Don’t panic: Civil emergency alert is false alarm
A unexpected push notification was sent out to cell phones around San Luis Obispo County at about 3:56 p.m. this afternoon with an ominous warning: “Emergency Alert – Civil Emergency in this area until 4:10PM PDT Prepare for Action – SLO_OES.” It turns out to be a false alarm.
“An Early Warning System siren located in San Luis Obispo has sounded in error,” the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services posted to Facebook. “There is no emergency. Repeating, there is no emergency.”
A second message was sent from the SLO office of emergency services about 10 minutes later to cellphones confirming the false alarm.
“This afternoon a siren sounded in error near the intersection of Orcutt and Biddle Ranch Rd. in San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo County Officials and PG&E are investigating the cause of this errant sounding,” the office of emergency services reports. “The Emergency Alert System (EAS) was utilized to provide information to the public, which triggered the activation of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system to be broadcast on cell phones.”
The sirens and phone messaging system are used by county authorities to notify local residents in the event of an emergency, such as a nuclear accident at the Diablo Canyon power plant, operated by Pacific Gas and Electric.
A civil emergency message is a warning originally created by the National Weather Service meant to warn of an in-progress or imminent significant threats to public safety and/or property. For example, a civil emergency message could be used to describe an alert issued by the National Terrorism Advisory System. Example of its uses in other communities include a major gas leak and tainted water supplies.
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