Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm
By Zachary Cohen, CNN
Updated 2149 GMT (0549 HKT) January 13, 2018
http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/13/politics/hawaii-missile-threat-false-alarm/ind...Washington (CNN)An emergency alert notification sent out on Saturday claiming a "ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii" was a false alarm, according to state leaders and emergency officials.
"BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,"
the emergency alert read.
While the message caused concern on social media, the Hawaii Office of Emergency Management quickly responded on Twitter, saying, "NO missile threat to Hawaii."
Hawaii Gov. David Ige told CNN that
human error caused the alert to go out.
"It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button," he said.
The warning went out to television and radio as well as cell phones, Ige added.
Ige also tweeted that he is meeting with top defense and emergency management officials from the state "to determine what caused this morning's false alarm and to prevent it from happening again."
The governor's remarks come after Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi headed to the agency's 24-hour operations center to find out why the false alert was sent out, according to an email to CNN.
"The warning was a mistake," Miyagi said.
A second emergency alert was sent to phones in Hawaii 38 minutes after the initial message confirming the false alarm.
CNN was told by a viewer in Hawaii that both the initial threat warning and the message of false alarm more than 30 minutes later came across the TV warning notification system.
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