[EAS] L.A. Wildfire Evacuations Were Slowed by Poor Visibility and System Weaknesses

[Sean Donelan]

An independent report on the January disaster found that emergency alerts 
were hampered by flawed policies, aging equipment and high winds.

[...]
Shortly after 1 a.m., the report said, county sheriff's and fire 
officials, who jointly determine evacuations, stopped instructing the 
county's Office of Emergency Management to issue evacuation warnings and 
orders in the Eaton fire, believing that all of the residents at risk had 
already been warned or instructed to get out. In fact, at some point that 
night, the fire had shifted, muscling back toward West Altadena on the 
Santa Ana winds.
[...]
Since the fires, county officials said, a range of updates have been made 
in emergency procedures, including the incorporation of more satellite 
data into its incident command management system, a modernized 
communications dispatch system and new policies that now automatically 
augment evacuation orders with additional evacuation warnings for people 
living in adjacent neighborhoods.
[...]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/us/los-angeles-fires-evacuations-report.html