I subscribe to an e-mail service that gives me emergency warnings from state emergency organizations.

Tonight I got this one:

ABZCZC-CIV-CEM-0060130000-333525-



This is a message from Contra Costa Health Services. There is an emergency at (name of facility). Residents of (city name/site of incident) are advised to shelter-in-place. Go inside, close all windows and doors, and turn off all heaters, air conditioners and fans. If not using fireplace, close fireplace dampers and vents and cover cracks around doors and windows with tape or damp towels. Media news networks will continue to carry updated emergency information. Stay off the phone unless you have a life-threatening emergency.



Holy shit. Obviously a bug in the warning system, but who are they trying to warn, and about what?? A little apprehension here...

Later--at last--the bug was fixed, and I got this:

ABZCZC-CIV-CEM-0060130000-333529-



This is a message from Contra Costa Health Services. There is an emergency at General Chemical in Richmond. Residents of North Richmond and Richmond are advised to shelter-in-place. Go inside, close all windows and doors, and turn off all heaters, air conditioners and fans. If not using fireplace, close fireplace dampers and vents and life-threatening emergency.



Whew. This is actually almost routine for the Richmond chemical plant, which emits some awful chemical fart about twice a month. Nothing serious, but they are required to issue the warnings.

That first one, though, could have been anything!! Particularly now, when such a warning, almost verbatim, would be likely to accompany a chemical or biological attack. I sure hope they fix the bug in their system. I'm getting too old for this kind of thing.