As wildfires raged in California, confusion reigned in Los Angeles after the county's wireless emergency alert system sent incorrect messages.
Many needed to evacuate in southern California, and receiving a message or not receiving a message meant life or death.
In Yellowstone County, procedures are in place to prevent false messages, but if it does happen, the county has a plan.
Evacuations have been quick and scary in Southern California neighborhoods and communication problems have made a terrifying situation even worse.
Early Friday morning, an evacuation alert was mistakenly sent out to 10 million people in Los Angeles County, an alert meant for several thousand homeowners.
The county's Office of Emergency Management is investigating.
“We have every technical specialist working to resolve this issue and the find the root cause,” said Kevin McGowan, L.A. County emergency management director.
In Montana, emergency management services in Yellowstone County also has a mass notification system utilized during fires and other emergencies, called Everbridge.
“That goes through various channels and ultimately is approved,” said Derek Yeager, Yellowstone County director of emergency management.
Yeager says messages are thoroughly vetted before they're sent.
The system has only been in place for a year, but so far it's worked well with one exception: Not many residents are enrolled to receive those emergency messages.
"The Everbridge system is only as good as the number of people that have registered to receive the alert," Yeager said.
About 15,500 Yellowstone County residents are signed up for the Evebridge platform, known as Yellowstone County Informed.
“The communication is very direct,” Yeager said. “It's literally sitting down with that person that wishes that message to go out to the public.”
Yeager knows the importance and he has worked as a firefighter himself and has battled hundreds of fires in Southern California.
“You see some of the emotional impacts to families standing on the street watching everything they had go away,” Yeager said.
Tragedy made even worse when those in the fire's path can't be notified.
“I implore everyone to not disable the messages on your phone,” McGowan said.
A link to Yellowstone County Informed is on the county’s website.
