Hawaiians had an interesting start to their weekend yesterday after an overpaid state employee ‘hit the wrong button’ during a shift-change at the state’s Emergency Management Agency.
The system designed to warn residents of an impending missile attack went live sending alerts across mobile phones, radio, etc warning: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This is Not A Drill.”
According to local reports, the alert sent the islands into pandemonium with women and children running wild screaming and crying.
It took a full 38 minutes for the agency to correct the record.
It’s one more demonstration why relying on the government to take care of us is a fool’s errand.
Here’s more from Fox News…
Hawaii emergency officials confirmed Saturday evening that an alert about an inbound ballistic missile was a mistake, which a state emergency official attributed to someone pushing the wrong button.
Vern Miyagi, who oversees the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (EMA), said at a news conference late Saturday that while employees were changing shifts earlier in the day and doing a test of their ballistic missile prep checklist, the wrong button was pushed.
Rather than triggering a test of the system, it went into actual event mode. He confirmed that to trigger the alert, there is a two-step process involving only one employee — who both triggers the alarm, then also confirms it.
“There is a screen that says, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?'” Miyagi said. The employee confirmed the alert, inadvertently causing a panic in a state already on edge over saber-rattling missile threats from North Korea.
At about 8:07 a.m. local time, Hawaii citizens received an emergency alert on their phone that read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
At 8:20 a.m. local time, Hawaii EMA tweeted that there was “NO missile threat” to the state. However, the tweet didn’t reach people who aren’t on the social media platform.
