Los Angeles County Beach Emergency Evacuation Lights System (BEELS)

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

BEELS is a multimodal alert system designed to warn all beachgoers, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, of a beach or water evacuation. BEELS uses a combination of flashing lights, audible announcements and sirens to alert all beachgoers to an evacuation.  During a beach evacuation, BEELS simultaneously flashes white LED lights mounted on permanent structures and some lifeguard towers and broadcasts a siren and loud audible evacuation announcements in both English and Spanish. The alert message changes depending on the evacuation type. The lights flash slowly for a water-only evacuation and quickly for a full beach evacuation.  The siren and flashing lights alert people who don’t understand English or Spanish and those who are deaf or hard of hearing, respectively, to an emergency.