HAWAII - NUCLEAR BOMBING FALSE ALARM

January 13, 2018 - At 8:07am, there was an emergency alert displayed and sounded across radios, cellphones, and cable television.

Emergency Alert

BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII.
SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Waking up to a sounding alarm coming from your phone is definitely not the greatest way to start your weekend. My husband told me to get out of bed and get dressed. Luckily, due to the previous nuclear launching threats from North Korea, Hawaii has somewhat been taking action to prepare for the worst.

For the first time since the Cold War, we sounded our nuclear attack siren in December. Last month, Hawaii sounded their siren following a monthly natural disaster siren test. The nuclear attack warning siren has now become a part of our monthly siren test.
The people of Hawaii have been advised to prepare for such a disaster. However, it seems like households are not taking this threat seriously enough up until now.

My husband ordered me to grab pillows and blankets and throw them in the bathroom to cover ourselves with. While I grabbed water, bananas, and granola bars, he flipped our mattress up against the windows and our boxspring up against the bedroom door to alleviate radiation leaking in. Waiting for him in the bathtub, he dragged in our night stand to lessen the impact of debris falling on us – my heart was racing. I have never been more alert and ready to take on orders. I wanted to panic, but we all know panicking doesn't get you anywhere. I wanted to survive.

From the time we receive a nuclear attack alert to the time we need to be in our shelter-in-place, we have less than 10 minutes. This is why we need to be prepared. This is why we have to take precaution and be proactive.

Hawaii's nuclear attack siren did not sound.

January 13, 2018 - At 8:45am, there was another emergency alert displayed and sounded across radios, cellphones, and televisions.

Emergency Alert

There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm.

Human error occurred at the Hawaii EMA - Emergency Management Agency.
Their administrator stated, "the warning was a mistake." Hawaii Gov. David Ige also stated, "it was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the change over of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button." ("Missle threat alert," 2018)

There are a lot of things to take away from this false alarm. Some people are upset at whoever pressed the wrong button angrily stating, "you had one job!" There are others blaming the POTUS from the tension he's created with the Supreme leader of North Korea. There are also others blaming the new employment standard of "it's not what you know, it's who you know." Instead of pointing fingers and putting blame upon others, we need to take this false alarm as an opportunity to better prepare ourselves in the event of a nuclear attack. My high school basketball coach once told me, "failing to prepare is preparing to fail." We need to have an action plan and learn what we need to do in order to survive a nuclear attack. We must be proactive, not reactive.

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Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm (2018, Jan 13), CNN News. http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/13/politics/hawaii-missile-threat-false-alarm/index.html