False "incoming missile alert" sent to Hawaii residents

[Steve_MB]

@Morgenstern

I wish that error had occurred in Washington DC instead of Oahu. I would love to see film of our fat ass president running for cover from the 5th tee, golf clubs flying, with the secret service dragging him along. That would be priceless.

Maybe they could trick him into getting into a shelter with no phone reception and lock it from the outside.

[Sherrerd]

@Siam_Sam

The main thing I’m pissed off about is this has now pushed President Chump’s “shithole countries” controversy completely out of the news.

It’s concerning that this could have been done for a purpose–changing the headlines or giving an excuse to escalate hostilities against North Korea or selling air-raid shelters or any other purpose.

I am hoping that a full investigation will put to rest any possibility that it was done on purpose. As of an hour ago the story was this:

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.

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/13/politics/hawaii-missile-threat-false-alarm/index.html

I hope that’s reliable information. This is serious stuff; a state-wide alarm could be used in some pretty unscrupulous ways.

[Riemann]

@Gatopescado

This joke is par for the course.

Tee hee.

[RTFirefly]

If I’d been in Hawaii, I’d have used the alert as an excuse for some serious drinking.

And if there were a Captain Obvious Award for newspaper headlines, the NYT would have the early lead for 2018:

Alert About Missile Bound for Hawaii Was Sent in Error, Officials Say

[I_Love_Me_Vol.I]

@MoonMoon

If you have an iPhone it’s something you have to turn on/off in settings>notifications (all the way at the bottom)

I turned mine off, so I guess I’ll be clueless until the emergency is on top of me.

I have Android, not iPhone. On my phone you can adjust the emergency notification settings for things like weather alerts and Amber alerts (maybe some others, too).

It also has a “Presidential Alert”* (or something) that can not be turned off. I would think an incoming missile would rate an emergency alert of the sort that can not be turned off on any phone.

*My assumption has always been that such an alert need not actually come from the president but would be used for national emergencies of the very highest order; which a missile attack is, IMO.

[John_Mace]

@Riemann

Tee hee.

Being a target of the enemy is one of the hazards of the job.

[Siam_Sam]

@MEBuckner

At least on Androids (service provider AT&T), there are four levels of alerts, from AMBER alerts (missing kids), through Severe alerts, Extreme alerts, up to Presidential alerts. And you can turn off AMBER, Severe, and Extreme alerts (elect not to get them). On Presidential alerts, the option to disable them is grayed out*. Since this was from the State of Hawaii, it presumably was NOT a “Presidential alert” (maybe an “Extreme” alert?). So, Siam Sam may just have (most) alerts disabled.

I use AT&T and never get alerts of any type, period. But I don’t think I have an Android. Some sort of low-level Samsung model bought in Bangkok. The wife’s the one with the fancy-shmancy up-to-date iPhone with all the features.

@Sherrerd

It’s concerning that this could have been done for a purpose–changing the headlines or giving an excuse to escalate hostilities against North Korea or selling air-raid shelters or any other purpose.

I am hoping that a full investigation will put to rest any possibility that it was done on purpose. As of an hour ago the story was this:

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/13/politics/hawaii-missile-threat-false-alarm/index.html

I hope that’s reliable information. This is serious stuff; a state-wide alarm could be used in some pretty unscrupulous ways.

I’m convinced it was basic human error. The official at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (Hema) taking responsibility for this – although he was not the one who pushed the button – seemed very humble. This is a solidly blue state with massive, off-the-charts hatred for our piece-of-trash president, and I doubt anyone would do this for him. Certainly not the rather elderly Japanese-American gentleman being humble before the camera.

@RTFirefly

If I’d been in Hawaii, I’d have used the alert as an excuse for some serious drinking.

Hmm. Good idea.

[Sherrerd]

@Siam_Sam

I’m convinced it was basic human error. The official at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (Hema) taking responsibility for this – although he was not the one who pushed the button – seemed very humble. This is a solidly blue state with massive, off-the-charts hatred for our piece-of-trash president, and I doubt anyone would do this for him. Certainly not the rather elderly Japanese-American gentleman being humble before the camera.

Thanks for that information; makes sense.

I do wonder if ‘pushed the wrong button’ was a shorthand explanation for a whole sequence of actions–surely this doesn’t occur as the result of pressing one button…?

[Siam_Sam]

They’re phrasing it as the wrong button being pushed, but apparently this happened during a shift change, and whatever they’re supposed to do for shift changes, they said thre’s some sort of checklist of stuff to do, and the list may not have been followed religiously.

[Spiderman]

@Riemann

Tee hee.

ISWYDT
Local weather: Overcast, high of 35°, w/ wind chill of 20°
Waikiki weather: Mostly sunny, high of 82º, 70% chance of incoming ballistic missle(s).

I’ll take cold & cloudy, TYVM.

[Siam_Sam]

@Siam_Sam

I’m convinced it was basic human error. The official at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (Hema) taking responsibility for this – although he was not the one who pushed the button – seemed very humble. This is a solidly blue state with massive, off-the-charts hatred for our piece-of-trash president, and I doubt anyone would do this for him. Certainly not the rather elderly Japanese-American gentleman being humble before the camera.

The official I saw is on the Hema website here. Or at least he is right now. Who knows if he’ll have to leave. But that’s the guy appearing on the news along with the state governor.

[nearwildheaven]

Obviously, the Soviet Union kept this under wraps for a long time, and I never heard about it until the past couple of years.

1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident

I wonder how many times the Americans did something comparable and we still don’t know about it.

:eek:

[BobLibDem]

This could have been covered on cable news in maybe half an hour tops. Instead, we get non-stop talking heads for hours and hours and hours. Jesus.

[Siam_Sam]

At least one local station is holding all-day coverage. Local officials are really being raked over the coals. They say new measures have already been put into place. One is there will be two people present before that button gets pushed. They’re saying it really was a button, and there’s something about the words on the screen saying, “Do you really want to do this?” before the button is pushed. Looks like someone went ahead anyway. May have thought that was part of the drill.

Seems the Big Island got the all-clear long before Oahu.

[John_Mace]

@BobLibDem

This could have been covered on cable news in maybe half an hour tops. Instead, we get non-stop talking heads for hours and hours and hours. Jesus.

Slow news day. Now that every news anchor has been able to say “shit-hole” at least 3 times on the air, they’re bored and need to move on. Are there any celebrities on their deathbeds of late?

[DigitalC]

There’s going to be so many babies born in Hawaii nine months from today.

[Tom_Tildrum]

I have yet to hear an explanation from state authorities for the forty-minute delay in correcting the error.

[Lamoral]

I am astonished that anyone could just brush off this incident as if it were a minor story. This is a huge, gigantic fucking deal. Under no circumstances should it be possible for something like this to happen by accident. The very fact that it did, that the process of issuing an emergency alert for something of such grave importance is sufficiently lax that it can be done without multiple people confirming and verifying it…and then taking more than half an hour to be retracted, on top of that?! This is a big, big deal. It’s way more important of an issue than anything Donald Trump said or did.

[D_Anconia]

Why were people “crying, screaming, and running around in the streets?”

Hawaii Says No Missile Threat After Emergency Alert Mistakenly Sent

Isn’t running around in the streets the exact opposite of taking shelter?

[running_coach]

@D_Anconia

Why were people “crying, screaming, and running around in the streets?”

Hawaii Says No Missile Threat After Emergency Alert Mistakenly Sent – NBC Bay Area

Isn’t running around in the streets the exact opposite of taking shelter?

Something about the possible threat of being vaporized in a nuclear fireball brings out emotions in people.
Something you don’t understand.