Hawaii race revives false missile alert

HONOLULU — Hawaii Gov. David Ige wants voters to look at his four years of accomplishments, including his handling of the Big Island’s erupting volcano, as reasons to give him a second term.

But U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, his main opponent in Saturday’s Democratic primary in the heavily blue state, wants voters to look at 38 minutes in January as reason enough to send Ige packing.

That’s how long panicking Hawaii residents waited to learn that a warning about an incoming ballistic missile was not real. Officials mistakenly sent a statewide alert to cellphones, televisions and radios warning of an imminent attack on Jan. 13. “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the message read.

It was a drill — one never intended to be seen by the public — and the hysteria it caused sparked a firestorm of criticism against Ige.

“When you hear the stories about what people did in 38 minutes, it gives you a clear sense that it truly affected so many people,” said Hanabusa, who is giving up her seat in Congress to challenge the governor.

Ige has his own criticisms, saying she caters to special interests and has a questionable history with ethics.

Robin Berenstain, 68, a clinical social worker at a military base on Oahu, remembers believing the missile alert that screeched on her phone. She said she called her family to tell them she loved them.

“I live in Kaneohe and overlook the bay, and opened my sliding glass door as wide as I could to be sure I’d go out on the first blast,” Berenstain said. “I had no desire to live in a post-apocalyptic world.”

She said it was “shocking” that it took so long to set the record straight.

While Ige acknowledged that he was “ultimately responsible” for the mishap, he repeatedly pointed to “human error” and a low-level state employee who sent the alert as the cause for the panic. But Ige ordered his defense department to roll out the nuclear attack plan before it was ready, providing the framework for the error.