AlertOC system has its limitations

When Newport Beach public safety officials activated the AlertOC system to notify residents of a possible tsunami surge that never materialized Saturday, they said they were erring on the side of caution.

However, as the system tried to dial out to an estimated 109,000 home and business land lines simultaneously, about 34,000, or 30%, of those calls initially succeeded because the network was overloaded, officials said.

“It does have its limitations. That’s why it’s just one of our components to alert residents,” said Katie Eing, emergency services coordinator for the Fire Department

In the hours following reports of a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile late Friday night Pacific Standard Time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began tracking the side effects, which included a possible tsunami.

About 11 a.m. Saturday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol Newport Beach received an advisory from the U.S. Coast Guard about a possible 2- to 3-foot wave surge hitting the coast just after noon.

At 11:45 a.m. the advisory was upgraded to an imminent threat warning of a 6- to 8-foot surge along the Southern California coast, said Harbor Master Lt. Mark Long.

Authorities were given a 15- to 45-minute window to react, Long said.

As his employees evacuated harbor patrol headquarters and tried to confirm the more grim report, the city initiated AlertOC as a precaution.

City officials initiated the reverse 9-1-1 system that has an automated message sent out to local land lines.

The public can go to www.AlertOC.com and add cell and work numbers to the system as well.

Eing said authorities chose to broadcast instructions to stay away from the beaches to every number in Newport Beach.

Instead, only a fraction of those lines were reached because the local phone switches couldn’t handle the influx of outgoing calls, she said.

About 75,000 numbers didn’t receive the first call. A second round of calls connected an additional 15,000. Still, about 60,000 people were not given instructions to avoid the coast.

Six- to 8-foot waves never hit Newport Beach, and authorities have still not figured out where the information originally came from. In a letter posted on the city’s website, city officials speculated that the information was actually meant for Hawaii.

The Coast Guard receives its information from NOAA, then sends it down the chain statewide. From there, leaders pass the information to the appropriate sector levels.

In this case, the warning was passed to the local sector that includes Los Angeles and Orange County, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Cory Mendenhal.

The Coast Guard alerted the Harbor Patrol, which alerted the Newport Beach Police Department and the Fire Department.

The entire sequence took 15 minutes, Eing estimated.

In a more urgent situation, city officials said that the city has more options to alert residents to potential dangers.

Police on the streets and in the police helicopter and lifeguards at the beaches would broadcast instructions, Eing said.

Also, by spring, the city’s tsunami siren system along the coast will be up and running, she said, adding that city officials will meet to discuss how to better improve the AlertOC system and vet information before alerting residents, Eing said.

“But, we will always act on the side of precaution,” she said. “It’s always better to err on the side of caution than not.”