Bogus Tsunami Warning, Quake Alert At 'tom's house' Causes Alarm In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A test of San Francisco's emergency alert system Friday morning created some alarm when it erroneously reported a tsunami watch.
The alert was sent by email, text message and Twitter at 8:46 a.m., warning of a possible tsunami in San Francisco due to a 6.7-magnitude earthquake at "tom's house."
Five minutes later, a second alert was issued, clarifying the message was in error.
San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management issued an apology for the alarming message, saying that it was sent as part of a system test of the city's emergency alert system AlertSF.
"First, let me assure everyone in San Francisco and on the internet that Tom is OK," joked Francis Zamora, spokesman for the San Francisco Office of Emergency Services. "There is no tsunami watch. During training we inadvertently sent out a message, and so we're gonna take a look at what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again."
He explained they often test the AlertSF system and this was the first time a test text was actually broadcast. But it wasn't the only alert sent out Friday. Shortly after the false tsunami message, a legitimate text was sent to subscribers warning of a police standoff in the city.
"We advise people to stay away from the area for their own safety," said Zamora.
From earthquake to terror attacks to major events, the alert system is used for anything that affects public safety.
Zamora said he hopes Friday's false alarm can be used as a learning experience for the OEM staff.
"This is something that both is a cause for concern and embarrassing for us, but we're going to learn from it," he said.
Had there been an actual emergency, officials say the city's air siren would have sounded.
To subscribe to AlertSF text messages, text "AlertSF" to 777-888.
More information about the AlertSF system is available at www.alertsf.org.
