Los Angeles County and city officials addressed the two evacuation alerts that were sent in error to people all over Southern California at a press conference Friday morning, and the answers they provided were less than satisfying.
Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, began the presser by deflecting blame from any one individual.
“This is not human-driven. There is no one sitting at a desk right now initiating emergency alerts,” he said.
McGowan explained that there was a technical error somewhere in the emergency alert system, and the agency’s “number one priority” is figuring out where the problem is and how to fix it. He urged people not to disable emergency alerts and to go online to check whether the evacuation orders they receive are legitimate.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger called that solution “absolutely ridiculous.”
“To tell people to go on a website when they may not have access to internet is absolutely …