Oregon emergency system erroneously sends county evacuation notice statewide

SALEM, Ore. — An evacuation notice intended for an Oregon county on Saturday was accidentally sent statewide due to an “operator error,” authorities said.

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According to a news release from the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, officials in Klamath County asked the agency to send out a notice for a Level 3 evacuation alert due to the dangerous Golden Fire in the area.

Instead, the notice to evacuate was sent throughout the state, KOIN-TV reported.

“Civil Authorities have issued an Evacuation Immediate for All of Oregon,” the notice read.

“Unfortunately, an Emergency Alert System was broadcast statewide due to operator error,” the agency said in its release on Saturday. “The error in the system has been fixed and the alert will not repeat.”

State officials later provided an update, saying that a check box to designate the location for the evacuation was missed by a worker, causing the notice to be mistakenly broadcast statewide.

“We deeply apologize for this situation and any concern it caused,” the Oregon Department of Emergency Management wrote. “We will work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

After the initial evacuation order, officials in Clackamas County shared a post on Facebook, telling residents that the alert was a mistake.

The Golden Fire began burning east of Klamath Falls on Saturday at around 1 p.m. PDT, KPTV reported.