LA Officials Accidentally Send Emergency Evacuation Alert to All of LA County

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LA Officials continue to do a bang-up job managing the most destructive fire in recent California history. I can vouch for this story personally. 

I got a call from my wife about an hour ago. She was on her way to the gym after work when she got an emergency alert saying she should start preparing to evacuate. She called to see if I had received the same message. I had not and so far as I know there are no major fires burning in Orange County. I didn’t know what to make of it except to say that it was pretty strange.

Well, it turns out all of LA County got that message this afternoon. Here’s what it looked like.

LA county seems to have just sent an evacuation warning to pretty much the entire county, even people nowhere near the fires. And it’s either a mistake or the dumbest idea of all time. What a cluster. pic.twitter.com/vFVKIjPl1V

— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) January 10, 2025

Lots of people, like myself, were confused because there were no fires near them and therefore no calls to evacuate. Some people turned to X to ask what was going on.

I just got an evacuation warning in Palos Verdes. But so did everyone I know in LA countywide. There are no fires where I am. Can you please confirm this was an error @CountyofLA

— Julie Hamill (@hamill_law) January 10, 2025

The county-wide alert was captured on a local news station when everyone’s phones started blaring at once.

Unbelievable!! During a LIVE broadcast on Fox LA, an alert rings out across the set when Los Angeles County inadvertently sent out an evacuation warning to EVERYONE in the county. The alert told people to “gather loved ones, pets, and supplies.”

Not helpful. People are stressed… pic.twitter.com/tz5pRpzHC9

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 10, 2025

Officials later explained it was all a mistake. 

Recent @ReadyLACounty alert to evacuate was sent in ERROR. Evacuation orders have not changed. See map for actual @LACity evacuation orders for some selected areas, ONLY! https://t.co/qRYmG0qWS7

— LA City Emergency Management Department (@ReadyLA) January 10, 2025

 LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn posted this explanation on X:

I have been informed the evacuation warning that many of us just received on our phones was mistakenly issued countywide due to a technical error.

A correction will be issued shortly.

— Janice Hahn (@SupJaniceHahn) January 10, 2025

Apparently she posted a follow up explaining in more detail but that post seems to have been deleted. Here’s what it said:

Hahn issued a follow up statement, explaining that the alert was only supposed to go to residents impacted by the Kenneth Fire in West Hills.

West Hills is in fact under an evacuation order so that explanation make sense. A fire started there this afternoon and within 2 hours it had burned about 800 acres.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica sent out its own clarification:

All LA County residents just received a wireless emergency alert about evacuations from the county. There are NO updated evacuations in Santa Monica. EVACUATIONS IN SANTA MONICA ARE UNCHANGED. Visit https://t.co/BTF6UsEbYG for information.

— City of Santa Monica (@santamonicacity) January 10, 2025

What an absolute embarrassment. If someone had broken into the emergency alert control room in LA (or wherever these get sent from) and sent this same message as a prank to the whole county they would be headed to prison. A judge would give them a stern lecture about panicking 10 million people unnecessarily.

Instead we’re just expected to shrug at the incompetence of the amateurs running things. No one will be fired for this is my guess, just as no one seems too eager to explain why fire hydrants keep running out of water.

Anyway, if you wanted one more indicator that this disaster is not being managed all that well, there it is.