Malibu Mayor Skylar Peak is back in town after what was undoubtedly a memorable trip to Hawaii. The mayor and his young family were on Kauai on Jan. 17 when a false missile alert sent more than a million people into a panic thinking the end could be imminently near.
Peak told The Malibu Times he had just dropped two kids off to check the surf and while heading back to his house alone got what he described as a “surreal” alert on his phone: “EMERGENCY ALERT BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
“So that was a little bit scary,” Peak said. “It was really alarming because it comes up on your phone like an Amber Alert. My wife called me. I was already headed back and I said, ‘Get your stuff and we’ll go seek shelter.’”
However, with recent awareness in Hawaii about a possible threat from North Korea and that state’s ongoing readiness drills, Peak quickly became wary about the alert.
“What was weird was that a couple minutes into it, the sirens that are supposed to go off did not go off,” the mayor explained. “In Hawaii, because of tsunami and military threat, they have loud sirens that are installed all over the island chain and those were not going off. So that was a little bit alarming.
“I talked to Laird, our neighbor, who was—we were all kind of mystified,” he continued. “I think it put everything into perspective. [My family] frantically got things together.” Still uncertain, Peak recalled, “We said, ‘I love you’ and we planned to go to a hotel basement.”
Although the real alert was rescinded an agonizing 38 minutes later, Peak said a local agency tweeted it was a false alarm in 20 minutes. Saying his heart was still racing, Peak called the tweet “a little relief, but I wasn’t really relieved until we got the other emergency alert.”
“It was unsettling. There’s no way about that. It was not what I expected to wake up to,” Peak said. “Everything that’s going on in our world right now sort of came into perspective. Just appreciating your family and the people you love. I was just fortunate that I was able to be close to my family, because otherwise it would have been more traumatic if they were much farther away.”
Peak has also been dealing with the disaster in Montecito, where his family owns a home.
“Communication is the No. 1 thing a city has to assure people that they’re safe and get them to a safe place,” he said. Peak explained the City of Montecito also sent an inaccurate message about the fire but later followed with the correct information. “It’s extremely important for any city to err on the side of caution, but also not to create pandemonium,” he said. “You want people to believe in those emergency systems because when you have a false alarm people don’t trust and lose faith in that. Then when it really is an emergency people don’t leave.
“For us, it’s very prudent to have those lines of communication,” he continued. “It’s really important for people to sign up for emergency notifications.”
The City of Malibu’s media information officer Matt Meyerhoff is urging residents to sign up to the city’s system—Everbridge—of which he said he is fully confident. The system has been in place for two years and is the most widely used system in the country.
“It’s only used for major disasters. It’s considered the premier of these services. I’m confident it will work,” Meyerhoff said.
To sign up, go to malibucity.org/disasternotifications. A full-scale test of the system is taking place Feb. 7 at 7p.m.
“Every phone in Malibu is going to ring,” Myerhoff said. “We are confident that the disaster notification system will work, but it’s only as good as the information you put into it. Have a profile for every member of your family.
“For anyone having trouble navigating the system or with questions … call us at 310.456.2489 ext. 313 or email SDuenas@Malibucity.org and we’ll walk you through it. It sounds complicated, but it’s easy, it’s free, fast and confidential.”
Malibu’s mayor also endorsed the system.
“It’s so important to have accurate information,” Peak reiterated. “I’m grateful to have staff at the city and communications with the Sheriff’s and Fire departments to get that information out as quickly and accurately as possible. We take it very seriously. Every family should have a plan in an emergency, whether it’s an earthquake, fire or flood. Have an emergency kit at your house. Have a plan with your family.
“I love this community,” he added. “We are so blessed here. We live in such a beautiful place and there’s a strong sense of community here. I love it.”