False Missile Alert Sends Hawaii Into Panic Mode

Earlier last Saturday residents of Hawaii received emergency alerts to seek immediate shelter after a government worker made an error. From a drop-down menu on a computer program, he saw two options: ‘Test missile alert’ and ‘Missile alert.’ He was supposed to choose the former; as much of the world now knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a real-life missile alert.

We're running. Everyone's running. Everyone's panicking. We get to where we think the bomb shelter is and we're locked out. We're all getting into more of a panic and then this boy comes running — with a hundred people behind him — with a key, and he could open one of the classrooms that were partially underground, but it wasn't even to the point where we would be protected. So we have hundreds of people filing into this one classroom and it was like pandemonium — everyone was really worried. You could tell from across the room everyone was really unsure what was going on. It was scary.

                                                 -Danielle, Maui College Student

Although this was a false alarm it is a good reminder that there are dangerous weapons in the hands of dangerous people out there.