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My kids are here for dinner, in some cases accompanied by their significant others. I’m in the office, and I hear that obnoxious BLURT! from one of their cellphones, signifying an official alert had been sent out. “What was that?” I yelled, thinking it could be an earthquake. Before they could answer, another phone BLURTED, then another and another till they all had their turn.

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Turns out, it was an evacuation warning, something folks take very seriously around here these days. The warning came as somewhat of a surprise to me because I have been regularly checking the awesome “Watch Duty” app and knew that there was no fire nearby. 

Turns out, the alert went out across the county and left folks wondering what the heck was going on:

Here’s the problem with this alert: it was a mistake. Seriously, who is running things here? (Don’t answer that—we actually already know.)

…[the alert] was meant for people in the order and warning zones for the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills. 

“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,” County Supervisor Janice Hahn said. 

In a later message, emergency officials clarified that it was for the Kenneth Fire only. 

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FYI, not a single one of us here at my house received that alleged clarification.

More incompetence:

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Authorities tried to explain away the debacle, but they still ended up with egg on their faces:

Officials said they tried to make the alert as compact as they could, however, varying factors such as where the phone is registered may have affected the outreach. 

“There are no evacuation orders or active fire threats in Culver City at this time,” Culver City Police Department said in a statement. “A County evacuation warning alert intended for the West Hills Fire area only was distributed to individuals outside of evacuation zones.” [Note: Culver City was just one of the many areas that received the alert.]

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One can’t help but be reminded of the massive fail by Hawaii in 2018:

Conclusion: it was not climate change that caused these wildfires, and it was not climate change that sent out this alert. It was people—incompetent people.