{"id":47527,"date":"2017-10-14T09:39:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T09:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=47527"},"modified":"2017-10-14T09:39:03","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T09:39:03","slug":"californians-say-they-didnt-receive-emergency-wildfire-alerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/health\/californians-say-they-didnt-receive-emergency-wildfire-alerts.html","title":{"rendered":"Californians Say They Didn’t Receive Emergency Wildfire Alerts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Californians Say They Didn’t Receive Emergency Wildfire Alerts<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

When the wildfires in Northern California broke out this week, they spread so fast that many residents were caught off guard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some told CNN that the smell of smoke or their dogs whimpering were the only warnings they got before the fires tore through their neighborhoods, forcing them to flee their homes in the middle of the night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now local emergency management officials and authorities are facing criticism for how they informed residents of the fires \u2014 and how they didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve heard from (friends and family), no one got an alert,\u201d said Sonoma County resident Margaret Curzon, whose parents lost their home to the blaze. \u201cEveryone was blindsided by this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

California counties and agencies used different methods to warn residents of impending danger from the fires, but some residents are saying they weren\u2019t effective. Here\u2019s a closer look at what was done and what was not.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system<\/span>
\nAt a press conference on Wednesday, state officials were questioned about why agencies had not used the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system to notify residents of the approaching fires.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may recognize a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) as the screech your cellphone makes when an Amber Alert has been issued in your area.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local agencies must apply for the authority to issue such alerts, which are sent to participating phone carriers through the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). According to the FCC, the WEA system sends alerts that are issued directly by the president, alerts that involve \u201cimminent threats to safety or life\u201d and Amber Alerts.<\/span><\/p>\n

This system is credited with helping authorities catch Ahmad Khan Rahimi, who is on trial for allegedly setting off bombs in Manhattan\u2019s Chelsea neighborhood in September 2016. Three hours after the NYPD, the FBI and the Office of Emergency Management sent an alert to area residents\u2019 phones, Rahimi was in police custody.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, New York City\u2019s police commissioner called the system \u201cthe future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several state and county-level agencies in California affected by the wildfires have the ability to send the federal alerts as of August, according to FEMA, including the Governor\u2019s Office of Emergency Services (OES) and Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some statewide agencies, like the governor\u2019s OES and the California Highway Patrol, also are authorized to use the system.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Kelly Houston, deputy director for the OES, said the state doesn\u2019t send out alerts and warnings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the state level we wouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d she said. \u201cAlerts and warnings happen on a local level \u2026 They decide what are the appropriate alerts for their population.\u201d Which system is used depends on the county\u2019s emergency plan, Houston said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The California Highway Patrol\u2019s ability to use the WEA system \u201cis limited only to Amber Alerts,\u201d said Sgt. Robert Nackey, \u201c\u2026 so the CHP wouldn\u2019t have been able to use the early warning system to put out information regarding fires.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What alerts were used?<\/span>
\nMark Ghilarducci, director of the OES, told reporters Wednesday that \u201cvarious counties use different ways to push information out to the public.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Those methods could include posting warnings and information on social media or using a reverse 911 call to notify landlines. Some agencies also rely on Nixle, a subscription alert service, but residents must opt in to receive its mobile or email alerts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sonoma County Sheriff Robert Giordano said the county \u2014 which is authorized to send WEAs, according to FEMA \u2014 has systems in place to notify residents with landlines, but suggested in a news conference that people sign up for SoCoAlerts, which can send notifications via cell phone, email or text messages. The county also uses Nixle, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t sign your cellphone up, you don\u2019t get that service,\u201d Giordano said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo the message is, sign up for SoCoAlerts if you live in this county, because then it sends the message to your cell phone just like your house phone,\u201d he added. The speed at which the fires spread was also a factor in communications, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Resident: \u2018Would\u2019ve been nice to get an alert\u2019<\/span>
\nBut those methods weren\u2019t enough to prepare Curzon or her parents, who didn\u2019t even know they existed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curzon\u2019s parents live in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa. It\u2019s the largest city in Sonoma County, where the fires have claimed 17 lives. Her mother and father lost their home in the blaze on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curzon told CNN her mother woke up around 2 a.m. to the sound of their family dog whimpering. That\u2019s when she first became aware of the fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Curzon nor her parents received any type of warning or alert ahead of the fire, she said, but she signed up for the county\u2019s Nixle alerts Monday morning after her roommate told her about them. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know it existed before the fire happened,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curzon said she was familiar with Amber Alerts issued through the WEA system and found it \u201cpretty disturbing\u201d that Sonoma County had the ability to send out a warning but didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, they could have sent out an alert to warn people about what was going on,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe they didn\u2019t because they didn\u2019t realize how quickly the fire was going to spread \u2026 but it would\u2019ve been nice to get an alert.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

County: WEA would\u2019ve notified too many people<\/span>
\nJennifer Larocque, a spokeswoman for Sonoma County, said officials chose not to send out a WEA because it would target too large a geographic area, evacuating residents who weren\u2019t in danger and causing gridlock on the roads.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo keep everyone safe we chose not to use a mass alert that would have reached areas that are not affected by the fire, in turn keeping roads open for emergency vehicles reaching people in need,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Larocque emphasized the \u201cmulti-faceted approach\u201d county officials took to notify residents, including alerts through Nixle, SoCoAlerts and the CodeRED mobile alert app, all of which require residents to sign up and opt in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scott Alonso, a Sonoma County spokesman, said Friday there were 10,557 residents signed up to receive SoCoAlerts, nearly 8,000 of them in Santa Rosa. That\u2019s roughly 2% of the estimated 503,070 people living in Sonoma County in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

The county also used reverse 911 calls to warn residents with landlines, Larocque said, and Sonoma County Sheriff\u2019s deputies went door to door to tell residents to evacuate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alerts came too late<\/span>
\nBut even some residents who were aware of the various alert systems said they fell short of what was necessary to safely warn them about the fires.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph Pader, 28, lives in Soda Canyon near Napa, California. He was signed up for Nixle alerts from the Napa Sheriff Department but said he didn\u2019t receive a warning until 3 or 4 a.m., at which point, \u201cit was too late to leave.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to FEMA, Napa County doesn\u2019t have any agencies authorized to send a WEA.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until hours later that workers from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) arrived and informed them they would have to leave under a mandatory evacuation notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pader remained behind and helped neighbors pack and evacuate. Around 6 p.m., he watched the fire engulf his home. His family had lived there for 26 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt took about 10 minutes for my whole home to burn down,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s never gonna be the same. I grew up in that home. It\u2019s very close to my heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Napa County officials didn\u2019t respond to repeated requests for comment. The county\u2019s Emergency Services site encourages people to subscribe to local alerts through Nixle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pader supports his local authorities, he said, and believes they were doing the best they could. But he was disappointed with their emergency response this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt could\u2019ve been handled better,\u201d he said. \u201cThe resources were very thin, almost nonexistent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/fox40.com\/2017\/10\/13\/californians-say-they-didnt-receive-emergency-wildfire-alerts\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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