How to Find Your Evacuation Zone on the Palos Verdes Peninsula

By Neil Chhabria, Broker and CEO, Chhabria Real Estate Company. Published October 16, 2026.

Updated October 16, 2026. Rain outlook figures updated from NOAA’s October 15, 2026 seasonal outlook, read October 16, 2026.

If you own a home in Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills or Rolling Hills Estates, or you are looking at one, your address sits in an evacuation zone. When authorities order an evacuation for a wildfire or a flood, they issue it by zone. Alert South Bay, the regional system that sends those notices by text, email and phone, only reaches you if you have registered. Looking up your zone and registering are both free and take under five minutes together. With NOAA putting the odds of a strong El Niño this winter at better than five in six, the weeks before the first storm are the time to do both.

Go to PVPReady.gov, click Find Your Zone, and type your address into the search bar at the upper left of the map. A window opens with your zone and the emergency information attached to it. Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates built that site together with the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, and during a wildfire or a flood it shows which zones are under evacuation the moment authorities issue the order.

Why does the zone map look like a different website?

The map comes from an outside company. The Find Your Zone page embeds a map hosted at aware.zonehaven.com, and that address now forwards to protect.genasys.com under the name Genasys Protect, so a click from a Peninsula city link lands on a product name you may not recognize. The Peninsula cities publish the zones, and Genasys runs the map they publish them on.

The zone lookup and the alert sign-up are separate. The map tells you your zone, and registering for Alert South Bay is how you hear when your zone is called.

How do I get the alert that says my zone is evacuating?

Alert South Bay is the regional notification system the Peninsula cities use. Its member list includes Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and Rolling Hills, along with Torrance, Lomita, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Gardena, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Carson and Inglewood. It sends by text, email, cell and landline, and it replaced the NIXLE notifications those cities used to run.

Alert South Bay lists these ways to register:

• The regional portal at alertsouthbay.com/register
• The Everbridge app from the App Store or Google Play
• Text ALERTSB to 888777, which sends back the registration link

Alert South Bay states that residents already enrolled in the NIXLE Wire for Rolling Hills Estates, or in TorranceAlerts, had their information transferred and do not need to register again, though it encourages them to log in and confirm the details are still right. Everyone in the other member cities has to register in the regional portal. If you live in Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates or Rolling Hills and have never signed up, you will not get Alert South Bay notices until you register.

Rolling Hills Estates also runs its own keywords, published in the City’s October 8, 2026 neighborhood newsletter: text RHEalerts to 888-777 for city alerts, and RHEhorse to 888-777 for the equestrian notification list. A horse property with no one home is a different evacuation problem than a house, and the City maintains a separate list for it.

If you own on the Peninsula

Registering is free and works right away. It also leaves a record, in your own texts and email, of the notices sent for your address. In Neil’s experience, a buyer’s agent in the spring asks what the seller knows about hazard designations and emergency notices on the property, and an owner who has been receiving city alerts for a year answers that question from memory instead of from guesswork.

If you are a South Bay buyer looking at the Peninsula

The zone is public information about the address, and the lookup takes about a minute, so it can be checked before an offer is written. It is one of the few things about a hillside parcel a buyer can confirm without hiring anyone.

Which Peninsula addresses carry a fire hazard severity zone?

Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and Torrance each contain parcels designated Moderate, High and Very High in the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Local Responsibility Area layer. Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and El Segundo carry no designation at all. Cal Fire released the revised recommendations for this area on March 24, 2025, and the Peninsula cities adopted them on their own schedules: Rolling Hills Estates by Ordinance 751 on May 27, 2025, Rolling Hills by Ordinance 387 on June 9, 2025, and Rancho Palos Verdes by Ordinance 691 on July 1, 2025, effective January 1, 2026.

Rolling Hills Estates states that a parcel containing any portion of a Moderate, High or Very High designation is treated as being within that designation, and that where designations overlap the stricter one applies. For an owner that is the difference between a zone clipping a back slope and the whole property sitting in the zone.

In Rancho Palos Verdes, the 2025 maps reduced the Very High footprint compared with the 2008 designations, while adding new High and Moderate areas. The City’s June 17, 2025 staff report records the change.

None of the South Bay sits in a State Responsibility Area, which means the state’s Public Resources Code 4291 defensible space duty does not apply here. Government Code 51182 is the operative one. Our post on wildfire disclosure and the defensible space inspection covers what a seller has to disclose and what the on-site inspection looks at, and the Peninsula insurance guide covers how carriers read the same maps.

What does this winter’s forecast say?

The El Niño figure and the rain figure come from two different NOAA products, and only the rain figure is a forecast for this coast.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, in its discussion issued October 8, 2026, puts the chance of a strong to very strong El Niño through January to March 2027 at greater than 83 percent, and the chance of an event exceeding every El Niño back to 1950 at 83 percent for October through December. Sea surface temperatures in parts of the eastern equatorial Pacific are running more than 4 degrees Celsius above average. CPC’s October 15 seasonal discussion summarizes the same outlook as an 80 percent chance of at least a strong El Niño through January to March 2027.

The precipitation figure is a separate measurement. CPC’s seasonal outlook issued October 15, 2026 puts the chance of above-normal precipitation near the Southern California coast at 50 to 60 percent for December through February and 60 to 70 percent for January through March 2027. Its September 17 outlook had put the coast at 50 to 60 percent for the winter and early spring windows. CPC publishes each new seasonal outlook at the same address, replacing the last one, and the next issuance is dated November 19, 2026. If the page you open shows a different number, it is a newer outlook and it supersedes this.

An 83 percent chance of a record-strength event is about five chances in six. The 60 to 70 percent figure for January through March is about two chances in three of a wetter than normal stretch, and it leaves a 30 to 40 percent chance those months arrive normal or dry. A strong El Niño does not forecast any specific storm on any specific hillside.

For an owner, that is the reason to book work with long lead times now. In Neil’s experience, roofers and arborists book up and sandbag supplies run short once the first storm is forecast. Our El Niño checklist runs through the eight items in the order their lead times demand. For a buyer, a wet winter shows where water runs on a specific property, and on a hillside parcel that tells a buyer more than a disclosure sentence can.

Where do I get sandbags on the Peninsula?

From the cities’ own notices. Supplies and hours can change:

• Rolling Hills Estates. The Ernie Howlett Park maintenance facility, with sand, empty bags and some pre-filled bags, and Fire Station 106 at 27413 Indian Peak Road, with sand and bags. Ten per household while supplies last, Monday through Friday, 7 to 9 a.m. and 2 to 3:30 p.m.
• Rancho Palos Verdes. City Hall at 30940 Hawthorne Boulevard has sand and bags and asks you to bring your own shovel. Fire Station 53 at 6124 Palos Verdes Drive South and Fire Station 83 at 83 Miraleste Plaza carry bags only. Ten per household with identification or proof of residency.
• Palos Verdes Estates. City Hall and Fire Station 2 at 340 Palos Verdes Drive West, per the County dashboard. The City publishes no separate page we could find, so call ahead.

Rolling Hills Estates asks residents to report weather concerns to City staff during business hours, Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday until 4:30 p.m. After hours the City directs residents to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lomita Station at (310) 539-1661, and to 911 for an emergency. Lomita Station, at 26123 Narbonne Avenue in Lomita, is the station that serves Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, Rolling Hills and the unincorporated Peninsula.

What is the Prepared Peninsula Expo?

The Prepared Peninsula Expo runs Sunday, October 25, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, 27118 Silver Spur Road in Rolling Hills Estates, alongside the Palos Verdes Farmers Market. Admission is free. Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates sponsor it together.

The City lists preparedness retail vendors for building or restocking a kit, and first responder vehicles and command units on display, including the boats and jet skis. City staff and local agencies are on hand for questions about a specific address. The City lists Jessica Slawson, Assistant to the City Manager, at (310) 377-1577 for more information.

What takes five minutes tonight?

Looking up your zone and registering for Alert South Bay. Your zone tells you whether an evacuation order covers your address, and the alert is how you hear that the order was issued. There is no fee for either, and together they take under five minutes. Everything else on this page has a lead time.

What we report next

Rancho Palos Verdes publishes land movement figures roughly monthly, and its most recent community update, dated September 9, 2026, put the average rate inside the active landslide boundary at 0.99 inches per week from the early August survey, the first reading under an inch per week since October 2023. We will report the next survey when the City posts it. CPC issues its next ENSO discussion on November 12, 2026 and its next seasonal outlook on November 19, 2026, and we will carry both in the Weekly Snapshot. The Peninsula’s fourth-quarter market figures follow with our January CRMLS pull.

Buying, selling, or still deciding if the Palos Verdes Peninsula is where you’ll settle down next? Reach Neil Chhabria, Broker, at 310.798.3122 or [email protected].

This article is general local information. It is not real estate, tax, lending, legal, insurance, financial or investment advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, list or price any property. Hazard designations, zone boundaries, city programs and forecast figures change, and each is current only as of the date named beside it. Confirm anything affecting a specific property with the city, the county or the agency that publishes it.

Neil Chhabria, Broker
Chhabria Real Estate Company, DRE 01821437

Sources

• Know Your Zone, a joint site of the Palos Verdes Peninsula cities with the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management. Read October 8, 2026. pvpready.gov and its Find Your Zone page, which embeds a map at aware.zonehaven.com forwarding to protect.genasys.com, branded Genasys Protect.
• Alert South Bay, member cities, delivery methods, the NIXLE replacement and the three registration routes. Read October 8, 2026. Who We Are and alertsouthbay.com.
• City of Rancho Palos Verdes, Prepared Peninsula Expo date, hours, venue, cost and sponsors. Read October 15, 2026. Prepared Peninsula Expo.
• City of Rolling Hills Estates, Neighborhood Watch newsletter of October 8, 2026, for the RHEalerts and RHEhorse keywords, the sandbag stations, the City’s weather-reporting hours and the after-hours number.
• Fire hazard severity zone adoption record for the Peninsula cities, and the Los Angeles County Fire Department Local Responsibility Area layer. Rolling Hills Estates Ordinance 751, Rolling Hills Ordinance 387, Rancho Palos Verdes Ordinance 691 and its June 17, 2025 staff report.
• NOAA Climate Prediction Center, ENSO Diagnostic Discussion issued October 8, 2026. ENSO Diagnostic Discussion.
• NOAA Climate Prediction Center, Prognostic Discussion for Long-Lead Seasonal Outlooks, issued October 15, 2026, and its seasonal precipitation outlook maps for December to February and January to March. Read October 16, 2026. The address always serves the current outlook; the September 17, 2026 figure is kept in the text for comparison. Seasonal outlook discussion, December to February map and January to March map.
• City of Rancho Palos Verdes, 2026 Community Updates Archive, update dated September 9, 2026, for the land movement figures. Community Updates Archive.
• Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Lomita Station address, phone and service area. lasd.org/lomita.

We do our very best to supply facts drawn from official sources so that the information you find here is reliable and accurate. If we find conflicting information, we report on all of it.