Warning About Emergency Alert System Ignored Weeks Before Deadly Muslide

Almost a week before a mudslide devastated a Southern California neighborhood, swallowing homes and killing twenty-one people, a local emergency official had sent an urgent letter to a federal agency listing 'serious' concerns with the alert system designed to warn the public of potentially life threatening danger. Lawmakers and officials in California claim that they repeatedly flagged pitfalls and failures with the national emergency alert system that impeded critical evacuation efforts.