neighborhood connection.

On Wednesday, August 5, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the Mayor’s Citywide Wildfire Symposium will be held at Austin City Hall, 301 West 2nd Street. If you would like to learn more about how the various agencies collaborate in addressing wildfire, and be involved in working sessions to address some of the key issues, please plan to attend.

Thank you again for supporting our community’s safety.
NWACA Wildfire Prevention Committee

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