Los Angeles County and city officials addressed the two evacuation alerts that were sent in error to people all over Southern California at a press conference Friday morning, and the answers they provided were less than satisfying.
Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, began the presser by deflecting blame from any one individual.
“This is not human-driven. There is no one sitting at a desk right now initiating emergency alerts,” he said.
McGowan explained that there was a technical error somewhere in the emergency alert system, and the agency’s “number one priority” is figuring out where the problem is and how to fix it. He urged people not to disable emergency alerts and to go online to check whether the evacuation orders they receive are legitimate.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger called that solution “absolutely ridiculous.”
“To tell people to go on a website when they may not have access to internet is absolutely absurd,” she said.
Barger voiced frustration with the situation, which she said is causing panic in communities that are already on edge.
“My question is, why can’t we turn it off? And the answers we’re getting are not satisfying,” she said. “I’m not making any excuses. It is unacceptable. And it is frustrating, because we are trusting people to believe us when we say to evacuate.”
Mayor Karen Bass, meanwhile, dodged questions about the false alerts, saying “I think that was addressed at the beginning of the press conference,” before pivoting to a message of unity, which reporters were quick to point out did not answer the initial question.
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The first false alert was sent out Thursday afternoon to residents across L.A. County. It took 22 minutes for a correction to be issued. A second erroneous message was sent out at 4 a.m. Friday to people as far as San Bernardino County.
In an interview with KNX News Friday morning, McGowan struggled to explain the fiasco, saying, “Where this error occurred, and wherever the error occurred is, the chain of responsibility will identify where that error has occurred and that's where we will work to ensure that it doesn't happen again.”
During the press conference, stray emergency alert sounds were still being heard periodically in the background.
Speaking with KNX News after the press conference, Supervisor Janice Hahn seconded Barger’s remarks.
“This is the largest disaster I have personally ever seen in terms of a fire since I’ve lived in Los Angeles,” she said. “We need people to be able to trust us. Right now, they're not. These alerts are going everywhere.”
Hahn suggested the county disable the emergency alert system completely and go back to the “old-fashioned way” of alerting people door-to-door until the problem is solved.
“Everybody is on edge, so when they get these alerts, they're scared,” she said. “But the second thing, which I think is even more consequential is that now people are thinking they don't need to pay attention to them, and they're just gonna be like, oh, that's another false alert.”
Hahn said she was meeting with Fire Chief Marrone to discuss the problem and also planned to meet with the Office of Emergency Management.
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