HONOLULU, 14 Jan 2018:
Panic and confusion swept Hawaii yesterday as a mistaken alert about a ballistic missile attack spread across the Pacific US state – sending residents and tourists scrambling for shelter and questioning why an all-clear was not issued faster.
The false alert came amid high international tensions over North Korea’s development of ballistic nuclear weapons.
The alert was not corrected for 38 minutes. Many in Hawaii learned it was false because of a tweet sent in the interim by US representative Tulsi Gabbard.
State representative Matt LoPresti said he and his family sought safety in a bathtub but wondered why nuclear alert sirens had not sounded.
“That was my first clue that maybe something was wrong, whether a hack or an error. But we took it as seriously as a heart attack.”
Since the sirens did not ring out, work continued as normal at a post office in Honolulu’s Manoa district, said part-time postal worker Adam Goss, 32.
Puzzled friends contacted by Goss told him they were hearing nothing more about any imminent attack.
“I think they should have put out another message right away, rather than for us to have to check Twitter for Tulsi Gabbard’s message it was a false alarm,” Goss said.
The emergency alert to Hawaii’s residents – warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack – was sent mistakenly when an employee at the state emergency management agency pushed the “wrong button,” Hawaii’s governor said.
State officials and the US military’s Pacific Command confirmed there was no actual threat to the state. But for more than a half hour, while the agency struggled to retract the warning, panicked Hawaiians scrambled to find shelter.
The mistaken alert stated: “EMERGENCY ALERT BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” The alert, sent to mobile phones and aired on television and radio shortly after 8am local time.
Governor David Ige told a news conference he was “angry and disappointed” over the incident, apologised for it and said the state would take steps to ensure it never happens again. “What happened today was totally unacceptable.”
Ige said the alert was sent during a employee shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, and that the state had no automated process to get out the word it was a false alarm.
Vern Miyagi, the agency’s administrator, called it “human error.”
“An employee pushed the wrong button,” Ige said – adding that after the incident, the emergency management agency ordered a change in its procedures requiring two employees, not just one, to send out such an alert in the future. He said such shift changes occur three times a day, every day of the year.
Miyagi, who said Hawaii would have only 12 to 13 minutes of warning in an actual attack, declined to say what action would be taken against the employee.
Hawaii – a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean – has a population of about 1.4 million people, according to the US Census Bureau, and is home to Pacific Command – the Navy’s Pacific Fleet and other elements of the American military.
Miyagi said the agency routinely tests its emergency alert system and that employee thought he was conducting a test, not realising he had transmitted the warning with a two-step process on a computer screen until receiving it on his own cellphone minutes later.
“There is a screen that says, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’” Miyagi said, adding that the employee “feels terrible about it.”
Miyagi, who took responsibility for the incident, said the mistake “should have been caught.”
Hawaii’s economy depends heavily on tourism. At the news conference with Ige and Miyagi, a Hawaii tourism official expressed concern about the impact the incident might have on attracting visitors to the state.
In November, Hawaii said it would resume monthly statewide testing of Cold War-era nuclear attack warning sirens for the first time in at least a quarter of a century, in preparation for a possible missile strike from North Korea.
Stacey Bow, 56, of Honolulu, said she received the emergency alert on her smartphone. She awakened her 16-year-old daughter with the news. “She became hysterical, crying, you know, just lost it.”
Michael Sterling, 56, of Los Angeles, was in Waikiki when he received the alert. “I was thinking what could we do? There is nothing we can do with a missile.”
The hotel told guests to stay indoors and about 30 minutes later announced the all-clear. “That seems too late,” Sterling said as he prepared to have breakfast at a restaurant.
Ikaika Hussey, 39, publisher of Summit Magazine and candidate for Honolulu City Council, was home with his children when he got the alert. They grabbed food and headed for a room with a rock wall, he said.
He blamed Hawaii’s status as a potential target on its being home to the US Pacific Command and the Navy’s Pacific Fleet. “Militarism is reducing, not enhancing, our security.”
School administrator Tamara Kong, 43, of Honolulu, said, “Today, the whole state of Hawaii experienced a collective moment of panic and relief.”
– Reuters