For a full 38 minutes on Saturday morning, the residents of Hawaii believed that they were under attack. With the various
inflammatory statements and
missile tests coming out of North Korea in recent years, there's a lot of fear and anxiety over a possible nuclear war, but these people came far too close to the feeling that their lives were coming to an end.
The panic started just after 8am, when an emergency alert was issued to everyone's cell phones, with the same alerts broadcast on TV and radio stations. This is an efficient way of communicating the threat - if the threat really existed. Imagine looking at your phone on a lazy Saturday morning and reading:
"BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/KPRC2Sara/status/952253490063032320]]
This forced many people to examine what they would do in a crisis, with the fate of their loved ones on the line. On a beach on Oahu's north shore, residents on a morning walk ran to cover in their homes, while drivers pulled over to tell pedestrians about the incoming missile.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/952289557659176961]]
Hawaii have implemented monthly warning siren tests but rarely do they go this far, especially with the "this is not a drill". These sirens sound like a minute-long beep are played each month along with their tsunami warning tests.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/sophiecocke/status/952261549518856192]]
Destinee Solis, 24, spoke to the Huffington Post about her experience thinking the world was coming to an end:
“Once I finished, I went in and sat with my kids, hugged them tightly, closed my eyes and just hoped we would make it. My husband waited outside the closet door. At one moment, I went out to hug him and basically say our goodbyes.”
“I didn’t want my kids to see the fear we felt waiting for [the missile] to hit. These moments were the scariest, darker moments of my life. I was mentally preparing myself to lose my kids, my life.”
The government later issued a correction, but it took 38 minutes before this clarification was made, during which time plenty of people were in a state of panic. The official reason given by Governer David Ige was that a state employee had "pressed the wrong button" by accident.
[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd58z-ygDqo/]]
Senator Brian Schatz called the slip-up “totally inexcusable,” tweeting that “The whole state was terrified. There needs to be tough and quick accountability and a fixed process.” After the alert was broadcast, U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard told CNN that “the people of Hawaii just got a taste of the stark reality of what we face here of a potential nuclear strike on Hawaii.”
They weren't the only ones to respond strongly to the attack, as
Jim Carrey was in Hawaii at the time of the alerts. "I woke up this morning in Hawaii with ten minutes to live," he wrote, before taking out his rage on the Trump administration for "alienating the world".
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/JimCarrey/status/952284494257508352]]
One can only imagine what it must have been like to believe that your country was under attack, trying to figure out exactly what your priorities are and how to keep you and your loved ones safe. And all because of one simple mistake.
