The wildfires in the Greater Los Angeles area are creating emergency situations that are shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation event. And in the midst of multiple active fires with evacuation orders for specific neighbourhoods, a general emergency alert to evacuate was sent out in error.
The false alert went out on Jan. 9 to the cell phones of 10 million residents across Los Angeles County.
In complex systems, failure is a particular combination of needs, people and problems that may have never occurred before. False emergency alerts sent out in error should be viewed as complex system failures that can be expected and learned from.
