After thousands of Orange County residents spent days locked out of their neighborhoods amid an evacuation, many raised complaints about the lack of updates from the OC Fire Authority during the crisis.
“I talked to so many people who had left essential medications, who had left pet food, who had left things that they needed to survive from a day to day basis at home with no communication about when they would be able to go back,” said Lauriana Adriano at the Garden Grove City Council meeting on Tuesday night.
“There is a lot more the city and the state and the government should have done for these people.”
While evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday night, it remains unclear when people could get reimbursed for hotel stays or other financial damages, with many online complaining that shelters filled up so fast people were pushed into sleeping in their cars or in expensive hotel rooms.
Read: OC Residents Impacted by Faulty Chemical Tank May Get Reimbursed
The complaints come after residents were asked to evacuate last Thursday evening due to a leaking chemical tank in Garden Grove, then told a couple hours later they were allowed to return home.
“Returning our community safely to their homes is always a top priority,” fire authority officials posted on X on Thursday evening. “We appreciate your patience, cooperation, and support as operations continue.”
But the next morning, they expanded the evacuation zones and directed people to immediately leave their homes – with many unable to return home until Tuesday night.
OC Fire Authority Captain Brian Yau said delays in posting came because they have to vet all their information before it goes out.
“We want everyone to get back home just as much as they do,” Yau said in a Tuesday interview. “We don’t want to push out information that becomes misinterpreted or push out a false sense of hope or what can be perceived as ‘oh you can go home soon.’”
He noted that as of noon Tuesday, the fire authority alone had five public information officers handling the event.
Throughout the crisis, most updates on the status of the fire came in a couple times a day from the fire authority’s public page on X, formerly known as Twitter, without many posts to the agency’s own public website beyond a hotline number.
It’s not the first time the fire authority has faced complaints from residents over limited information during an emergency.
Orange County’s residents have regularly dealt with spotty updates during a series of wildfires that prompted evacuations.
During the 2022 Coastal Fire, officials with the city of Laguna Beach were sending out orders to evacuate to residents over an hour before they got a knock on the door from the county sheriffs.
In the county canyons, which see frequent evacuations due to wildfires and mudslides, many residents turn to local resident Joanne Hubble, who many locals say does a better job at getting info out to residents than the county bureaucracy.
Read: When Wildfires, Mudslides Hit Orange County’s Canyons, Residents Turn To This Woman
A county grand jury also highlighted the issue of poor communication from first responders in 2019, questioning why there wasn’t an easier way to understand what was going on.
“For some, communicating vital emergency information to the public when interagency coordination is essential has not been a priority,” jurors wrote. “The Orange County Grand Jury calls for improved multiagency coordination of emergency public information and its rapid conveyance to the public.”
At the time, representatives from the OCFA and OC Sheriffs Department, which helps facilitate evacuations, both argued it’s impossible to fill the “information vacuum” in disasters.
“Information is never complete or linear for the Incident Commanders on scene, especially when the impact area cannot be fully seen,” wrote the sheriff’s department in their response to the grand jury. “Public safety agencies have a responsibility to only release truthful, accurate and validated information.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.