Lights and sirens at Torrance Beach? New evacuation system undergoes testing

More than four years after it was approved by Los Angeles County Supervisors, the Beach Emergency Evacuation Lights System, or BEELS, loudly proclaimed it is ready.

A police car-like siren blasted over the massive loudspeakers atop the lifeguard building at Torrance Beach on Monday, June 5. The siren was followed by a message:

"This is a test!"

"Esto es una prueba!"

The English and Spanish announcements rang loud and clear — and could be heard two blocks from the coastline. Bright white lights atop the lifeguard building flashed simultaneously to warn those hard of hearing.

BEELS then cycled through its full beach warnings meant to evacuate people from the water and the sand: those for tsunamis, severe thunderstorms and general emergency event. It also tested its get-out-of-the-water warnings for shark sightings, rip currents and oil spills.

LA County Beaches and Harbors Safety Officer Randy Dean, the system's imaginer, was on hand for the test. And he said he was pleased with the result. After years of pilot testing, his brainchild was finally ready — for the most part.

BEELS testing will continue from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday, June 6, and then and again at the same time every Monday through June and possibly during the first few weeks of July. After that, the system needs to be formally handed over to the county's lifeguards.

"This is great," Dean said. "The beauty of BEELS is everyone gets the important information at the same time. Otherwise, we’ve got lifeguards with megaphones driving up and down the beach. That's just not very efficient."

And for those with hearing loss or are deaf, the old fashioned lifeguard megaphone system wouldn't work anyway. Thus the flashing lights, which are on two lifeguard buildings and on two lifeguard towers — the Bluff tower and the RAT (right after Torrance) beach tower.

Dean "has a lot of passion when it comes to the deaf and the hard-of-hearing," he said. The safety officer has two adult children with hearing loss and grandchildren with the same, he said.

In Los Angeles County, Dean said, there are 800,000 people with hearing issues. In California, there are nearly 3 million.

"When I first pitched this idea to the deputy director,’" Dean recalled, "he said, ‘I can't believe no one has thought about this before.’"

And while the lights are intended for those with hearing loss, they can also serve a purpose for visitors to the beach who might not speak either English or Spanish, Dean said.

"The lights mean the same thing in any language," Dean said.

Over the last four years, Dean and Morse Group, the technical company behind the system's software, have had their share of issues. BEELS failed its first test in April 2021. The flashing lights didn't come on and the audio wasn't loud enough.

Then, in June of that same year, Dean and county officials flipped a ceremonial switch to introduce BEELS to the public.

For two more years, however, developers worked on tweaking the system, which is mostly cloud-based. Getting a strong internet signal at the shore posed a particular challenge, said More Group developer Phil Plourde. That alone took about nine extra months of integration, he said.

But BEELS also has a "hard-button" backup, Plourde said. So if the internet goes down, someone will have a key that will unlock buttons that can be pressed to activate the warnings.

In total, the cost of BEELS remains at the initial estimate of $300,000, said Nicole Mooradian, spokesperson for the LA County Department of Beaches and Harbors. But, she said, the lights on the RAT and Bluff lifeguard towers already need to be replaced because of the corrosive sea air.

"That will probably be an additional expense," Mooradian said, "but the amount still needs to be determined."

The keys to the entire system will eventually be handed over to Los Angeles County Lifeguards, Dean said, once officials draft a memo of understanding with that agency.

After that, Dean said, he is hoping to install more BEELS further up the coast, starting with Redondo Beach and the Redondo Beach Pier.

"Redondo Beach will be a big deal," Dean said, "because it’ll be the first pier to have such a system and it's a very expansive one."

The county doesn't maintain that pier, so the Redondo Beach City Council will have to vote to implement BEELS there, Dean said.

But most everyone in coastal cities he's talked to, all the way up to Santa Monica, has said they are eager for the system, Dean added.

"There's a big need for this," Dean said. " I really want to see this in other places."

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