#Hawaii

On January 13, 2018, a false alarm was set off in Hawaii that startled and frightened many residents in Hawaii and it certainly was a surprise for visitors from other states and countries that wanted to go to Hawaii for a calm vacation. A message was sent out telling them to seek shelter due to an incoming missile threat. Thankfully, it was a false alarm, but at the time, nobody knew, so everyone was panicking.

According to CNN, Hawaii had been running tests to make preparations just in case there was a potential nuclear strike from North Korea. New York Magazine quoted, “The mistake started while a shift change was under way on Saturday morning in the bunker headquarters of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HEMA). During a routine test of the state’s emergency and wireless-emergency alert systems, a state employee selected ‘missile alert’ instead of ‘test missile alert’ from a drop-down menu in the agency’s alert-system software, then confirmed his incorrect selection with another click.” Hawaii’s governor didn’t know his password to Twitter, so he couldn’t spread the word about the alarm being a mistake. This made everyone in Hawaii scared. If the governor had remembered his password, the people in Hawaii could’ve calmed down sooner.

It most likely was confusing and scary to see a warning about a missile alert appear randomly on your phone. For one Michigan woman, Iynn Hoyt,  who was in Hawaii for a vacation, it was quite scary for her. She had a recent interview with WWMT, and explained how everyone was in panic, “There was panic on the island especially for people that were out on the roads. In their cars trying to get home or trying to get to shelter. On the island of Oahu there was major panic on that island some of their sirens did go off, some of them didn’t. The streets were crowded people were trying to fly down the highway at 100 mph trying to get home. There were people putting children in manhole covers, to put them down in the sewers.”

Hopefully, there no will be no other mistakes regarding false alarms and missiles.