USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency warned cellphone users Saturday. Television viewers saw a more detailed alert:
“If you are indoors, stay indoors. If you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter in a building. Remain indoors well away from windows. If you are driving, pull safely to the side of the road and seek shelter in a building or lay on the floor.”
Panic was widespread. People presuming they were doomed bid terrified and sorrowful goodbyes to loved ones. A video emerged of parents putting their child in a storm drain.
And as terrorized residents learned almost 40 minutes later, it was a false alarm. An employee performing a routine internal shift change test on the alert system had chosen the wrong drop-down menu option.
Oops, our bad. Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella character comes to mind. And yeah, as bad as this was, it merits ridicule, as satire site The Onion notes.
Why a system was set up that did not require verification and approval before alerting the entire network is a valid question. Equally valid is both the outrage and the scorn Hawaii’s government is receiving for inexcusable incompetence – not just on the part of the employee, but on the lack of adequate management systems, procedures and controls that would allow such a monumental foul-up to occur in the first place. It’s only through dumb luck that people did not have heart attacks.
by David Codrea
