‘MISSILE ALERT’ SPARKS PANIC IN HAWAII, PEOPLE ABANDON CARS ON HIGHWAYS, HIDE
Inquiry ordered as state agencies scamble to contain scare
WASHINGTON: Panic struck the state of Hawaii, one of the closest US territories to North Korea, on Saturday after an emergency alert of an incoming missile flashed across cellphones in the archipelago.
The alert lasted for 38 minutes despite assurances from officials and agencies that it was a false alarm. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (EMA) scrambled to end the panic with a second message that it was a false alarm.
As social media ignited with screenshots of the cell phone emergency warning, Hawaii’s EMA confirmed that there was no missile threat. Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic Congresswoman from the state and co-chair of the India Caucus, also tweeted that there was no threat.
Residents and tourists in the state, which has in view of the threat from North Korea, reactivated cold-war era nuclear attack sirens, went into panic, ran for shelter and began texting their last goodbyes to loved ones.
President Donald Trump, who was on a golf course in Florida at the time, was briefed about it, the White House said in a statement, and went on to add it “was purely a state exercise”. He was also informed immediately it was a mistake.
But it remained unclear how the mistake came about. Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which runs these emergency services with private wireless providers and state agencies, has ordered an inquiry.
The state was in full emergency mode, and let up only after the final all-clear that went out at 8:45 am. The false alarm sent social media into an overdrive with screenshots of the cell phone emergency warning.
But lives had been turned upside down for those few minutes. “I literally sent out ‘I love you’ texts to as many family members as I could, Noah Tom, a Honolulu resident said to The Washington Post. “It was all kind of surreal at that point.”
United Airlines cleared its lobby at Honolulu airport and sent passengers downstairs to the baggage claim area, according to the advertiser, and workers at Pearl Harbour were scrambling to get off the base.
There is a three-step for sending out such alerts. The process is triggered by a message communicated through a special line by the US Pacific Command. The Hawaii EMA, which receives it, uses a checklist of protocols to verify it and then an alert is sent out.
The Saturday alert was sent by mistake but it might have tapped right into worries and concerns already felt in the state because of the intensifying rhetoric between the US and North Korea, with Pyongyang successfully testing a ballistic missile that US experts have acknowledged can reach any part of the US mainland.