"On December 5th, a tsunami warning was issued after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake was reported off the Northern California coast. This warning caused stress and panic to many in the area. Some people had to flee to safety, which took extra time and money. About a half hour later, the threat was canceled, which makes many of us wonder… Are emergency alert systems really reliable?" --Violet regilio, 6th grade
On December 5th, a tsunami warning was issued after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake was reported off the Northern California coast. This warning caused stress and panic to many in the area. Some people had to flee to safety, which took extra time and money. About a half hour later, the threat was canceled, which makes many of us wonder… Are emergency alert systems really reliable?
If you live in the northern area of California or anywhere that is close, you probably heard about the 2024 tsunami alert. This alert caused people to be shocked and horrified.
Mila Hashemi-Reid, from the Berkley EB Bilingual School, says that this was a terrible experience for her, too. “Our school wasn’t tall enough. …Everyone was getting picked up super quickly, only like 20 of us were left,” Hashemi Reid continues. “We had to run as fast as possible to the grocery store, nearby that’s humongous and really tall. We evacuated to the top level of the grocery store. The grocery store was almost deserted, and the grocery workers that were there helped us…”
Mila then explained how she was fearful because she didn't get to see her younger sister because they were in different parts of the school. She was very scared and stressed. She was relieved when she eventually saw her sister.
“I was wondering if it would wipe out a bunch of people's homes,” said Lottie Mills. “I kind of jumped up because I was scared that we would have to evacuate…” Lottie and I were in the same class at the time of the tsunami warning, and she said that other students were scared but not as scared as it seemed they should’ve been. “I was thinking, we’re pretty far inland, so the tsunami might not be able to get us… It was pretty annoying. The speaker was constantly going off because a lot of people were getting picked up.” Many families were scared that schools were not going to be high enough, so they picked up their kids. Many people were scared and were doing anything they could to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
Locals were not just affected; some grocery stores were shaken in the quake. In The New York Times article, “What We Know About the 7.0 Earthquake That Struck Northern California,” they reported that “Some shops in the area reported groceries toppling from shelves and shattered bottles.”
However, this issue has many wondering about the accuracy of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The LA fires have finally been contained, but that tragedy also left many questioning the EAS. . Some alerts saved lives. But some caused extra panic and even waste time for those in danger. Some alerts were sent out smoothly and helped people get out of their homes in time, but some of these alerts came in too late or not at all. The article Life-saving emergency alerts often come too late or not at all, explains how an innocent woman died because an emergency alert did not go through to her phone. “Jessica Tunis doesn't understand why emergency officials have not learned from her mother's death. The Santa Rosa, Californian, woman said her mother, Linda, did not receive an evacuation alert to warn her the fast-moving Nuns-Tubbs wildfires were raging nearby,” the article reported. “The 69-year-old's body was found in the burned rubble of the Journey's End Mobile Home Park in October 2017. Evacuation alerts didn't go out to the neighborhood where Linda Tunis lived, until after she was already dead.” His alert did not go through and cost this woman her life.
A quote shown in the article, “Flawed emergency alert systems lagged when residents needed them most,” says that alerts were not going out to places that needed them most. “By 12:07 a.m., CalFire records show, dozens of neighborhoods had been ordered to evacuate because of the Eaton Fire, all of them east of Altadena’s North Lake Avenue. None of the neighborhoods to the west — where all of the 17 confirmed fatalities occurred, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times — had received evacuation warnings or orders, despite house fires being reported there more than an hour earlier.”
Another quote from that same article states that Susan Lee Streets and her family did not get an alert when a fire was approaching areas near them, and if they had not seen the signs of fires then, they might have gone to sleep and that could’ve changed their futures. “Susan Lee Streets, who signed up for the app Nixle…” (An organization that sends out alerts to residents when a disaster strikes.) “...Did not get any alerts specific to her west Altadena neighborhood before she and her family left of their own accord around 10 pm after losing power and cell reception. ‘If we had even been informed that houses and other structures were burning down, we would have known better what was happening,' she said. '‘We almost went to sleep that night, with two kids, a dog, and two cats in the house.' Only after 3 am did an alert hit her phone. Destroyed along with the house are the Christmas ornaments she saved for her children and countless other family keepsakes.” This woman and her family might have died that night from the fire if they hadn’t lost power and reception. But when they did, they used it as a sign that the fire might be getting close to where they live. Thankfully they got out of their home safely with all their pets and children. They got a notification when the house might have already been in flames.
Life-threatening alerts not coming through, is one problem, but some people are even ignoring emergency alerts because they are getting them too often. In his substack, Logan Thorneloe explains that many are disabling emergency alerts because they get them frequently and have started a habit of ignoring them if they are important or not. Many in Northern California felt the same way about December’s tsunami warning. While a few grocery stores felt the effect of the quake, most people were left wondering why all the commotion because of how widespread the alert was sent.
“There’s a reason there are thousands of guides online on how to disable emergency alerts on your phone. Their poor implementation has made many ignore them— the exact opposite of what an emergency alerting system should do. Not only does this render the alerts useless, it does something much worse: it builds the habit of ignoring them,” Thorneloe wrote. This would be really bad if there was something that could affect you and you ignored it.
This shows that we do need emergency alerts but we don’t need constant alerts especially if they aren’t too close to the action, or if we are sleeping.
The alert system, WEA (Wireless Emergency Alert) is sending out alerts slowly in some cases, and now people are using an app called Watch Duty. This app is more reliable than the wildfire alerts and has become a must-have app for L.A citizens.
The LA Times recently wrote about the app, saying that “many residents are ignoring official alerts and turning to the Watch Duty app for up-to-date information.” This app, Watch Duty, shows you every place in the country that is at risk of fires, or is already in flames. From what I've heard and seen on this app, it’s very reliable. It’s very important to stay tuned to what alerts are saying, but there is a chance alerts may not go through to your device, so, I would recommend getting the app Watch Duty, and remember to always be cautious.
