“40 Minutes of a Panic Attackâ€
Residents and tourists in Hawaii were startled as televisions and their phones alerted them to an incoming ballistic missile threat on Saturday. And while news outlets and elected officials advised that the initial warning was a false alarm not long after, it took Hawaii 40 minutes to issue an official correction.
Hawaii correspondent for BuzzFeed News Michelle Broder Van Dyke shared the updated push alert on Twitter:
“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII,†the initial push alerts read. “SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.†The delay was heavily criticized on Twitter:
Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency’s social media account issued only one tweet on the matter on Saturday:
The website for Hawaii’s Department of Defense was also down for a significant amount of time following the initial warning, prompting further criticism:
Late last year, Hawaii began preparations for a nuclear attack, in part a response to the president’s Twitter tantrums and taunting of North Korea. Donald Trump has not yet issued commentary on today’s scare, only recently returning to Mar-a-Lago from his latest trip to the golf course.
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