38-Minute Emergency Alert Scare: Hawaii Bound Missile False Alarm

What was supposed to be a routine internal test of the Emergency Alert System during a shift change ended up being a scare to all of Hawaii. The 38-Minute scare of a ballistic missile heading towards Hawaii ended up being a false alarm, thankfully.

Emergency Alert

The bad thing about this mistake is that people took this emergency alert as real information. Why wouldn’t they? Who would have ever thought we’d receive a false alarm alert?

People running for cover

Students at University of Hawaii at Manoa panicking after missile threat was issued #hawaii pic.twitter.com/NfDkt1L5TQ

— Joe Walker (@_JoeWalker) January 13, 2018

Reactions from others

I’m still shaking. My husband ran around closing windows (against radiation); I filled water containers and texted goodbye and “I love you all” to my family.
I cannot describe how that felt. #Hawaii #BallisticMissileThreat #missile

— Nancy Christenson (@Nancy_C) January 13, 2018

This was my phone when I woke up just now. I’m in Honolulu, #Hawaii and my family is on the North Shore. They were hiding in the garage. My mom and sister were crying. It was a false alarm, but betting a lot of people are shaken. @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/m6EKxH3QqQ

— Sara Donchey (@KPRC2Sara) January 13, 2018

Now that everything has calmed down and everything seems to be back to normal. You know, living your life not worried about a missile coming towards your home. It makes you think about what if that wasn’t a false alarm. What if this emergency alert had been real?

Would you know what to do?

Are you prepared for an emergency, of any kind?

Where would you go in the event of an emergency?

I can say without hesitation that we wouldn’t be ready. This is a horrible thing to admit, but it is true. We’ve never had to deal with anything like this and, to be honest, never thought anything like this could happen.

I know that we need an emergency kit as well as a possible survival kit. We need to figure out where we might go in the event of an emergency. I also know that we need to make sure everyone in the family knows exactly what to do.

Let this serve as a reminder to you to make sure you have everything ready in the event of an emergency.