Fire updates: Error evacuation message and pharmacy support

L.A. County released a statement regarding the error evacuation message sent yesterday to cell phones across the county in areas that did not need to be evacuated.

“We are aware of the reports of erroneous messages, and we apologize for the disruption,” The statement said. “We are working with FEMA to investigate the issue, and for the most current status of evacuation orders and warnings please review the map of evacuations on Alertla.org.”

The County released a second statement, saying they will continue to investigate the error.

"Our preliminary investigation indicates that an accurate, correctly-targeted alert went out from LA County’s Emergency Operations Center at around 4 p.m. on Thursday, January 9. However, after it left the EOC, the alert was erroneously sent out to nearly 10 million residents across the County."

The investigation revealed Genasys, a vendor that operates the software for the County’s emergency alert messaging, is part of their review will be conducting testing to determine how the original notification was sent far outside the intended geographic area. The company said Friday it has added safeguards to its software.

They urged residents to sign up  for Alert LA County notifications, which enable residents to receive notifications via landline, text or email. This system has the advantage of reaching people in the communications method they prefer, regardless of internet access.

People can sign up at https://ready.lacounty.gov/emergency-notifications/

In addition, they will be ramping up 211 services to assist residents who call in and are seeking needed information to address impacts from the fires.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies are actively providing in person notifications to reach residents who need to immediately evacuate in real time.

"Details of these and other measures will be provided as soon as they become available, along with information about the root cause of this dangerously unacceptable breakdown in the system," the statement said.

Pharmacy support 

As wildfires continue to impact communities across Southern California, Whittier-based California Specialty Pharmacy (CSP) and its three ambulatory infusion centers announced that they are fully operational.

“For existing patients who have been displaced by wildfires, we are proactively reaching out to redirect medication shipments and ensure seamless continuity of care,” CSP statement said.

In addition to serving our current patients, CSP is also available to assist individuals who are not yet enrolled with CSP but are in need of specialty medications or infusions.

For any questions please contact CSP at hello@csprx.com or 877.602.7779.