Authorities on Friday said they are frustrated and aware of how frightening it is to receive an alert urging evacuation in the midst of a horrific week in which 10 people have been killed and close to 200,000 people have been displaced due to fires raging across the region.
“I can’t express enough how sorry I am for this experience,” L.A. County Emergency Management Director Kevin McGowan said at a Friday morning news conference.
He emphasized that there is no one sitting behind a desk sending these alerts; they are being generated by a wireless system, McGowan said, though it remains unclear of why this is happening. The agency has enlisted top technical experts to figure out the problem, he said.
In the meantime, McGowan urged residents to not disable these messages. “This is extremely frustrating, painful and scary, but these alert tools have saved lives during this emergency,” he said.
The mistaken messages have been sent at least twice to numerous phones in Long Beach and surrounding areas, once at around 4 p.m. Thursday and again early Friday morning around 4 a.m.
McGowan said the information is accurate, but the messages are being sent to the wrong recipients. Residents who receive a message should verify the evacuation warning using the maps posted on the Cal Fire website, the Alert LA website, or by dialing 201.
Long Beach and surrounding areas are not under evacuation orders. The city remains miles away from the flames that have destroyed over 2,000 structures.
Evacuation orders were in place Thursday afternoon for residents near the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, the Eaton Fire in the Altadena area, the Hurst Fire in Sylmar and the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills.
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson immediately issued a statement Thursday on X notifying residents that “Long Beach is not under an evacuation order.”
About 15 minutes after the initial message, Long Beach residents were sent another message indicating the first alert was a false alarm.