A second wave of false evacuation reports jolted millions of Angelenos awake on Friday morning unsettling an already jittery population and raising questions about the County’s ability to communicate vital information during the ongoing crisis.
Friday's alerts hit at about 4 a.m. and informed residents of evacuations around the various fires actively burning in the region. However, due to a still unresolved technical glitch, the alerts were sent to millions of residents, regardless of their proximity to an actual fire causing mass confusion.
The debacle was top of mind for L.A. County Emergency Management Director Kevin McGowan on Friday who reiterated the problem was technical in nature and not human error.
“I want to restate that right now, as these alerts are being issued, they are not being activated or initiated by a person,” he said. “This is my top priority. I am working all hands on deck with the Federal Emergency Management agency's integrated public alert and warning team, we have every technical specialist working to resolve this issue and to find the root cause.”
He stressed the alerts, when accurate, are vital to public safety.
“I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone. This is extremely frustrating, painful and scary, but these alert tools have saved lives during this emergency, not receiving an alert can be a consequence of life and death,” he said. “As we continue to work on the root cause, I ask everyone that gets an alert to verify if they are in an evacuation warning or order to go to alert la.org LA county.gov/emergency, or dial 211, for assistance. The mapping is accurate on where evacuation warnings and orders exist. Again, this is my top priority. This is the top priority of my partners at the state and at FEMA, with the public alert and warning tool to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and identify the root cause.”
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath reiterated the message of frustration at the problem but desire to keep the system active during the emergency.
“I want to express my deep frustration with the alert system that is causing confusion and additional panic for our communities at this time of extreme crisis,” she said. “Whatever the cause, it is unacceptable and it is being addressed now by the county's Office of Emergency Management, as Director McGowan described, we'll be investigating what happened, how and why at every level in our exhaustive after action process to ensure it is corrected. There is a reason why we have redundancies in our communication system. Crises require them.”
Questions over the alert system are part of a larger trend of criticism over the current situation. Issues over water supply to fight the fire have been ongoing since the first day and Governor Newsom joined those critics this week by requesting an investigation into the water supply issues.
“From the moment firestorms erupted in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, January 7, it was clear our public infrastructure would be put under tremendous strain. The horrific hurricane-force winds and dry conditions have produced an unprecedented urban-wildlands disaster that has pushed all of our resources to the limits,” he wrote in a letter to LA DWP and Public Works.
“The ongoing reports of the loss of water pressure to some local fire hydrants during the fires and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are deeply troubling to me and to the community. While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.”
He went on to say answers were needed and that he is directing state agencies to prepare an after-incident report on the issue.
Mayor Bass has also faced scrutiny for being out of the country when the fires broke out and reductions to the City’s fire budget in the last budget cycle.
Bass has largely ignored the critics either outright ignoring questions when asked or saying it wasn’t the right time to levy criticism while the emergency was ongoing.
