House Community & Regional Affairs, 4/28/26, 8am

Good morning. I call this meeting of the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee to order. Today is Tuesday, April 28th, 2026, and the time is 9:01 AM. Members present are Representative Carolyn Hall, Representative Steve St. Clair, Representative Garrett Nelson, also known as G, and co-chair Donna Mears is online on Teams this morning. Representative Holland has joined us, and I am here, co-chair Rebecca Himschoot.

We have a quorum to conduct business. I'd like to remind members and staff to please silence your cell phones. And before we get started, I would like to thank Sophia Tenney from House Records, who is here documenting today's meeting, and Susan Quigley from the Juneau LIO assisting us with the meeting recording. And of course, our fantastic— yeah, I didn't say it yet. Okay.

Our fantastic committee aides, Thatcher Brower and Talia Ames, who help make all of this happen every Tuesday and Thursday. So on our agenda, we have one item, SB 192, evacuation designation levels. It is the first hearing of the bill. I would like to invite Senator Bjorkman and staff Laura Asche to come forward, put your names on the record, and introduce the bill. Good morning.

Thank you for being here.

Good morning, Chair Himschoot and members of the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee. For the record, my name is Senator Jesse Bjorkman, and I represent the northern and central portions of the Kenai Peninsula. The bill before you, Senate Bill 192, would establish a uniform "Ready, Set, Go" designation for statewide use when communicating with the public regarding emergency. This would clarify that Alaskans need to act decisively and what they need to do in an emergency when an evacuation is necessary. The designation use of green, yellow, red coding in evacuations plans signifies when danger is near.

Senate Bill 192 sets color designations into law, requires these designations to be used in plans developed for emergency planning in districts under AS 2623.073 and under political subdivisions in AS 2623.060. Senate Bill 192 was introduced at the request of emergency managers across the state. This is a system that is already in place, and they would like to codify it so that we have a standardized system that can be used by all into the future.

Thank you for your support. We have online the Kenai Peninsula Borough Emergency Management Office extraordinary director Brenda Ahlberg for invited testimony. Thank you, and we'll go to invited— the invited testifier directly. I just wanted to mention for the committee, if— I don't feel like we need to go through the sectional analysis. Does anyone feel like they need that?

Okay. With that, we're going to go to Brenda Ahlberg, Senior Manager of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management. Ms. Ahlberg, could you put your name on the record and begin your presentation? Oh, and before you do, I'd like to welcome Representative Prox at 9:04. Ms. Ahlberg.

Good morning, Madam Chair. My name is Brenda Ahlberg. I am the emergency manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Today I'm also representing the Alaska Emergency Managers Association as one of the board of directors and also the spokesperson for this bill. I cannot see the slideshow on my end, so please bear with me if I do ask you to forward I'm assuming you guys have the slide deck in front of you.

We do, and if you just tell us when to go to next slide, we have the introductory slide up that says Ready, Set, Go! Standardized Evacuation Messaging, and from there, if you'll just tell us when to advance, we'll move the slides. Please advance to the next slide. Statewide Standards. So we're going to talk a little bit about the origins and the.

Local campaigns prior to this bill coming forward and being sponsored by Senator Bjorkman. We had jurisdictions that were using some level of Ready, Set, Go across the state. Well, the challenge was, was from an operational perspective, the use of colors and the designation for closed areas. The statewide campaign— or excuse me, the statewide standards stays the same. That is Level 1, 2, and 3 with regards to how we're asking folks to engage with a potential evacuation or removing them out of harm's way.

So the next slide, please.

The campaign is designated into 3 levels. For the sake of this conversation, we're going to say Ready, Set, Go. We should always be in some state of ready, and as emergency managers or first responders in general, when we're engaging with the public, we are asking them to also be ready, whether it is for driving long distances during the winter, ensuring you have a go pack, right down to those bunny boots, or during the summertime when we're asking folks to be aware of potential wildfires in their area. We also realize that by asking folks to be ready, that they are participating not only in their safety, but in the potential response and recovery should harm's way be in their area. Next slide, please.

Level 2, SET, is a designator that indicates to folks that they have an opportunity now to evacuate in the event that they have mobility challenges, they have livestock, recreational vehicles, or other large personal items that need more time or require more time to leave. That also could be long-distance egress routes or limited egress routes in their neighborhood. So during this timeframe, it also empowers individuals not only to make the decision that now is probably a time for us to leave because we need that additional time, but it also helps quell some of that angst that they may be experiencing during a very stressful time in their life. We have found over experience that this seems to be the case, particularly for those in aged neighborhoods or those areas that do have limited egress. Next slide, please.

The last level, Go, really indicates to folks that we want them out now. We take the please out of it. It is direct messaging that they are in harm's way and they need to evacuate. This is, of course, their choice. We can't tell them to go.

It's not mandatory, but we certainly emphasize the importance that they are in harm's way. At this juncture, they have no more time than grabbing their keys and their loved ones to get out of the area. So rolling back to the initial campaign and engagement with our residents, it's important that they understand that 3 stages and what their actions are during each level of engagement. Next slide, please. And hopefully we're on the same, same slide.

It's blue and it's the management action points operationalized. Yep, that's correct. Is that correct? Yep, we're right there. Thank you, Madam Chair.

So at this juncture, I want to talk a little bit about what management action points are. When we engage, and we're going to talk about wildfires since that's the season we're currently in, and of course flooding, but, um, With regards to management action points, that is where the operations section of an incident management team interfaces with emergency managers, first responders that may be assisting in a planned evacuation. And those management action points are triggers that basically say at this stage, this is what we're going to do in the GO, all the way to the GO stage, so that we are aligning our standardized messaging not only with operations but also with the public, hence Ready, Set, Go.

The challenge has been the colors or how we have presented that on operational maps that are— or public information maps across the state. Next slide, please. The slide that you should have before you is titled Confused.

That's correct. This timeframe Thank you. During the 2022 wildfire season, the Clear Fire is used as an example because at that time the emergency manager, who's a very respected friend of mine, knows that I'm talking about this fire. This fire became the impetus for us as emergency managers coming together and realizing we have got to formalize this. We have got to codify it.

During the Clear Fire, you'll see that around the fire perimeter of red, there is a green area. That created a lot of confusion for the public because they weren't certain what was closed versus what was open. And so fast forward, after the learning lessons that came to the Clear Fire or resulted from the Clear Fire, Next slide, please. You're going to see now the closed area examples across Alaska from 2019 all the way to last year's fire season, and I think this is— takes a moment to pause on the celebration of collaboration amongst all first responders. Not only did we informally agree that red would be indicating closed evacuated areas, but that we would continue to do that across the state until it was formally recognized.

And it not only indicates those closed areas in red, but it's done across the entire state. There were a couple leading examples prior to Senator Bjorkman's sponsorship, and that includes the Alaska Emergency Managers Association formally adopting this recommendation, as well as the Alaska Fire Chiefs Association who supported it by way of resolution. And then even as much as last spring with the Alaska State Fire Marshal's Office providing this update to all the fire chiefs so they too could align with our informal agreement, which was huge. The other divisions of the state that not only have supported it, but have aligned their operational engagement is the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, as well as the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection. As you can see, not only do we have state agencies, but also political subdivisions aligning the importance of standardized messaging.

Next slide, please. Just as, as important to illustrate what areas are closed or evacuated, are also being able to illustrate what is reopened or later repopulated. This will also— this standardized language will help us to support that messaging as well, particularly in larger subdivisions or larger neighborhoods where we have one set side of a neighborhood that's open, whereas another side may still be closed because of road clearing or utility reactivation. So that messaging is equally important for that reentry. When I say reentry, that could be something during a time period where individuals have a limited time to go back into their home for supplies, but they're not able to stay overnight.

So there's that operation, and then there's also the operation of repopulation, where we're saying, yes, it is safe for you to clearly go home.

And with that, Madam Chair, next slide, please. I'll stand for any questions that you may have. Thank you very much for walking us through this proposal. And are there questions from the committee for Ms. Ahlberg? Okay.

Well, let's just dig in. Okay. Representative St. Clair and then Representative Holland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, what, uh, through the chair, why just wildfires? I know you said that that's what we're coming into, but the, uh, the language in the sponsor statement and other things, uh, signify just wildfires. And I know we have breakup, we have other events. Um, so why was it just listed for, uh, wildfires?

Mr. Through the chair.

Yeah, thank you. Through the chair, actually, the bill does indicate that it would be for all hazard responses. Wildfire was used, just used as an example because that's what we're currently in. The latest amendment indicates that it would amend the Disaster Act Section 26.23.060.

E as an echo indicating that sub— the state as well as political subdivisions that.

Have emergency management plans listing evacuations— evacuation plans would also incorporate this language. And when— for that particular section, that is clearly addressing all hazard events. And I thank you for your question. Uh, follow-up? Um, yes, ma'am.

Uh, no, that's more for the bill sponsor. Um, so there, there's an informal agreement. Could this be done via regulation, or does it need to be codified in law? Ms. Alberg. Thank you.

Through the Chair, my recommendation is that it is codified in law because it allows us then to create standard operating procedures or regulations that are specific to each department or division or political subdivision. And I thank you for your question. Thank you. President Holland. Great.

Thank you. Through the Chair. Thank you for being here in this presentation. It's a really well-structured framework of the Ready, Set, Go program and obviously the lessons being learned here. A couple things I want to ask you about here.

You know, I think what you're addressing is a fundamental issue that we've seen in the coordination between local initial response and longer-term integrated command center response activities where the information given out at the beginning of a fire is not consistently carried over into the, um, command, uh, integration that happens later when it hands off to DOF. I'm curious, what are your thoughts about how that handoff process is addressed in this bill? And is there any way we can ensure the integration, which I think is really kind of the point of the bill? But I'm just curious about your thoughts in that handoff process that I know has been the real source of confusion as people go from one channel of communication and up dates and charts and maps, and then somebody else takes over, and then there's different information found on a different source, updated on a different frequency with maybe different maps. How have you handled that?

How do you see this being improved with this bill? Miss Elberg, through the chair, I, I believe what— and that's an outstanding question— one of the things that we've addressed as emergency managers is the rollout campaign once this bill has been codified, and that includes not only with the emergency managers but all of our response partners. I think that by codifying it now not only allows us to have something what I call evergreen, so that as some of us retire and we have incoming folks who have no clue, they understand the process because as emergency managers, that's one of the first things they have to understand is what are their parameters, whether it's local ordinances or state statutes or federal regulations. With regards to teams and that operational, or what I call an IMT, Incident Management Team, slash interface with Emergency Operations Centers, I think this also addresses that because whether it's a state or federal agency that's coming in to support, they too, by best practice, are supposed to look at those local ordinances, state regulations, or state state statutes as well as federal regulations. Follow-up.

Follow-up. Great. Thank you for that. Um, to build on that, one of the challenges that I've run into is the question of where does the public go for timely, authoritative information. As we've watched some of the fires, we've seen people desperate for information, particularly if the fire is any place close to them.

They're scanning Facebook, they're looking at pretty wild Facebook posts that happen. They're going to TV stations, they're going to radio stations, they're just spinning the dial trying to figure out where is the most current authoritative information. And in fact, it has turned out to be a, a huge challenge. So in terms of Ready, Set, Go, the communication, what are your thoughts and recommendations on how this will be structured in a way that people will have a greater clarity in the moment of an emergency of where to go to get the most timely, the most authoritative information, rather than spinning the and hoping the latest post is maybe the best information. Ms. Ahlberg.

Through the chair, I'm going to answer that in twofold. One is at a local level here on the Kenai Peninsula, we most certainly recognize that through lessons learned beginning with the Funny River Fire back in 2014. Fast forward, we created a program that that engages with our residents not only through traditional media, close relationships with our radio stations, but also our online presence. So the majority of folks know to come to the Kenai Peninsula Borough for authoritative information. It's a practice that we've built on now for 10 years, and it does take time.

And I completely understand that spin the dial quote unquote that you're referencing. While we can't control what people are going to do, we certainly hope that we can manage those messaging by providing them those authoritative resources. Now, on the second part of my response, I would bring you to some great, great things that the Division of Forestry and Fire Prevention is doing presently as we roll out this Ready, Set, Go program. They've taken that one step further and they have used the borough, Kenai Peninsula Borough's model that we have currently with our evacuation zones. And that's where folks can see that operational map in an area that might be impacted, and are they in that zone?

Whole nother subject, but I digress. The Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has taken all of the jurisdictions who have established evacuation zones and created a GIS hub, a common operating picture, where you as an individual or you as a first responder can go online and see where that impacted area is, how each level of Ready, Set, Go! May be shaded for that particular community, and how it changes during the course of an operation. So I, I believe that not only at a local level, we've been able to take those lessons learned and clearly apply good products and good resources for our public to be engaged with that response. Personally, I'm of the note that if I can empower my residents to make those decisions collaboratively with responders, not only do they feel engaged when we are asking them to do something, but they're also empowered to being resourceful during that recovery time as well.

Thank you for your question. Great. Thanks. One more? Okay.

Quick follow-up. Not quick. Can we come back to you? Yeah, we can come back. Just a final quick comment, though, on this is that these maps are very dynamic, and one of the things I will be looking for as we explore this is how do we help the public see when they are getting maps that are static and relatively done for a particular phase and when it is very dynamic.

We have run into a lot of problems with information going out, and it is not clear whether or not the information that is being published is real-time but highly dynamic, or whether this is the report from yesterday, the fire is contained, we're done, and that's, you know, it's an interesting problem about back to the timely authoritative question about the status of the information. Thank you for the responses so far. And I did have a message, I received a message from Co-Chair Mears. I'll just ask it unless there's some reason we have to have her come online, but she's watching at home on Teams and wanted to know If other states use this Ready, Set, Go format so that if someone moves here from Montana, is this a system that they'll know from their— where they used to live?

Through the chair, yes, Representative Mears. This program is actually modeled after the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The language has been adopted across many states, including on the Pacific Northwest. The states that I evaluated before the Kenai Peninsula Borough created their local program was California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Those four states, I looked at their program in, in when we created our local program here on the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

Okay, thank you. So it's, it's excuse me, it is certainly a program that as you travel north you're going to see that standardized language. Okay. And Representative Prox. Thank you.

Just first, time check, because I— same subject but a little bit different. Do we have time to delve into that? Sure. I just was wanting to make sure we get everybody in. So, Representative Prox.

Thank you. Through the chair, I'm Also concerned about pre-fire planning. There's in the— well, the whole Fairbanks-North Star Borough area, the urban wildfire interface, I think they call that, and the need to get more of the information out.

—So that residents can harden their house and their buildings against an approaching fire. And we need to do more about that. And is there anything in the works along those lines? What do they call it? Firewise program or something that we could take advantage of to get the word out when there isn't actually a fire, but you need to do a bunch of things to protect your home.

It feels like it's ranging a little bit outside the scope of this bill, but it's a super important question. So, um, and we have an excellent professional online. So, Ms. Ahlberg, could you respond to that? Madam, through the chair, I, I'm sorry I didn't get representative's name. Representative Crocks.

Thank you. I can't speak on behalf of Fairbanks North Starboro, but here on the Kenai Peninsula, that is something that's equally important. You talk about the ready stage, that's those complementing programs such as Firewise, or even when we are in potentially River Watch, state calls it River Watch, but we certainly have our spring and fall flooding timeframes. If we have an incident or we have an annual type of season of potential response, that is already part of our pre-game, if you will, where we are providing information to our residents on how they too can prepare themselves for a potential response in their area, whether it's creating those setbacks or removing hazardous fuels away from their home, or if they need to move things away from the river's edge if they do live close to the water. So regardless of whatever that hazard is, if we have a window for preparedness, then we certainly engaging with our residents during those blue sky days.

And I thank you for your question. Just a quick follow-up: is that primarily the responsibility of the local government, in Kenai's and Fairbanks' case the borough, or is that the local fire department? Where do I start to work with somebody to get the information out?

Through the chair here on the Kenai Peninsula, we have a phenomenal partnership called the All Lands All Hands Group, which is interagency coordination with local, state, federal, and nonprofit entities that we come together to help provide that prevention messaging throughout the season. Right now, because we are engaged in wildfire preparedness, we also have a trailer that we schedule throughout the borough to engage with our residents. With regards to your specific question, who would you want to speak with? I would recommend for the Fairbanks North Star Borough is the emergency manager Nancy Dunham. Perfect.

Thank you. Okay, you bet. Let's go over to Representative Nelson and then Hall. Thank you, Madam Co-chair. Miss Ahlberg, Miss Ahlberg, you know, you mentioned that the challenge has been colors.

And I can totally see that, you know, red equals danger, so we're trying to amend that. But as you were talking, it seems like this would essentially reverse the colors, which would be common sense, where red equals more danger and green equals less and yellow's in the middle. But you had mentioned that— you said that this has been formally adopted, and I, I did— either I didn't catch it or something, but like It seems like the change that is being proposed here, if I— unless I misunderstood you, you said has been formally adopted, and I was wondering if that is like a local thing or like where has this change been formally adopted that we're talking about today? Ms. Ahlberg. Through the chair, it has been informally adopted by the Emergency Managers Association.

They came together and by motion made the recommendation to have it codified in state statutes, and Senator Bjorkman was kind enough to sponsor the Senate bill. Formally, the Kenai Peninsula Borough has codified it. It did so about 4 years ago by way of resolution. Okay, and I cannot speak on behalf of the other jurisdictions. Thank you for your question.

Okay, um, and we'll go to Representative Hall. Thank you, Madam Co-chair. Miss Ahlberg, I'm curious about timelines. You had mentioned the Funny River Fire from 2014, and I believe was the Clear Fire in 2022. Is— I'm kind of surprised that this wasn't brought up or adopted many years ago.

Is it due to a change in the status of hazards and how frequently those hazards are happening in Alaska? Ms. Albrecht. Through the chair, I can't speculate on why it took so long. I can certainly celebrate those that have come together over the last 4 years to ensure that we needed to be working together to create standardized messaging, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I pitched the idea to the Alaska Emergency Managers Association that if we could get this codified in statute, then it becomes part of our practice, as I was stating earlier, where as emergency managers or first responders that come in to support us, whether it's state or federal, that's one of the practices is that you have to know the local ordinances. You have to be familiar with the state statutes.

You have to be familiar with the federal regulations. Should it— should that incident expand into potentially being a federal disaster? So it just seemed like, while it— I agree, it does seem like a long time. I do want to celebrate those who said yes, let's, let's make this happen and see, and let's carry this forward so it's codified as some of us start getting into that retirement age, we know that this has been a legacy item that all of our communities can operate under. I thank you for your question.

Follow-up? Through the co-chair, thank you, Ms. Ahlberg, for that. And I— this piece of legislation seems to make a lot of sense to me, and I'm curious when it comes to the timeline from other states. You had mentioned that other states have also been practicing this. Do you know about how long they have been practicing it?

And if you mentioned it before and I missed it, I apologize. And if I could add to the question to Ms. Ahlberg, which states, if you happen to know that— I don't think it's critical information for us, but I think it would be informative, helpful.

Through the chair, to address your question, when I'm also on incident management teams that operate nationally outside our lower 48. And I recall seeing the state of Oregon's program in 2018. It was, at that time, I was actually a public information officer for a team that was supporting a large fire in the Agnes, Oregon area, Gold Beach area. And so I know Oregon has it. That I could tell you, that would be 2018.

Washington and California also have programs. I don't know when they started their programs, but to answer the second part of the question, those are the three states that I can— and there's also Idaho. But as far as when they started their programs other than Oregon, I can't give you that information. I could certainly provide it as a follow-up if you would like. Oh, that's not necessary.

Thank you, Miss Hallberg. Thank you. Um, I'm going to go through a few of my questions and we'll circle back to Rapalin for the longer question that he had. Um, so these are just in kind of random order, thoughts that have passed through my mind as we think about this legislation. On Level 2, it said on your slides, leaving early isn't just for folks with mobility issues.

Who or what else should leave now? Would that indicate somebody keeping livestock would want to evacuate? Critters on a Level 2? And, and this would be communicated, right, as this program gets unrolled, gets, gets, I guess, rolled out, that what happens in Level 1, 2, and 3? Yeah, so I guess I'm worried about the animals.

Would they go in Level 2?

Madam Chair, that is correct. Those who have large animals or need additional time to evacuate, whether it's mobility issues, large animals, large recreational vehicles, boats, RVs, UTVs, or ATVs rather.

Someone who needs that additional time. There's also individual— it's a very stressful time where you're— we're asking individuals to leave their home, and for some individuals, leaving during the set time frame also empowers them time. It gives them time to make a critical decision and to give them the opportunity to make arrangements to temporarily stay with other one, other loved ones or friends. And so.

In my experience, residents have appreciated having that opportunity to not only be prepared, but potentially to go ahead and leave during that set timeframe. And that is part of the campaign. The messaging aligns with the standardized evacuation messaging, whether you're in Ready, Set, or Go. So during the course of an event, during that Ready phase, the language would state, There is a potential hazard in your area or nearby. We want you to be ready to do XYZ.

Have you created your evacuation plans? Have you informed loved ones that you may need to come stay with them? Have you created your family reunification plan in the event you have teenagers that need to come home in the event there is an evacuation? Those are the messaging recommendations we would say during Ready, during that set timeframe, as I had as I just stated, we would be recommending to folks that need that additional time to go ahead and leave. And then of course, during the go timeframe, we will have the messaging that when we say go, we need you to leave now.

You— the time for preparing and packing is gone. You need to leave now. Thank you for your question. Appreciate that clarification. I'm thinking about this as a statewide program and how this would apply in other regions.

So in my area, You know, tsunamis, you get the siren and you go. There's no green. There's no yellow. It's red. But landslides, we're learning we can see certain conditions, and we could elevate in a rain event from green to yellow.

And I could see this being very helpful for folks to be kind of on yellow alert. If you're in a zone that could slide, be ready. And then there's a certain point at which the wind and the rain combined would turn that to a red. But it's possibly a little less predictable as fire, even though fire is also fairly unpredictable. But then I'm thinking about severe storms like Halong, right?

I'm thinking about the application of this in other places in the state where it's not just wildfire. And so who and how and when would this work in a rural place like Kipnuck. If we could revisit October, could— how could this system have potentially helped? A lot of people ended up, up at the school.

So could you kind of run me through in your mind how this would help in coastal areas, I guess?

Certainly, Madam Chair. With regards to an all-hazard event— and that's how I'd like to answer the question— is It is establishing that relationship early on with response partners during those, what I call, blue sky days, when we are in a non-emergency timeframe, where not only are we collaborating, but we're exercising together, and we are pushing that same type of outreach message to our communities. We're identifying who those community leaders are, I think one of the things that's important is, and I certainly mean this from a recommendation perspective, is our local media, whether it's radio or television, are great resources because so many of our residents still don't have reliable internet. But just as equally important are those areas where communities are really relying on their elders to give them information so that they can respond accordingly. Those are the relationships relationships that I think we need to push.

We shouldn't rely on media or internet to create those engagements. I think it really should be those one-on-one engagements between response partners and those community leaders so that when we do have to go into a ready, set, or go timeframe, it makes sense to those communities what we're asking them to do. So I think, in short, it's about developing those relationships prior to an event. Thank you. I had, um, another question here about an ad campaign, and it feels like that's gonna be more of a local thing.

There isn't gonna be a statewide thing, but Kenai emergency planners will have their outreach avenues. Kipnuk would have had that.

My hometown of Sitka will communicate it. So there isn't a single ad campaign that would really work. It needs to be a little bit more localized. So I'm assuming that our local emergency response folks would take this legislation and use it to work with their communities to talk about what it means. So my last question before we go back to Representative Holland is about liability.

If we put this in statute and we're talking about shared risk, our emergency managers, our firefighters are doing their level best to make sure that what they're telling the public is accurate. If we get it wrong and we say, hey, we're in a level yellow right now, right, level 2, it's yellow, be ready to go, and that escalates to a red faster than people thought, are we putting— are we putting the state at risk, a liability risk? I would not think so, but I just want to make sure, um, for, you know, so to speak, an act of God.

Madam Chair, [Speaker:DR. MELISSA LEE] I can only address that question as an emergency manager, and I think you said it best. We as first responders are doing our level best to keep public safety the number one priority in all of our decisions. And as such, when we're making recommendations, we're doing it with the information we have at hand, knowing that it's dynamic. Things change so quickly. And therein lies why it is so important when these local campaigns are implemented that our residents truly understand what we're asking them to do.

I believe Akene Peninsula Borough is doing that job very well with our partners, our land— all lands, all hands partners. I also believe that with regards to whatever that local program may be, that residents also understand that it's applicable to their local needs, whether it's in areas that are prone to tsunamis or those areas that are prone to spring and fall flooding, and of course, those areas that are prone to wildfires.

And I thank you for your question. Thank you for that. And I'll just add this doesn't take what we're doing and make it worse. It takes what we're doing, makes it better. So my question is a little— yeah, a little off base in a way, because we're just, like you said, doing the best we can, and then that risk is shared with the individual's own decision-making.

So, Representative Holland, Madam Chair, if I may— of course. I'm sorry, Madam Chair, if I may have a follow-up to my response. Of course.

I believe, and again, from my perspective, is that if we continue with evacuation messaging that isn't standardized across the state, that's going to lend to the confusion when people— when we're asking folks to make a decision. And I have this proverbial phrase, Granny doesn't care the name or the agency of the first responder, she just wants the correct information so she can make the correct decision for herself. And if she's traveling from the north of Alaska and coming down to the Kenai Peninsula or even down to Sitka, She can clearly say, yes, I know what Ready, Set, Go is, and I know what stage I need to be aware of as I travel through the state. And I can have the same information across the entire state as I am asked to make that decision for my own life safety. And thank you for allowing me to have a follow-up.

I really appreciate that broad application of this. Okay, Representative Holland, you had a longer question. Oh, uh, Thank you, Chair. I'll try not to go too far afield. First, I just wanted to note that Anchorage adopted the Ready, Set, Go program, I think, in 2020.

I might be off a little bit there. It took a couple years to get implemented, but we just were awarded a national award for excellence in our Ready, Set, Go just a week or so ago. We had a wildland urban interface citizens advisory meeting last night and heard about the award that we got for Ready, Set, Go in Anchorage. So for folks that are interested in it, we are doing it. It's been important and vital to do that.

I particularly wanted to ask Ms. Ahlberg, because of the experience there, on specifically on the ready phase of this work. The Kenai Peninsula in particular has some great examples of individual roads that lead to isolated residential areas— think Funny River Road in particular.

I'm wondering how you're thinking about the Ready phase as it relates to communities that are at the end of long single routes where I think the nature of being able to get out is a little different than it might be in a more urban environment where we can think of just driving a few blocks and we're away. Uh, if you're at the end of Funny River Road, you might have a 25-mile drive to get out of harm's way to get someplace. How do you imagine Ready being implemented and communicated as it relates to people that are in isolated residential areas served by single access roads. And I'm also thinking of the Swan Lake Fire when we saw videos of people driving through canyons of fire in order to get out and wanting to avoid that sort of situation in the future. So a little bit about right-of-way preparation, a little bit about how does READY— how is it affected by these isolated areas and the readiness and the SET that they might experience relative to other areas that are more connected?

Ms. Alberg. Through the Chair, both of those areas are excellent examples of why we're at where we're at in engagement now with our All Lands, All Hands group. Funny River, as well as Cooper Landing, understand the importance of what that engagement looks like during Ready. That's a model we've actually also implemented with other areas of our state, or excuse me, our borough that have long egress routes. Including in Nakiski.

There's several areas have long egress routes out of their community neighborhoods onto the spur highway. And so that became an engagement about 4, 3 or 4 years ago with our local fire departments as well as our community centers and our what's called area planning committees to ensure that when we go into a potential response within those that may impact those neighborhoods, that they clearly understand their level of engagement with Ready, Set, Go! And I thank you for your question. Follow-up? Short follow-up.

I just want to thank you for being here today. When we were doing a lot of our development back in 2018-19, we looked to the Kenai Peninsula Borough and followed along their resources, the website, their approach to this, and it was always a stellar example of the integration you had, the communication, the public outreach, and the accessibility information. So I'm just really impressed with work that's been done on the Kenai Peninsula. It continues to be a leader in this area, and I'm so glad you're here to share your experience with us today. Thank you.

Okay, and Ms. Ahlberg, with that, um, I think we've exhausted the committee questions for now. We're going to go to public testimony, um, and I'd like to, uh, open public testimony on Senate Bill 192. And I'm looking in the room and not seeing anyone. I'm looking online and not seeing anyone. And I would like to remind members of the public, if you would like to submit written testimony, you can email it to [email protected] and it will be distributed to members.

And with that, I'm going to close public testimony. And I think we had another comment from Representative Hall, and then we'll go to Senator Bjorkman for his closing comments. Before we set the bill aside. Thank you, Madam Co-Chair. Miss Ahlberg, I wanted to express my gratitude for you and for all of the work that you do, and similarly with your emergency response colleagues and emergency management colleagues.

In a prior life, I, I had a career as a television news photojournalist, and I covered many wildfires, including the Sockeye Fire. I believe that was in 2000 2015, the Carlton Complex wildfire in Washington State. The year is going to escape me, but at the time it was the largest wildfire in state history. Um, I also covered the 2009, um, flood of the century that devastated Eagle, um, on the Yukon River. So I've seen the work that you and your colleagues have done firsthand, and I can't express enough to you how much I appreciate the work that you do, and especially the pre-planning work that is so important when it comes to life and death situations.

So I hope that people will learn the Ready, Set, Go and that they will plan accordingly and then hopefully do as you say. So thank you for being here. Appreciate it. And with that, looking to any final questions from the committee. Representative St. Clair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And this is to the bill sponsor. I didn't see an effective date.

Senator Bjorkman. Thank you for the question, Mr. Sinclair. There is no effective date clause in this bill. It would become effective as usual process of effective dates go, 90 days after the bill is signed into law. Okay, thank you.

Standard, whenever there's no effective date, it's assumed, is that correct? I believe it. Okay. Great. Seeing no additional questions at this time— Representative Prox, did you have one more thing?

Well, I was wondering, we've done public testimony. Rather than set it aside, this pretty much has to be rubber stamped the way it is. Can we just move it out? I was going to invite an amendment deadline.

Okay, keep the amendment deadline or move it out? We'll take a brief at ease.

All right, we're back on record, and, um, we're going to stick with our amendment deadline of tomorrow at noon just in case anything crops up. So Wednesday, April 29th at noon is the amendment deadline for Senate Bill 192.

Yeah, and that's going to conclude our business for today. Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Bjorkman, do you have any closing comments? Apologies. Thank you all for your interest in this item. I appreciate the thorough discussion.

Appreciate you all. Thank you. You can count on the House for thorough discussion. All right, that concludes our business for today. As a reminder, the amendment deadline is tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29th at noon for Senate Bill 192.

And on Thursday, we have scheduled Senate Bill 192 evacuation designation levels. Seeing no further business before the committee, this meeting is adjourned at 9:52 a.m.