We Survived Hawaii’s ‘Ballistic Missile Attack’
Clickbaity as Hell
My wife and I are spending some time in Hawaii this week to finally decompress after the wedding and just yesterday, during our morning prep for a beautiful day out, my phone started to go OFF with this little friendly message -
Now, I’ve received warnings of snowstorms and flash floods, even the rare police chase based on my GPS location. But this was quite the first. My wife’s phone went off with the same alert just a few seconds later. I could hear other hotel stayers scuttling by, talking about the message as well on the way back to their rooms. I was admittedly shell-shocked, not knowing what my first course of action was. Should I call my family? Should I run for cover with my wife? Should I check Donald Trump’s Twitter to see if there was any social-media spat that led up to this?
Just a mere 30 or so minutes later, we were reassured with the following spam -
The least they could do was include a few Hawaiian emojis in the follow-up...
Unsurprisingly, this was the biggest news to come across Hawaiian news desks in quite some time. Apparently it was a simple mistake, a wrong button pushed in the military offices of Hawaii. No biggie.
Upon some further digging, and I had no idea this was happening before booking our tickets, Hawaii has decided to reinstate their emergency alert program just last month, allowing mass messages and an islands’-wide siren alert. Apart from almost soiling myself in my lion-printed bathing suit, at least this little mishap made the honeymoon all that more memorable.
Anyway, I wanted to share that unique experience with you all and just to let you all know that if you have friends or family in Hawaii, they’re probably lounging out more so than ever. Steem on!
P.S. greetings from Kauai!
Hahah i'm happy that was false alarm..nice picture btw :)
Thanks @andreaa!
Now, I bet that was an intense experience, haha. What did you do until the second emergency message came in? I have no idea what I would have done.
Btw, you should've checked Trump's twitter; if anything similar happens for real, he would be the first to tweet about it. "Be ready Russia; we're sending some nukes your way. #AmericaFirst #FakeNews" lol :)))
I mix of ideas ran through my head but I ended up just sipping on my brunch-beer and figuring 'ah well, maybe this is the end, maybe it isn't.'
And I was really tempted to check twitter but didn't want to give the head honcho the satisfaction =)
How did people around you react?
I think you made the right decision. There was a chance it was a false alert. Even if it wasn't a false alert, the missile was likely to malfunction and fall into the sea before reaching the target. Even if the missile didn't malfunction, we don't know if the targeting system is accurate enough to hit the intended target. Even if the targeting system is accurate, the target would likely be either the largest population centre, or the largest military installation, so you would likely have been relatively safe in any case.
Check out Hawaii 5-O, Season 1, Ep. 15 on Netflix. A similar thing happened in that episode.
so scary, glad you (we) can laugh about it now... but sad that the island feels it needs to reinstate the warning system. Crazy! Enjoy your stay!
I think that was the craziest realization about this all. Most of us play off the idea of nuclear threat but there are some real strides to prepare for worst-case scenarios...
헐 다행입니다. 유쾌하지는 않지만 저런 오류가 추억 하나 만들어주네요.
처음에 받고, 아 이제 다시 집에 못가겠다.. 생각했습니다. ㅎㅎㅎㅎ
신혼여행 재미있게 잘 즐기면서 충전하고 2018년도에 더 좋은 일들 기획 해보자구^^
땡쓰 형!
I love the theory that this actually was a drill to see how people would react. Glad it was fake though. Can’t imagine the horror of not knowing when or where these projectiles will fall.
I wish the Hawaiian administration played it off as if it was actually all just a drill... They would have gotten a lot less flak for it.
I don't subscribe to the theory that this was just to see how people would react. You don't panic 1.4 million people with an experiment like this. Think of the traffic accidents it could have caused. People being pushed down stairs. People fighting to get into the freezers at restaraunts. People rushing to fly out in jets. Social experiments like this can be done on smaller groups of people -- and have been done -- and psychologists know that most people will just give up if they have 15min left. No where to run.
very strange to say "repeat. False Alarm." when you can just move your eyes back and read it again.
Haha very true... I guess this is what happens when Cold-War tactics are resurrected in the digital age...
The Hawaiian emojis definitely would have made the false alarm more....i dunno...NBD-ish.
한국에서도 그 문자가 인터넷으로 공유가 되었습니다 담당자 해고 안당하고 괜찮을까요?. 하와이 사진으로만 봐도 멋진 곳이네요 즐거운 여행 되세요
괴물군님, 이곳도 오셨었네요! 고맙습니다!