The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘A surreal moment’
Euclid native describes his experience during missile alert
Cassidy Yatsko almost didn’t pick up the phone call.
She was in the grocery store Jan. 13 picking out granola bars with her boyfriend when her phone began to ring.
It was her dad. She thought he was calling with a question regarding her picks for the weekend’s slate of NFL playoff games as they’re in a pool together. Maybe she didn’t fill out her picks correctly? She decided to take the call, but the subject was much different than she anticipated.
It was a little after 8 a.m. in Kauai, Hawaii, and Jack Yatsko had just returned from his morning jog. He received an alert on his phone. He gets them from time to time, usually weather-related — a flash flood or a tsunami — but never one like this.
This one would set off the longest 38 minutes of his life.
“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the emergency alert stated.
Jack and his wife Janece looked at each other. “Is this for real?” they asked.
They checked the radio and TV stations, finally seeing an alert crawl across the screen. They checked with a neighbor who thought it was serious, too.
Jack had friends from Missouri visiting that weekend. They were still at their hotel. He called them to see what they had been told. Hotel staff had told them to go to designated shelter areas. That made it seem more serious, Jack said.
Jack and his wife decided to call their older daughter in Euclid.
“I told her it may be nothing but gave her some info on some life insurance policies we had and told her we would try to call back when we knew more information,” he said.
Cassidy began crying in the grocery store. It might have been the last conversation she had with her parents. She grew up in Kauai, but now lives in the Euclid home where her father grew up. She too went to work seeking more information.
The Yatskos’ other daughter Grace is a freshman at Western Washington University and was on a weekend trip in Oregon with friends. They didn’t want to upset her, so they decided to hold off on calling her.
For 38 minutes, they waited for answers. What would happen to the place they’ve called home for nearly 30 years?
They fell in love with Kauai on their honeymoon in 1988. People told them they were crazy to move to a place where they didn’t know anyone and didn’t have jobs. But the itch became harder and harder to scratch.
It felt like a bigger risk not go, Jack said. They could always move back to Ohio if it didn’t work out. They had each other. It would be an adventure.
So they drove across the country and put their car on a boat in Los Angeles. Through a connection they made on their honeymoon, they got hired as bartenders. About a month later he got a job in the mental health field. Now he’s the chief operating officer of
Clubhouse International.
The risk paid off, and Kauai would become the home they would raise their two daughters in. Northeast Ohio is still in his heart, however. The Euclid native returns home every year to see an Indians game and a Cavs game, too, if he gets a chance.
As the minutes ticked by slowly without any more official alerts, Jack said they never panicked. He and Janece stayed put and said “I love you” to each other.
Through friends, Cassidy was able to get in touch with a state legislator who said the alert was a false alarm. She forwarded the information on to her parents. But official word was slow to roll out, something that she said she is still upset about. A missile can reach Kauai in 20 minutes from North Korea, she said. It was longer before reassurance was sent to the residents of Hawaii.
Official word came 38 minutes after they received the initial alert. The alert was a mistake. No missiles were incoming. Relief poured over Jack and his family.
“It was a surreal moment for sure,” he said.
When it was all over and they reached out to concerned friends and family to let them know they were OK, they went on with their day. They had paddle boarding plans and spent the day at the beach.
“Don’t take life for granted,” he said. “You don’t know when you’re going to get a message like we did.”
“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL” — Emergency alert