Officials debate how to get warnings out in time
said officials did not employ the Wireless Emergency Alert system because they initially wanted to stagger the evacuations by neighborhood. He also said that Amber Alert-style alerts do “not go to every phone at the same time.”
According to the Federal Communications Commission, Wireless Emergency Alerts are broadcast to coverage areas that best approximate the zone of an emergency; mobile devices in the alert zone will receive the alert. There has been criticism that the geographical targeting of the system is not terribly precise, and in late 2019, wireless carriers are supposed to improve geo-targeting of the alerts.
During the recent test of the presidential alert distributed through the Wireless Emergency Alert system, the average delay in users’ receiving a text message was about 22 seconds.
Because of its vulnerability to fire, Paradise has debated the best evacuation strategy for years.
The idea of staggering evacuations was discussed in the wake of the 2008 fire that burned dozens of homes, county documents reviewed by The Times show. After the fire, some officials felt that residents were “over-evacuated” and that that needlessly clogged roads.
But the documents also show several instances in which county emergency officials warned that they might have to quickly evacuate the entire town.
Many Paradise residents said they were baffled by the lack of a warning.
“I assumed if something were to happen, there’d be an alert on your cellphone,” said Alexandria Wilson, 21. Neither she nor any of her 10 relatives now packed into a home in Applegate who all lost their homes in Paradise had ever heard of Butte County’s CodeRed emergency alert program.
Only two of them received warnings and those were from a police officer driving down the road telling people to evacuate.
Instead, Wilson’s 10-yearold brother, Eden, was coordinating an evacuation effort.
Savvy with a cellphone, he was texting everyone and telling them to rendezvous at a Burger King in Chico.
“Nobody should have to get a call from a 10-year-old,” said Jacob Golden, Wilson’s boyfriend.
‘If people are already getting word on Facebook, and there’s nothing coming out of your government, then you’ve failed.’ — James Gore, chairman, Sonoma County Board of Supervisors