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False Alarm: Emergency Alert in Hawaii Claimed "Missile Inbound"

posted by takyon on Sunday January 14 2018, @09:45AM   
from the oopsday dept.

Fnord666 writes:

A few minutes ago, phones across Hawaii received the above emergency alert about a "ballistic missile threat inbound," but according to state officials it isn't true. US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii's [governor] David Ige and the state's Hawaii Emergency Management Agency all chimed in on Twitter to confirm the alert is false. It took 38 minutes before a second alert reached phones, confirming that the first one was a mistake.

Honolulu police confirmed in a post that "State Warning Point has issued a Missile Alert in ERROR!," while Buzzfeed reporter Amber Jamieson tweets that one EMA employee said it was a part of a drill. US Senator from Hawaii Brian Schatz said the "inexcusable" alert "was a false alarm based on a human error" while the National Weather Service called it a "test message."

The governor said on CNN that "It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button."

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/13/hawaii-missile-eas/

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Original Submission

• Nine months later... Nine months later... (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @11:33AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @11:33AM (#622160)

  Or am I just being too cynical?

  Starting Score:	0		points
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• Re:Nine months later... (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 14 2018, @11:37PM

  by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday January 14 2018, @11:37PM (#622321) Homepage Journal

  I know what you mean. Nine months later, out comes a leak of the movie Sony Pictures was making about the alert. Believe me, we're doing everything we can to stop that from happening.

  Parent