"Shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday, phones across Los Angeles County lighted up with an emergency alert test, the latest example of challenges that cities are experiencing with wireless emergency alert systems. It wasn't immediately clear how many people received the test alert from South Pasadena, which read, "This is a test of the South Pasadena WEA system. There is no emergency.""
"Wireless emergency alerts are sent out through a partnership among FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission, cellphone providers and local officials, who geographically code the alerts so they appear on phones in areas affected by public safety warnings. The errant test was reminiscent of an alert that was erroneously sent to 10 million phones across L.A. County during the January firestorm, warning them to prepare to evacuate due to a fire."
"On Tuesday evening, public safety staff with the city of South Pasadena were performing an internal test of the WEA system when the message was accidentally sent to phones across the county, said city spokesperson Jennifer Colby. The cause of the erroneous alert is under investigation. However, it is currently believed to be the result of human error and not a malfunction of the platform called Finalsite that the city uses to send alerts, she said."
Phones across Los Angeles County received an emergency alert test sent by South Pasadena that stated there was no emergency. The test reached locations including Long Beach, downtown L.A. and Redondo Beach. Wireless emergency alerts rely on FEMA, the FCC, cellphone providers and local officials to geographically code warnings for affected areas. The incident recalled a January misdirected evacuation alert that went to 10 million phones. South Pasadena says the message was sent during an internal test and is under investigation, with officials currently believing human error rather than a platform malfunction caused the widespread transmission. The city apologized for the inconvenience.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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