It is hard to imagine what must have been the reaction of each person in each house and at work or wherever they were in the tropical paradise of Hawaii yesterday when their mobile phones flashed a ballistic missile threat and gave no time to save themselves from a Nuclear attack by North Korea.
Many ran recklessly to be with their loved ones. Citizens even tried to push their young ones into storm drains to save them when it all turned out to be a “mistake”.
Many residents received an emergency alert on their phones – reportedly sent by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency – that they needed to take immediate shelter from an imminent threat from a ballistic missile. The alert further stated that, “this is not a drill.”
After 38 minutes of complete frenzy as their lives flashed in front of their eyes, the citizens were told by Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency that an alert of a ballistic missile threat sent to people across the island was a false alarm.
Finally the official announcement came with the Hawaii authority tweeting to inform that there was, “NO missile threat” to the state.
NO missile threat to Hawaii.
— Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) January 13, 2018
The cellphone message denying the incident however came a few minutes after that.
Many on the island state were reported to have called their families across the world to say their final goodbyes as they waited for an imminent wipe-out following the Nuclear attack. Many broke down and cried on the streets or hyperventilated thinking of the imminent wipe-out.
It had all happened due to a human error as someone had manually pushed a wrong button triggering the emergency alarm.
Also Read: Pak foreign minister takes to Twitter, threatens India with N attack
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesman, Richard Rapoza said that the ballistic missile threat was a false alarm and added that the agency is working to determine the entire incident.
Rapoza said someone mistakenly triggered the cellphone and television alert during a shift change. Turns out, it took only one person to push Hawaii’s buttons.
Soon, the Hawaiian Governor, David Ige revealed that the emergency alert about an incoming “ballistic missile threat”, which jolted Hawaiians awake, was a false alarm caused by someone pushing the “wrong button”.
Also Read: Trump labelled xenophobe, 54 African countries seek apology over alleged ‘racial’ slur
“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift and an employee pushed the wrong button”, Ige stated. “The warning went out to cell phones, television and radio got the emergency alert”.
Ige also issued a series of statements on Twitter, saying he wanted to “get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future”.
“While I am thankful this morning’s alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system”, he wrote.
STATEMENT: While I am thankful this morning’s alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system. I am working to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future.
— Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) January 13, 2018
I am meeting this morning with top officials of the State Department of Defense and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to determine what caused this morning’s false alarm and to prevent it from happening again.
— Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) January 13, 2018
The White House issued a statement on the false alarm, noting that United States President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident.
A senior U.S. official informed the media that Trump was at his Florida golf course, Mar-a-Lago when the scare happened and knew “soon after” that the alerts had been determined false.
“This was purely a state exercise”, the statement added.