by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
At 8:05 a.m. yesterday a friend of mine, a social worker who lives and works for the U.S. military in Honolulu, was at home and on the phone dealing with a client when an emergency text message suddenly arrived on her cell phone. The emergency alert read:
The all-clear officially sounded thirty-eight minutes after the initial warning. During that brief period of time all hell apparently broke loose around the islands as people rushed to-and-fro trying to figure out how to shelter safely.
Hawaii was in a panic mode, and for good reason. For the past year the Trump administration and the government of North Korea have been exchanging careless boasts and threats. The North Koreans had made threats regarding the U.S. Territory of Guam, and Trump had promised a response of "fire and fury" should North Korea launch an attack. Recently there had been an exchange of insults between Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea regarding the "size" of the nuclear buttons on their respective desks. Clearly the threat of an incoming missile to Hawaii was not that far-fetched!
Governor David Ige of Hawaii said that the incident occurred when someone at the emergency management agency pushed the wrong button during a shift change. The Federal Communications Commission is one of the government entities looking into the incident. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii took the lead in reassuring citizens that the alarm was false and they all were safe. Donald Trump was playing golf at his club in Florida at the time of the alarm - and the White House has yet to weigh in on the incident calling it a "state" matter.
Some pundits are suggesting that it was probably a good thing that Trump was preoccupied with golf at the time of the incident.
One thing that the false alarm did point out was that our government has been woefully negligent in preparing the public to respond to a nuclear threat. No one seemed to know where to seek shelter and panic ensued. One report that I read this morning said that it would take a ballistic missile just twenty minutes to travel from North Korea to Hawaii, and that people on the islands could expect a maximum of a twelve-minute warning.
My friend in Honolulu mentioned that she heard one hotel in the Waikiki area had herded its guests into a basement. Apparently no passenger planes were diverted during the alert, and aircraft continued to land at the Honolulu airport. She commented to me about how scared passengers on arriving planes must have been when they turned on their cell phones and learned that a ballistic missile was headed in their direction! My friend said that Facebook was going absolutely nuts during and after the incident.
Hawaii, here's another in-coming threat for you: Pa Rock and his lady will be arriving this Friday. If you have a missile crisis while we are there, I plan to plant myself on the beach with a jumbo Mai Tai and wait for it!
Aloha, cruel world!
Citizen Journalist
At 8:05 a.m. yesterday a friend of mine, a social worker who lives and works for the U.S. military in Honolulu, was at home and on the phone dealing with a client when an emergency text message suddenly arrived on her cell phone. The emergency alert read:
"BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."My friend said that she completed her work with the client and then went and laid down. "I knew there was nothing I could do about it," she later told me over the phone. "I just wondered what it would sound like." Fortunately for her and all of the other residents and tourists who were seeking safety and shelter in our fiftieth state, the alert by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency proved to be a false alarm, and normal life slowly resumed in paradise.
The all-clear officially sounded thirty-eight minutes after the initial warning. During that brief period of time all hell apparently broke loose around the islands as people rushed to-and-fro trying to figure out how to shelter safely.
Hawaii was in a panic mode, and for good reason. For the past year the Trump administration and the government of North Korea have been exchanging careless boasts and threats. The North Koreans had made threats regarding the U.S. Territory of Guam, and Trump had promised a response of "fire and fury" should North Korea launch an attack. Recently there had been an exchange of insults between Trump and Kim Jong Un of North Korea regarding the "size" of the nuclear buttons on their respective desks. Clearly the threat of an incoming missile to Hawaii was not that far-fetched!
Governor David Ige of Hawaii said that the incident occurred when someone at the emergency management agency pushed the wrong button during a shift change. The Federal Communications Commission is one of the government entities looking into the incident. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii took the lead in reassuring citizens that the alarm was false and they all were safe. Donald Trump was playing golf at his club in Florida at the time of the alarm - and the White House has yet to weigh in on the incident calling it a "state" matter.
Some pundits are suggesting that it was probably a good thing that Trump was preoccupied with golf at the time of the incident.
One thing that the false alarm did point out was that our government has been woefully negligent in preparing the public to respond to a nuclear threat. No one seemed to know where to seek shelter and panic ensued. One report that I read this morning said that it would take a ballistic missile just twenty minutes to travel from North Korea to Hawaii, and that people on the islands could expect a maximum of a twelve-minute warning.
My friend in Honolulu mentioned that she heard one hotel in the Waikiki area had herded its guests into a basement. Apparently no passenger planes were diverted during the alert, and aircraft continued to land at the Honolulu airport. She commented to me about how scared passengers on arriving planes must have been when they turned on their cell phones and learned that a ballistic missile was headed in their direction! My friend said that Facebook was going absolutely nuts during and after the incident.
Hawaii, here's another in-coming threat for you: Pa Rock and his lady will be arriving this Friday. If you have a missile crisis while we are there, I plan to plant myself on the beach with a jumbo Mai Tai and wait for it!
Aloha, cruel world!
No comments:
Post a Comment