A false alarm, but gives an awareness of what a nuclear armed missile capable North Korea means. That Hawaii is never more than 20 minutes from being potentially nuked, and there is nowhere to hide if it happens.


Hawaii emergency officials say ballistic missile threat alert was a mistake


 Quote:
Hawaii emergency officials confirmed Saturday that an alert warning that a ballistic missile was inbound to the island was a mistake.
Earlier Saturday, Hawaiian citizens reported receiving an emergency alert on their phone that stated: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

House Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, tweeted in regard to the alert: “HAWAII – THIS IS A FALSE ALARM. THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE TO HAWAII. I HAVE CONFIRMED WITH OFFICIALS THERE IS NO INCOMING MISSILE.”

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted that there was “NO missile threat” to the state.

Hawaii Emergency Management agency spokesman Richard Repoza said the alert was a false alarm. He said the agency was working to determine what happened.

The alert created panic for residents on the island and across social media.

...“Today’s alert was a false alarm,” [Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii] wrote. “At a time of heightened tensions, we need to make sure all information released to the community is accurate. We need to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again.”

A White House official said President Trump, who is spending the weekend in Florida, has been briefed on the incident, which they said "was purely a state exercise."

Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in a statement that "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."

The statement noted Ige is meeting with top officials from the State Department of Defense and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency "to determine what caused this morning's false alarm and to prevent it from happening again."