Honeymoon horrors for couples caught up in Hawaiian hysteria
Paradise was nearly lost for blissful honeymooners in Hawaii yesterday morning, when their cellphones suddenly issued a heart-stopping alert: Doomsday is here.
The warning, pushed via emergency network to smartphones across the islands, warned of an incoming ballistic missile and stressed the alert was no drill.
It was the nightmare-cometrue for Andrew Coleman’s wife, whose greatest fear in planning their 10-day honeymoon was a North Korean rocket attack.
“The No. 1 thing my wife was scared about was a possible missile launch,” said Coleman, a 29-year-old from Reno, Nev.
He and his wife were packing their bags and about to head to the airport when the 8 a.m. warning hit Katie’s cellphone and the terror set in.
“It was instant panic,” Coleman said. “We called the front desk. They got the same alert. But they weren’t sure what was going on. They said they would get back to us. We never heard back.”
Hundreds of miles away on Maui, honeymooners Roger and Lauren Soroka got the same alert as they were hunting for their morning coffee. They immediately went to the resort lobby for answers.
“Everybody was in the lobby, basically crying,” said Lauren Soroka, a 32-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, who married her husband on New Year’s Eve. “Women bringing their children. The hotel staff had no idea; they got the same alert. They were trying to figure out what was going on and where to shelter people. They sent some people downstairs and a majority of us into a conference room.
“It was chaos,” she added. “People were saying, ‘This is World War III.’ ‘North Korea is going to bomb Hawaii.’ ‘If they are going to send a bomb or a missile it’s going to be Honolulu, not Maui.’ There were a lot of people freaking out.”
Thirty-eight minutes passed and a second alert explained that the first was sent in error. An announcement came over the conference room intercom.
“‘This was a false alarm. You can resume your daily activities.’ They said ‘mahalo’ ” — Hawaiian for “thanks” — “and everyone went back. We are enjoying wine for breakfast. Everyone’s drinking. It was just bad. We are all just gleeful it was a false alarm.”
In Kauai, nerves settled but were slow to calm.
Coleman said he and his wife decided to sit down for breakfast once the second alert went out.
“The first thing she ordered was a mimosa,” Coleman said. “I’m trying to calm her down as much as possible so we can enjoy the last bit of paradise before we head home.”