Residents’ phones buzzed across Ridgecrest Thursday afternoon with alerts warning them of an earthquake and telling them to take cover. But the shaking never came.
It was a technical error that prompted the emergency alerts to go off around 2:10 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s ShakeAlert System.
The wireless emergency earthquake alerts are only meant to be sent to people who could feel the shaking of quakes magnitude 5 or greater, according to the agency.
“We understand that receiving this message was upsetting. This was not intentional. We are investigating on how we can improve the system,” USGS told a user on Twitter.
The agency sent out a cancellation message after the first alert went out.
“USGS ShakeAlert message cancelled. Investigating. If you protected yourself, well done,” the second alert read.
USGS said it’s investigating the source of the technical error.
“False alerts can happen in rare circumstances but will decline in frequency as the ShakeAlert system is improved,” USGS said.
The largest earthquake to strike Southern California in decades, a magnitude 7.1 quake, had hit roughly 10.5 miles from Ridgecrest on July 5, 2019, one day after a magnitude 6.4 quake rattled the region.
The temblor downed power lines, brought scattered fires, damaged homes and left cracks in roadways.
ShakeAlert, the West Coast earthquake early warning system, sent its first public alert in December 2019. The system uses information calculated by the U.S. Geological Survey, powered by hundreds of earthquake sensors, to alert residents that an earthquake has begun and shaking is imminent.
Even though it was an error, USGS said: “If you took a protective action like Drop, Cover, and Hold On when you received the ShakeAlert message, you did the right thing.”
