Two months after multiple emergency evacuation messages were erroneously sent to millions of Los Angeles County residents during the January wildfires – leading to confusion and, in some cases, “information fatigue” and skepticism about such notices – lawmakers in Sacramento convened a hearing to discuss how to improve communications moving forward.
During a Tuesday, March 11, joint committee hearing on emergency management, legislators expressed concern over the faulty alert system that impacted L.A. County residents, asked whether it would be better to have the state oversee a statewide alert system rather than leave it to individual jurisdictions to handle, and what should be done to build public confidence in the messages that get sent out.
State Sen. Henry Stern, who represents parts of L.A. and Ventura counties, kicked off the hearing noting how he made the decision to evacuate his family based on information from Watch Duty, an app operated by active and retired firefighters, dispatchers and first responders, which he found to be more reliable than the notices he got through a wireless emergency alert system.
“If anything, we’ve learned that we can embrace technology in smarter ways and build trust through citizen-driven networks and bottom-up, data-driven solutions,” said Stern, D-Calabasas, who chairs the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management.
Several of the legislators raised concerns that evacuation orders were unintentionally sent to many L.A. County residents during the January fires though they did not live close to where the blazes were. In other cases, the opposite occurred: Seventeen people who died in the Eaton fire were in western Altadena, where residents said alerts came late or not at all.
“When wildfires and other emergencies strike, timely and effective communications are definitely the difference between life and death. … Failures and delays can definitely create risk and undermine the trust,” said Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, D-Stockton.
“It’s really important that we do the work to restore trust in our community and have a system that people can rely on because lives depend on it,” she added.
Lawmakers said the 10 million people in L.A. County who received false evacuation alerts in January when they shouldn’t have caused panic, confusion and “information fatigue,” leading to people turning off the alerts or dismissing future messages they received – which in itself is problematic.
Erika Baker, assistant director for headquarters response at the California Office of Emergency Services, acknowledged the problem with “information fatigue,” saying people can grow numb to the messages they receive. The timeliness and substance of the messages are also important, she said, adding that her office is waiting for an after-action report from L.A. County to assess how to improve communication in the future.
Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, represents a district with over 19 cities, including the victims of the Eaton fire. Citing media reports, she said it appeared residents in western Altadena did not receive notification warnings until about 3 a.m. on Jan. 8 – hours after the Eaton fire broke out and while they presumably were asleep – and that all 17 deaths occurred on the west side.
“We can see just how a disruption or a delay in notifications can literally lead to death for some,” she said.
In addition, Pérez said because each city has its own emergency response system, residents in neighboring communities like Sierra Madre, Arcadia, Altadena, Pasadena and other parts of unincorporated L.A. County received mixed messages. Some cities told their residents to evacuate while others didn’t – or not until later. Different jurisdictions also used different messages to tell people how to evacuate or what to do, leading to further confusion, she said.
There should be greater coordination and consistent messaging in the emergency response, said Pérez, adding that cities have told her they would prefer it if another agency took over the responsibility of notifying the public on what to do.
Representatives for OES said the state can send out alerts on behalf of counties, but it relies on local governments to provide the information about which areas should receive the alert and what it should say.
Asked how much it would cost to have the state take over all such emergency notifications, Baker said an analysis would need to be conducted to determine the logistics and related expenses.
Tuesday’s hearing was informational only with no action taken by committee members.