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For the second time in two days, an emergency evacuation warning was sent to many L.A. County residents in error. The latest message jolted many awake Friday around 4 a.m. with no immediate followup.
A similar message was sent to 10 million residents Thursday afternoon, but was quickly followed with another alert explaining the original was sent in error. The evacuation message was intended for residents in the area of the Kenneth Fire in West Hills.
On Friday, residents received clarification about the mistaken alert in a statement issued by L.A. County Emergency Operations at 7 a.m.: “We are aware of the reports of erroneous messages, and we apologize for the disruption.”
Kevin McGowan, who heads the department, also apologized at a news conference early Friday:
“There is an extreme amount of frustration, anger, fear with regards to the erroneous messages that have been sent out through the wireless emergency alert system across L.A. County,” he said. “I can’t express how sorry I am for this experience.”
McGowan added that there is “no one sitting at a desk” sending alerts, and that it is unclear why they were sent in wrong locations. He did not share additional clarity on how alerts are made.
L.A. County residents have reported to Boyle Heights Beat that they’ve received at least one more alert Friday in addition to one in the early morning.
In a statement released by Janice Hahn, the L.A. County Supervisor proposed the system be disabled until a fix is found. “We need people to trust us, and at this time of extraordinary fear and devastation, anything less than a fully operational, dependable alert system is unacceptable,” she said in a statement on X.
Emergency Operations is working with FEMA to address the issue and urges residents to not turn off alerts. For the most current status of evacuation orders and warnings, a map of evacuations is available on alertla.org.