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Evacuation alert mistakenly sent to whole county, residents saypublished at 08:27 Greenwich Mean Time
Christal Hayes & Max Matza
Reporting from Altadena, California
Residents were sent an evacuation alert – which was later corrected
An alert was mistakenly sent to every cell phone in Los Angeles on Thursday, residents say, warning them a blaze would soon descend upon them.
Approximately 10 million people live in the county.
Rebecca Alvarez-Petit, who lives in west Los Angeles, was on a video work call when her phone started blaring. It echoed as each co-worker received the startling message that they might need to evacuate.
“It was like a massive panic that I was watching in real-time,” she says.
While investigating whether they were in imminent danger, a further notification told them to disregard the evacuation alert. Alvarez-Petit says she felt relieved but also experienced a surge of anger.
“We’re all on pins and needles and have been anxiously sitting by our phones, staring at the TV, having the radio going – trying to stay as informed as possible because there wasn’t a good system in place.
“And then this. It’s like – you have got to be kidding me.”
