In the United States of America, a software led to widespread confusion among millions of Los Angeles County residents who received an evacuation warning message shortly after the Kenneth Fire broke out in Woodland Hills, according to a report released by US Congressman Robert Garcia's office. The text message was sent to residents' cell phones on January 9, shortly after the Kenneth fire broke out during a strong windstorm that, two days earlier, had caused the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, which destroyed thousands of homes.
The message was intended only for residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills, as the fire was spreading west toward them. Twenty minutes later, the county sent out another alert correcting the error and clarifying that the warning was only for the Kenneth Fire evacuation area, the report says - "The Kenneth Fire false alert was a wake-up call," Garcia said in a statement. "It showed the consequences of the failures of softwareThis is due to the vague wording of the messages and the lack of federal standards. We must modernize our emergency alert systems to ensure that warnings are accurate, timely and targeted. The public's trust is at stake."
The erroneous messages were sent because a precise element of the assessment area had not been uploaded to the federal public alert and warning system. Genasys Inc., which oversees the alerts, did not notify the county that the element was missing, so the alert was sent to about 10 million people instead of the targeted neighborhoods, according to the report. The company said it believed the error was due to a possible network outage, but did not go into detail, the report said. Through the same report, it is stated that Genasys has since added safeguards to correct the problem, including a warning to the user when the element is missing.
The original article via EastBayTimes can be read here.
