SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:15PM (5 children)
I found it interesting precisely because we actually got to see what would happen in such a situation.
Sure, we have all seen those "end of the world" films, where when some disaster is imminent, you have people going mental.
The films represented them in different ways. Mass Riots, chaos, absent or dysfunctional government. Some people went crazy and started killing each other in a desperate bid to get out as fast as possible. Others started doing things they never dared do before (committing crimes, looting, etc...) , others just had sex with whoever they could find, etc...
This is the first time in my life I have seen an entire island basically think it was going to get nuked for 20 or so minutes. So we got a chance to see exactly what happens in such a situation, in a controlled environment, and also see how the authorities dealt with it.
My inner cynic suspects this wasn't an accident, but a good "trial run" of what would happen, because if you have a drill, you have to notify people in advance, people prepare for it. Also people don't behave the same way as the real thing, because they know it is a drill and they are safe from any real harm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @01:58PM
Isnt it interesting that by the time the correction was sent the missle would have already been there. Almost like, "I guess it ain't coming-false alarm".
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @03:55PM (2 children)
Given the current level of distrust of government, manipulation and fake news, I wonder how many actually believed it anyway.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @05:27PM
Don't worry, they won't believe it when it really happens either.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday January 15 2018, @07:09AM
Well it's a top to bottom Democratic party state. Based on democratic shenanigans to date, why would anyone put this past them?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @08:33PM
Having been through this, I would just say that my first reaction was to check Twitter to see what the hell that idiot Trump said to get NK made enough to nuke us. But then I thought, we should be ready to aid any survivors, if we chanced to survive, since making plans otherwise made no sense. Ohana means nobody gets left behind. The Riots and Chaos are Hollywood libertarian fantasies.