Hawaiians were startled when they got an emergency alert saying a ballistic missile threat was 'inbound.' Almost an hour later, they learned it was a false alarm. Many are outraged. USA TODAY
Hawaiians were sent scrambling Saturday morning — for more than 30 minutes — after an emergency alert notification warned of a ballistic missile threat, which turned out to be an error.
A flurry of tweets, often with screenshots of the message, appeared to pop up on cellphones shortly after 8 a.m. local time. It read, "Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound To Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This Is Not A Drill."
The message sent at least a few rushing for shelters as people pondered whether a missile was heading toward the island.
Thirty-eight minutes later, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency public information officer Richard Rapoza said the alert was sent in error. Though administrator Vern Miyagi took responsibility for the mistake at a press conference, "we're not pointing fingers at an individual," Rapoza told USA TODAY. "What we need to do now is address the problem," which he said starts with getting a two-step authentication process for sending out emergency alerts in the future.
"What happened was ... during shift changes (with) outgoing and incoming staff, somebody selected the wrong item on a computer. It was user error," Rapoza said.
Airbnb host Ted Daul, who lives and rents out property in Kauai, told USA TODAY he got the alert this morning while "making some Saturday morning blueberry pancakes" with his wife. He then dubbed the breakfast "end of the world pancakes," he said, because he thought it would be his final meal.
"My wife and I, we actually just got into bed and told each other how much we loved each other," Daul said. "We just had this moment and told everyone how much we loved and cared about them."
About a half hour later, he read a message from Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who tweeted an all-caps all-clear even before a new alert was sent saying the first message was false.
Daul said that because Hawaii started sounding nuclear war sirens at the end of last year, "It's an unfortunate reality, (but) it didn't feel so much out of the blue this morning," he said.
After that, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency gave its own all clear: "NO missile threat to Hawaii."
That message came out before a new phone alert because, as Rapoza says, EMA "did not have the process in place to send out an all clear," and had to get approval by the Federal Emergency Management Agency before sending another wireless emergency message.
"We did cancel the message, but (that process) doesn’t recall any messages," he says.
The U.S. Department of Defense also put out its own message, saying the agency "detected no missile threat to Hawaii. Earlier message was sent in error."
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii wrote, "There is no missile threat. It was a false alarm based on a human error." He sent a second tweet using capitalization to emphasize the "FALSE ALARM." He said, "There needs to be tough and quick accountability and a fixed process."
It's not clear what caused the error. The Federal Communications Commission is "launching a full investigation of what happened," according to spokesperson Brian Hart.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige vowed to "get to the bottom of this" and said he'd be meeting with the Defense Department and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency so that it doesn't happen again.
Ige told CNN somebody "pressed the wrong button," which sent out the alert, during a shift change at an emergency management facility.
"It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button," Ige told CNN.
White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said President Trump had been briefed on the alert.
"This was purely a state exercise," she said.
Roughly a half hour later, another emergency notification was sent out, this time saying the first was a false alarm.
"There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm," the message read.
The unsettling notification comes after months of aggressive rhetoric from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has threatened to strike the United States.
Hawaii is about 4,600 miles from North Korea's capital Pyongyang. In November, Hawaii began testing warning sirens to prepare for a possible nuclear attack.