As the region rides out another wildfire season, officials say San Diego County is better prepared to evacuate people from harm's way than it was during the devastating fire storms in 2003 and 2007 ---- a good thing because a survey shows that one out of five backcountry residents ignored evacuation orders in 2007.

Since those two wildfires, the county developed a regional evacuation plan outlining evacuation routes and potential shelters, improved coordination among law enforcement and transportation agencies, and installed systems that call residents at home and on their cell phones to warn of an emergency.

"Certainly, since 2003, we've done tremendous improvements," said Ron Lane, director of the county's Office of Emergency Services, which coordinates evacuations during emergencies when multiple jurisdictions are involved.

But all that planning won't help if people don't leave their homes when asked, critics say.

When people stay

During the 2007 wildfires, thousands of residents ignored evacuation warnings, said Erik Bruvold, president of the National University System Institute for Policy Research, a local organization that has conducted several wildfire-related studies.

His organization conducted a survey of 1,000 county residents after the 2007 wildfires.

The survey reported that about 20 percent of the respondents ---- or 90,000 residents, according to the institute ---- who lived in evacuation areas decided to stay in their homes.

Authorities are not paying enough attention to the segment of the population that decided not to obey evacuation orders, Bruvold said.

A significant number of people are likely to stay in their homes in the next emergency and authorities are not doing enough to plan for that, he said.

"There is every expectation that that's likely to be the case again, no question about that," Bruvold said. "The question is: Is there anything that the government should be doing better if (people) are going to be making that decision?"

Leaving is voluntary

Local fire officials have said that the best policy is for residents to leave when asked to evacuate.

In California, law enforcement agencies do not have the authority to force people to evacuate ---- they can only emphasize the danger residents put themselves in if they do not leave, said Sheriff's Lt. Ed Musgrove, the department's emergency planning coordinator.

A mandatory evacuation means that authorities will not let anyone back into a neighborhood until the emergency is over, said Capt. Nick Schuler, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

However, in some instances, law enforcement officers will evacuate children while leaving adult family members behind, he said.

The county runs a Web site with information on steps residents can take to prepare for an emergency.

The information includes a disaster preparedness plan for families and a list of things to pack in case of an evacuation.

The information is available at www.readysandiego.org.

"We really need people to be aware of the threat of fire, so that when the call comes for an evacuation, people need to be ready," Musgrove said.

A new plan

For those residents who heed the call to leave, the county's plan outlines procedures for a coordinated evacuation involving two or more jurisdictions.

In a large wildfire emergency, the Sheriff's Department, as the region's law enforcement coordinator, is responsible for organizing evacuations, according to the regional plan.

Musgrove said many of the problems that law enforcement faced during the 2003 and 2007 wildfires were related to communication.

In some cases, agencies could not talk with one other because of outdated equipment, he said.

New communications equipment, the county's revamped Emergency Operations Center and the evacuation plan have fixed those communication and coordination problems, Musgrove said.

During an emergency, authorities need to act quickly, he said.

They must be able to tell one another where the fire is coming from and what is the safest route out of its path, Musgrove said.

"It's really a matter of where the threat is and how we can get the people out," Musgrove said.

If roads need to be closed, law enforcement personnel need to be able to speak with the agency responsible for that road, such as the California Highway Patrol or the California Department of Transportation, he said.

In other cases, roads must be converted to one-way arteries to allow more traffic to flow through them, Musgrove said.

Communication breakdown

Despite improvements, some people in rural communities, including some American Indian reservations in North County, said they did not get information about evacuations in 2007.

In 2005, the county bought a reverse 911 system that allowed emergency personnel to call home phones with recorded messages about evacuations when disasters strike.

That system was limited to land-line phones, some of which don't work when the power goes out or lines are disrupted.

Another problem is that many people no longer use traditional phones and instead rely on cell phones, which the system was not able to call, critics said.

"That system was outdated when they bought it," said Jeff Bowman, an Escondido resident and former San Diego fire chief.

However, county, law enforcement and fire officials praised the high-speed alert system in the wake of the 2007 fires, saying it was a huge help in sending more than 387,000 prerecorded alerts to homes around the county, helping spur the estimated 500,000 residents to flee the fires.

Following the 2007 fires, the county began using a new system, dubbed Alert San Diego, that allowed people to register their cell phone and e-mail addresses to receive emergency messages.

Musgrove said the alert systems are part of a comprehensive plan to get information to the public during an emergency.

Law enforcement will continue to have officers knock on doors and use public address systems to alert people in neighborhoods if necessary, he said.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.