Congressional Leaders Demand Answers, Fix For False Wildfire Alerts

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles County legislators are demanding answers about the false evacuation warnings that repeatedly and mistakenly warned nearly 10 million people to evacuate during the recent wildfires.

The warnings were sent to an untold number of cellphones, from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach during the height of the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, sowing confusion and alarm.

A letter sent by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach and signed by 13 other congressional representatives was to Los Angeles County and its notification-systems software operator, Genasys Inc., along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission. The letters demanded a response by April 1.

The false alerts weren't the only flaws with the alert system.

"Some individuals received delayed evacuation warnings, some received the same message multiple times, and millions received unnecessary warnings," the letters stated. "This caused widespread alarm and reduced the potential impact of future alerts, threatening public safety.

"As members of Congress representing Los Angeles County, we write regarding erroneous emergency alerts issued during the recent deadly wildfires," the letters continued. "In life-safety emergencies, appropriately timed, targeted, and clear emergency alert messages can mean the difference between life and death. However, unclear messages sent to the wrong locations, multiple times and after the emergency has passed, can lead to alerting fatigue and erosion of public trust. In this time of intense grief, loss, and dislocation, we are working to learn all of the lessons of the past weeks, and to swiftly implement reforms to ensure they never happen again."

The alerts went out repeatedly including in the early morning hours, awaking residents in a state of alarm for no reason. Each alert erroneously informed residents their home was in a mandatory evacuation area.

The first such alert was intended to go out to residents living near the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills area, but they instead went to millions of residents, including some in Orange County.

Authorities at the time called it a technology issue, not human error. But the errors continued to pile up.

"I can't express enough how sorry I am for this experience,"Kevin McGowan, the LA County office of emergency management director said at a wildfire press conference after multiple false alerts went out.

"First of all, I want to clarify — this is not human driven. There is no one sitting at a desk right now initiating emergency alerts. I want to restate that right now as these alerts are being issued, they are not being activated or initiated by a person," he added."I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone. This is extremely frustrating, painful and scary, but these alert teams have saved lives during this emergency."

While millions received false alerts, some residents didn't receive evacuation warnings even as the fire was bearing down upon their homes.

The Los Angeles Times reported that residents in the Altadena area west of Lake Avenue did not receive any emergency evacuation orders until roughly nine hours after the Eaton Fire erupted, despite the blaze burning uncontrollably and spreading rapidly due to fierce Santa Ana winds. According to The Times, sheriff's deputies driving the neighborhoods in their cars were using loudspeakers to urge people to evacuate the area west of Lake Avenue around 2 a.m. that morning, but an evacuation alert wasn't sent to residents until nearly 3:30 a.m.

All 17 people known to have died thus far in the Eaton Fire lived west of Lake Avenue, the paper reported.

In addition to Garcia, Representatives Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Judy Chu (CA-28), Gil Cisneros (CA-31), Laura Friedman (CA-30), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ted Lieu (CA-36), Luz Rivas (CA-29), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Norma Torres (CA-35), Derek Tran (CA-45), and Maxine Waters (CA-43) signed their names to the letter.

Last week, the county Board of Supervisors voted to conduct an independent review of the emergency notification system.

In their motion, county Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath called for an external, independent analysis of the emergency alert systems used by the county.

"Our board is committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement in the face of increasingly severe natural disasters," Barger said in a statement. "This independent assessment will also ensure we are better prepared for future disasters and can act swiftly to protect lives and property."

Horvath added: "Our communities affected by the Palisades, Eaton, and all other fires deserve a transparent and full accounting of everything that occurred. Los Angeles County is committed to understanding every aspect of these events to ensure we are continually improving our emergency management practices and better protecting our residents."

The motion called for the board to receive a progress report every 90 days until the full review is completed.

City News Service contributed to this report.