Hawaii officials mistakenly warn of inbound ballistic missile

Authored by nbc4i.com and submitted by Retrrad
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HONOLULU, HI (WCMH/AP) — A push alert that warned of a ballistic missile heading straight for Hawaii and sent residents into a full-blown panic Saturday was issued by mistake, state emergency officials said.

The emergency alert, which was sent to cellphones just before 8:10 a.m., said in all caps, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted that there was threat about 10 minutes later. But a revised push alert stating there was no threat went out sometime after that.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that human error caused the alert to go out.

“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button,” he said.

Agency spokesman Richard Repoza confirmed it was a false alarm and the agency is trying to determine what happened.

The incident prompted defense agencies including the Pentagon and the U.S. Pacific Command to issue the same statement, that they had “detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii.”

Michael Kucharek, spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command are still trying to verify what happened in Hawaii — but that “NORAD did not see anything that indicated any sort of threat to Hawaii.”

NORAD is a U.S.-Canada joint command that conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning to defend North America.

The White House said President Donald Trump, who is in Florida, was briefed on the false alert. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said it “was purely a state exercise.”

The alert caused a tizzy on the island and across social media.

At the PGA Tour’s Sony Open on Oahu, Waialae Country Club was largely empty and players were still a few hours from arriving when the alert showed up. The tournament staff urged the media center to evacuate. A local radio show from the clubhouse, next to glass windows that overlook the Pacific, kept broadcasting. Staff members at the club streamed into the clubhouse and tried to seek cover in the locker room, which was filled with the players’ golf bags, but instead went into the kitchen.

“Just woke up here in Hawaii to this lovely text. Somebody can verify this?” tweeted Emiliano Grillo of Argentina.

Justin Thomas, the PGA Tour player of the year, tweeted, “To all that just received the warning along with me this morning … apparently it was a ‘mistake’?? hell of a mistake!! Haha glad to know we’ll all be safe.”

In Honolulu, Jaime Malapit, owner of a hair salon, texted his clients that he was cancelling their appointments and was closing his shop for the day. He said he was still in bed when the phone started going off “like crazy.” He thought it was a tsunami warning at first.

“I woke up and saw a missile warning and thought ‘no way.’ I thought ‘No, this is not happening today,'” Malapit said.

He was still “a little freaked out” and feeling paranoid even after hearing it was a false alarm.

Richard Ing, a Honolulu attorney, was doing a construction project at home when his wife told him about the alert.

He dug his phone out and had confirmed he had the same alert. Attempts to find further information on the television or radio didn’t provide further information, but then he saw on Twitter that it was a false alarm.

While he was trying to confirm, his wife and children were preparing to evacuate in case they needed to move to safer ground.

After finding out it was a mistake, Ing tried to find some humor in the situation.

“I thought to myself, it must be someone’s last day at work or someone got extremely upset at a superior and basically did this as a practical joke,’ he said. “But I think it’s a very serious problem if it wasn’t that, or even it was, it shows that we have problems in the system that can cause major disruption and panic and anxiety among people in Hawaii.”

Others were outraged that such an alert could go out in error.

Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz tweeted the false alarm was “totally inexcusable” and was caused by human error.

“There needs to be tough and quick accountability and a fixed process,” he wrote.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai also took to social media to announce the panel would launch an investigation.

NO missile threat to Hawaii. — Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) January 13, 2018

HAWAII – THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE. pic.twitter.com/DxfTXIDOQs — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 13, 2018

Hawaii has been preparing for possible missile scenario

While it’s unlikely North Korea would actually fire a missile at Hawaii, the state says it’s been preparing for a worst-case scenario.

If a launch were to occur, The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) says a missile would take about 20 minutes to reach Hawaii.

The first five minutes would be used by the military to determine if it poses a threat. That would leave just 15 minutes to respond.

“We’re going to trigger the siren system, the second siren sound. We’re going to send messages out on radio and TV, so if you’re listening to a radio or TV station, you’re going to see this,” Toby Clairmont, HI-EMA executive officer, told NBC4 sister station KHON. “If you have a smart phone, a text is going to come out with a big banner in front of it. It’ll make a strange sound and tell you something is happening. All that will happen within the first few minutes.”

Hawaiian residents could be asked to shelter for a few days or up to two weeks, meaning they should keep at least 14 days of emergency supplies on hand.

Emergency officials have been working on these plans since December 2016, though they stress Hawaii is still safe.

“Our job is, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, is to work on preparedness and protect the citizens, the residents of the state of Hawaii and all our visitors. So by getting ahead of this and getting the public aware of what may happen, that’s what we’re doing,” said Maj. Gen. Arthur Logan, state adjutant general and HI-EMA director. “We want our tourism industry to continue doing what it’s doing and we want our visitors to come and enjoy Hawaii, and we’ll worry about the preparedness and how to keep Hawaii safe.”

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going_mobile on January 13rd, 2018 at 18:51 UTC »

The worst part was realizing how unprepared we were. My roommates and I woke up to the alarm and just sat there not knowing what we’re supposed to do in this situation.

2112xanadu on January 13rd, 2018 at 18:41 UTC »

My aunt called me to say her goodbyes. She said everyone at their hotel was screaming and running through the hallways. What a massive fuckup.

Shoelace_Farmer on January 13rd, 2018 at 18:38 UTC »

I'm here in Hawaii, and it was an intense 10 minutes. The alert went out at 8:08 AM Hawaiian time which has to be some sort of sick joke. Everybody got messages on their phones reading "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

If you're like most people, then you've never gotten anything like that on your phone. Let me tell you though, it was the best alarm I've ever had. Neighbors were panicking asking each other if they also got the alert, and the whole atmosphere in general was tense.

The worst part about the alert is that you couldn't find more information about it. I went online to see where the missile would hit or any other information, but none existed. The entirety of the Hawaiian Islands thought that it could be them.

Definitely an interesting way to start my day.