Evocanda is Latin: those who must be called.
We call every home in an evacuation zone and ask if they can get out.
What happened California, where the alert was invented
November 8, 2018. A town with four roads out had to empty. The link to the federal system that reaches every phone silently failed; the county found out the next morning. The evacuation ran on sirens, bullhorns and word of mouth.
Every call was a recording. None could hear the answer.
Five years later, Lahaina. 102 dead, most of them in their sixties or older. 87 percent of the survivors interviewed received no text at all. UL Fire Safety Research Institute
Officials chose not to send a Wireless Emergency Alert to every phone, saying a widespread alarm would hamper emergency efforts. 10,557 people in the whole county had opted in to the alert list. 18 of the 24 who died in Sonoma County’s October 2017 fires were 65 or older.
The State Auditor found Butte had the technology to reach every cell phone in the zone and did not use it.
October 9. PG&E de-energized about 738,000 customers in 34 counties, oxygen machines and dialysis included. The bill credit alone was $86 million. PG&E 10-K
Berry Creek and Feather Falls were told to leave at 3:15 p.m. with no prior warning; the fire ran 20 miles in a few hours. Fourteen of the sixteen dead were Berry Creek residents.
Seven years after Paradise. The east side had been ordered out the evening before. The west side got its evacuation order at 3:25 a.m. Eighteen of the nineteen who died lived west of Lake Avenue. Their average age was 77. The county’s own review: “With no warnings, many people went to bed or waited too long to arrange help if they were physically unable to leave on their own.” LA County after-action review Rep. Chu to the Board of Supervisors California Attorney General
The regulator already wrote our spec. In 2019.
Utilities “must develop notification strategies for access and functional needs populations up to and including in-person notification.”California Public Utilities Commission, D.19-05-042, Appendix A, May 30, 2019
Attempts escalate “up to and including door rings, if necessary, to confirm successful delivery of notifications to Medical Baseline and Self-Certified customers.”Southern California Edison, PSPS post-event reports filed with the CPUC in R.18-12-005 (July 23 and November 9, 2025 events) CPUC filing
Every post-event report must state “the number of customers for whom positive notification was achieved.” Utilities produce that number by hand today, for one protected subset, one door at a time. Evocanda produces it for every home in the zone, in minutes, with the answer attached. The rule exists. The tool did not.
How it works the same night, rewritten
An alert tells a zone to leave. A call asks each home whether it can. The difference is a list. And a list is the thing a deputy can drive to.
Paradise, November 8, 2018
Real event. Numbers sourced above and in the footer.
Same zone. Same order. Same phones.
Example zone, modeled sequence. This describes what the software does. It is not a promise of outcome.
Every home in the zone, at once. A voice, for the people who will never read a screen in time.
The no underneath the yes. She said she had a car. She cannot drive at night. That is the envelope of her answer.
The captain gets two lists: needs a ride, and never reached. Names, addresses, needs.
Everbridge tells 40,000 people to leave. Evocanda finds the 300 who can’t.
20 minutes with the founder. Bring your zone map; leave with a pilot plan and a price.
The market built to send, bought for it
Every one of these systems can push a message to a zone. None of them can hear an 80-year-old say she has a car but cannot drive at night.
Wildfire is the opener. Hurricane, flood, heat, freeze and shutoff are the same call.
The whole opportunity
Sending is a commodity. Knowing is the company.
Who pays
The listening layer is unowned. We are taking it.
Evocanda
Everbridge tells 40,000 people to leave. Evocanda finds the 300 who can’t.
40,000 marks dim, 300 lit. An illustrative ratio, not a count: in the Camp Fire, 13 of the 85 who died had a documented access or functional need.