Botched emergency warnings going to the cell phones of people in Los Angeles County caused confusion early in the wildfire disaster and also exposed weaknesses in the warning system used across the country.
When the Kenneth Fire
broke out January 9 in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, all cell phones in Los Angeles County were sent an alert saying, “This is an emergency message from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued for your area.”
No details about the evacuation order were provided.
Twenty-two minutes later, another message was sent saying, “Disregard last EVACUATION WARNING.”
The alert that had only been intended for the small section of the county endangered by the Kenneth Fire had gone out to the entire county. But many residents were woken up the next day by another mistaken evacuation alert. The Kenneth Fire was fully contained on January 12 after burning just over 1,000 acres.
Emergency officials apologized for the erroneous alerts, blaming them on technical errors. But the vulnerabilities to mistakes and confusion are present in emergency alert procedures all over the US.
“This experience, I hope, will provide some lessons for the rest of the country,” said former Los Angeles city controller Ron Galperin, who audited the city’s emergency alert system twice in the past decade.
The system that provides emergency alerts to cell phones – which is managed by FEMA – sends the alerts to individual towers in the affected areas.
As a result, you only receive evacuation notices affecting the area where your cell phone currently is, not where you live, unless your community has a more tailored service and you choose to register your address with it.
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