L.A. County’s evacuation alert system broke down during fires. It’s part of a larger problem

This emergency evacuation alert was sent Jan. 9 to a wide area of Los Angeles, including people not close to wildfire zones. “There’s no question that for some people having gotten that notification earlier would have saved a lot of grief, would have saved lives,” said Ron Galperin, a former Los Angeles city controller who produced reports on the city’s emergency alerts in 2018 and 2022. “Obviously, the notification systems need some work.” On Jan. 8, county officials had a different problem: As officials tried to send alerts to a small area near the Hurst fire, they sent out multiple faulty emergency alerts urging residents across Los Angeles to prepare to evacuate. “Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, Mother Nature kicks you in the face and says ‘No, you don’t.’” On Jan. 7, a Times investigation found neighborhoods across western Altadena did not get electronic evacuation orders until 3:25 a.m. — many hours after the first radio reports of fire west of North Lake Avenue. “But this one clearly sounds like they fell rapidly behind the curve.” The best practice for getting residents to evacuate in the Altadena fire, Cova said, was wireless emergency alerts: there was not enough time for emergency workers to fan out and drive street to street and go door to door.