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Alert About Missile Bound for Hawaii Was Sent in Error, Officials Say Alert About Missile Bound for Hawaii Was Sent in Error, Officials Say
(35 minutes later)
The authorities confirmed on Saturday that there was no ballistic missile headed toward Hawaii, minutes after an emergency alert was sent to cellphones there urging people to seek immediate shelter, leading to chaos and confusion. LOS ANGELES, Calif. — An early-morning emergency alert mistakenly warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack was dispatched to cellphones across Hawaii early Saturday morning, setting off widespread panic in a state that was already on high emotional alert because of escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.
“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII,” the alert said. “SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” Officials recalled the alert about 40 minutes after it was issued in a scramble of confusion over why it happened. Outrage was immediately expressed by state officials and among people who live in what is normally a famously tranquil part of the Pacific.
A corrected alert was sent out 38 minutes later. “There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii,” it read. “Repeat. False Alarm.” Officials said the alert resulted from human error and was not the work of hackers or a foreign government. At no time, officials said, was there any indication that a nuclear attack had been launched on the United States. “The public must have confidence in our emergency alert system,” the governor, David Ige said. “I am working to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future.”
The episode came at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea, which has said that it has successfully tested ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. The Federal Communications Commission announced Saturday afternoon it had begun “a full investigation into the FALSE missile alert in Hawaii.”
Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat of Hawaii, tweeted shortly after the first alert was sent that she had confirmed that there was no missile. The alert went out at about 8:10 a.m., lighting up phones of people still in bed, at beaches or up for an early surf. “‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” it read.
Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesman for the United States Pacific Command, said in an emailed statement: “USPACOM has detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii. Earlier message was sent in error.” People flocked to shelters, crowding highways in scenes of terror and helplessness. “I was running through all the scenarios in my head, but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to pull over to,” said Mike Staskow, a retired military captain.
Tommy Freeman of Kailua, Hawaii, said that after seeing the alert, he was “overcome with adrenaline — we thought we had 15 minutes to live.” At Konawaena High School on the Island of Hawaii, where a high school wrestling championship was taking place, school officials, more accustomed to responding to alerts of high surf or tsunamis, moved people to the center of the gym as they tried to figure out to shelter someone from a nuclear missile.
Traffic stopped, he said, with people running around in fear. “It was a weird pandemonium,” he said. “You could tell no one knew what to do.” “Everyone cooperated,” said Kellye Krug, the athletic director at school. “Once they were gathered we let them use cellphones to reach loved ones. There were a couple kids who were emotional, the coaches were right there to console kids. After the retraction was issued, we gave kids time to reach out again.”
The false alarm caused widespread panic on social media. Matt LoPresti, a state representative, told CNN that he and his family headed for a bathroom. “”I was sitting in the bathtub with my children, saying our prayers,” he said.
It was not immediately clear why the false alert was sent. Gov. David Y. Ige, a Democrat, said in a statement that he was working to figure out what had happened. Around the Ko’a Kea Hotel at Poipu Beach on the island of Kauai, guests looked quizzically around, wondering aloud if the alert was real. Many, looking bewildered, made their way to the main lobby, where they were invited by hotel staff to shelter in the basement parking garage among the vehicles. Very little information was provided, and the sense of urgency and panic rose.
“While I am thankful this morning’s alert was a false alarm, the public must have confidence in our emergency alert system,” he said. “I am working to get to the bottom of this so we can prevent an error of this type in the future.” Within several minutes, about 30 people were huddled in the garage, some making phone calls or scanning Twitter for details. Others gathered together near the edges of the garage, trying to make sense of the alert. At least one young guest was crying.
The White House confirmed that Mr. Trump had been briefed. Word spread quickly after Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii tweeted at 8:19 that the alert was a false alarm. The hotel staff, however, told guests not to leave the property until they got the all clear. Many decided on their own that it was safe to venture out once tweets began appearing from officials saying the alert was false.
Senator Mazie K. Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, emphasized the importance of making sure that “all information released to the community is accurate.” In Washington, the White House said President Trump had been informed of the events. “The president has been briefed on the state of Hawaii’s emergency management exercise,” said Lindsay Walters, a deputy press secretary. “This was purely a state exercise.”
She added, “We need to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again.” Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat, said that the false alarm was the result of human error. “There is no missile threat,” he said. “It was a false alarm based on a human error.”
Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, tweeted a similar statement. “There is nothing more important to Hawaii than professionalizing and fool-proofing this process,” he said. “What happened today is totally inexcusable,” he said. “The whole state was terrified. There needs to be tough and quick accountability and a fixed process.”
“What happened today is totally inexcusable,” he added. “The whole state was terrified.” The false alert was a stark reminder of what happens when the old realities of the nuclear age collide with the speed – and the potential for error – inherent in the nuclear age.
Angel Kay Uherek, who lives in Kailua, said that soon after seeing the alert, she began packing a bag, and she messaged her five children on the mainland to let them know of the threat. The alert came at one of the worst possible moments: When tension with North Korea has been at one of the highest points in decades, and when the government of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s young leader, has promised more missile tests and threatened the possibility of an atmospheric nuclear test. But the cellphone alerting system was in the hands of state authorities; the detection of missile launches is the responsibility of the U.S. Strategic Command and Northern Command, essential cogs in the military. It was the military – not Hawaiian officials – who were the first to come out and declare that there was no evidence of a missile launch.
“I’ve been here 13 years and we’ve had tsunami warnings,” she said. But with tsunami threats, “There’s more time than 15 minutes.” During the Cold War there were many false alarms. William J. Perry, the secretary of defense during the Clinton Administration, recalled in a recent memoir, “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink,” a moment in 1979 when, as an undersecretary of defense, he was awakened by a watch officer who reported that his computer system was showing 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles headed to the United States. “For one heart-stopping second I thought my worst nuclear nightmare had come true,” Mr. Perry wrote.
And after recent standoffs between President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, she said, the threat of nuclear attacks is at the top of everyone’s mind. In fact the general who called him said they believed it was a false alarm, but had not yet figured out what went wrong. It turned out a training tape had been mistakenly inserted in an early-warning system computer. No one woke up the President. But Mr. Perry went on to speculate what might have happened if such a warning had come “during the Cuban Missile Crisis or a Mideast war?” And that is exactly what the U.S. faces today with North Korea.
“It just got real,” she said. “It’s not a joke.” It is an especially difficult problem because of growing fears inside the military about the cyber vulnerability of both the nuclear warning system and nuclear control systems.
Wren Wescoatt, who lives in Manoa Valley, a residential area near the University of Hawaii, said he was sleeping in when he received the alert, and he immediately began calling relatives on neighbor islands. Because of its location, Hawaii has – more than any other part of the United States – been threatened by the escalating tensions and the risks of war. Preparations had already begun, including an air raid siren alert on Dec. 1, the start of what officials said would be monthly drills.
“You wonder: What does seek shelter mean if we come under attack? What can we do?” he said. “My wife’s first thought was, do we have enough water? But does that really matter if a missile strikes Hawaii? It might be better to just hug the kids.” On Friday, the day before the alert, several hundred people attended an event in Honolulu sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce in which military commanders, politicians and others discussed the threat to the islands’ population.
“The U.S. is the designated recipient — and that’s because we are public enemy No. 1 to North Korea,” Dan Leak, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and Pacific Command deputy commander, was quoted as saying in the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
In a keynote speech to the group, Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, was quoted as saying: “While the possibility of a nuclear strike is slim, we now live in a world where we must be prepared for every contingency.”