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HUMAN ERROR BLAMED FOR FALSE MISSILE ALERT
Published January 13, 2018 - 12:01pm
By TOM CALLIS Hawaii Tribune-Herald

It wasn’t a drill, but neither was it the real deal.

A false alert warning of an incoming missile strike that was sent to cell phones and broadcast on radio stations Saturday morning across the state, causing panic and confusion for more than half an hour, was the result of human error, officials said.

Gov. David Ige told reporters the error occurred during a shift change at Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

He said staff “did not complete the process as prescribed and a false alarm was initiated.”

In Hilo, drivers pulled to the side of the road upon getting the messages, while shoppers were told to stay indoors.

“The first thing I thought, honestly, was we’re going to die,” said a Hilo man who declined to give his name. “We don’t have any bomb shelters here.”

Ige said HEMA began issuing notifications that the alert was false when that was determined, but it took 38 minutes for residents to receive a corrected alert on their phones.

The initial alert, sent at 8:07 a.m., told residents that a missile threat was inbound to Hawaii and that they should seek immediate shelter, ending with “THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

At about 8:45 a.m., the corrected alert was issued: “There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False alarm.”

Mayor Harry Kim said he spoke against the state adding the missile alerts, which it recently began testing, because he didn’t think it was ready.

“This is something you do not toy with in any way shape or form,” he said at Hawaii County Civil Defense. “It’s got to be almost fool proof. Every element has got to be addressed.”

Kim said county Civil Defense got the official word that the alert was false at 8:15 a.m. He said they started notifying police and fire departments even before then. An audio recording of Kim notifying the public of the false alarm was issued at 8:24 a.m.

In an email sent at about 9:30 a.m., Ige said: “While I am thankful this morning’s alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system. I am working to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future.”
-hawaii-tribune.com, January 13, 2018

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/human-error-blamed-false-missile-alert