A False Missile Strike Alarm Just Scared the Hell Out of Everyone in Hawaii

“This is not a drill.”

Missile Alert
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On Saturday a state employee in Hawaii screwed up, big time. Instead of triggering a missile warning drill, someone triggered a real, straight-up ballistic missile alarm.

Hawaiians suddenly believed they were in the crosshairs of North Korean ICBM, that perhaps Kim Jong-Un had finally truly lost it and was ready to pull his own version of Pearl Harbor. The video above illustrates just how terrifying the moment must have been, as parents can be seen slipping children into storm drains for safety, Pennywise be damned. 

Missile Alert
Screengrab

Governor David Ige told CNN the error occurred during a shift change. Someone basically just “pushed the wrong button.” 

In an official statement Ige said that though he was “thankful” the alarm was an error, he was “working to get to the bottom of” the incident to “prevent an error of this type in the future. 

Hawaiians certainly hope so. Social media reactions tell the story as well as anything.

The panic was real. In addition to desperate measures like slipping kids into storm drains, businesses kicked people to the curb, and there were social media reports of tourists in a blind panic at various hotels.

Fortunately, it was all just a big screw-up in the end. 

Let’s hope it wasn’t also a full-on dress rehearsal for the real thing one day.

h/t NBC

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