Los Angeles authorities mistakenly sent an evacuation alert to nearly ten million residents throughout the city and surrounding areas. The message even reached people staying away from fire-prone areas. – At this point we do not understand what caused this error. It was not human error, said Kevin McGowan, director of the LA County Office of Emergency Management.
According to NBC News, an evacuation warning was sent to the cell phones of nearly 10 million residents throughout Los Angeles County and surrounding areas around 1 p.m. 4 p.m. local time on Thursday. The message reached people even in places far from the raging fires.
“An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued in your area. Remain alert for any threats and be ready to evacuate. Keep your loved ones, pets and supplies with you,” read the message, accompanied by a loud alarm signal. Moments later, a second message was sent instructing the earlier warning to be ignored and explaining that it should have only gone out to people in the vicinity of a new fire, the Kenneth Fire, that had broken out that afternoon.
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LA authorities are looking for the causes of the error
“This warning was only intended to go to residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills (LA County cities – ed.) and the West Hills community (LA neighborhood – ed.),” Kevin McGowan, director of the LA County Office of Emergency Management, explained in a statement. He emphasized that sending it to almost 10 million people was a mistake. “We understand that the fires have caused great anxiety, hardship and stress to our residents and we are committed to providing accurate information,” he wrote.
In a telephone conversation with NBC Los Angeles, he added that when sending alerts, individual county zones were selected correctly and the systems used to send alerts are being checked. – At this point we do not understand what caused this error. It was not a human error, the zones were selected correctly, he noted, adding that work was underway to solve the problem.
NBC notes that the news likely caused additional panic and fear among residents of the city and surrounding areas who are already concerned about the spreading fire. “My entire neighborhood just received an evacuation alert, which turned out to be for West Hills, not Beverly Hills. Seriously? As if we weren't already nervous enough,” wrote one user on X.
– We all keep our finger on the pulse and anxiously sit on our phones, stare at the TV, turn on the radio, trying to be as well informed as possible, because so far there has been no good system (warning – ed.). And then this. You've got to be kidding me,' said Rebecca Alvarez-Petit, a resident of West Los Angeles who also received the wrong message, in an interview with the BBC.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA