This story has been updated with additional details about the phone carrier and counties affected.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Monday residents of Lake County were startled by an ongoing series of phone test alerts that were reported to have been the result of a system malfunction.
The multiple alerts came on Monday morning through the Integrated Public Alert Warning System, or IPAWS.
Lake County News received reports from local residents who said their phones had gone off about every 10 minutes for more than two hours.
The malfunction impacted US Cellular and not other cell phone carriers such as Verizon or AT&T, according to local officials.
There also were reports in other parts of the United States about receiving the alerts over an extended period.
Sheriff Brian Martin said the issues appeared to be a computer malfunction at the Federal Emergency Management Agency which subsequently was resolved Monday afternoon.
Martin said Central Dispatch received a notification from the state Office of Emergency Services regarding the malfunction issue.
Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino and other areas north to Oregon also were impacted, according to information Martin provided to Lake County News.
Earlier this year the sheriff's office joined the IPAWS system, which is used by federal, state, territorial, tribal and local authorities to issue emergency alerts and warning, as Lake County News has reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Malfunction leads to numerous phone alerts for residents in Lake, several other counties
- Elizabeth Larson
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