Posted on 01/14/2018 12:32:06 PM PST by billorites
Why would my 22-year-old brother be calling so early on a Saturday morning? I’d ignored the first call. But the second time the phone rang, I picked it up. He was panicking, his voice trembling uncharacteristically: He’d just received the emergency alert warning of a ballistic missile that was heading for Hawaii, where I’m from, and where he and my family still live. “THIS IS NOT A DRILL,” the alert read. My brother was alone, and had no idea what to do or where to go. And he wouldn’t have had much time to figure out a game plan—some estimates suggest a missile from North Korea could reach Hawaii in 20 minutes.
People across the state were terrified. Many assumed they would die, but sought shelter anyway. They took cover in mall bathrooms, bathtubs, drug stores—even a storm drain. Hawaii has very few shelters, and houses with basements are rare. There were reports of people speeding down highways and running red lights to reunite with family members. Others called one another to say “I love you” one last time.
The alert turned out to be false, an epic—almost unbelievable—mishap. A state employee had accidentally triggered the Emergency Alert System message at 8:07 a.m., during what should have been a routine internal test. It took officials 38 minutes to announce their mistake, and to confirm that the warning had been a false alarm. Those 38 minutes were the 38 worst minutes of many Hawaii residents’ lives. And they were just as horrifying for people outside of Hawaii who, like me, felt helpless as they contended with the prospect of never seeing their loved ones again.
That block of time was also incredibly confusing. A few people had tweeted and posted Facebook statuses showing screenshots of the alert, but no news stories
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
It was the fault of an employee of the Democrat state administration, but they will figure out a way to blame it all on Trump.
A mishap, my ass, it was Leftist Political theater.
Fake ook is full of blame trump for this
And as usual the MSMLSD bunch are blaming Trump.
They already have.
Also, why did it take so long, 38 minutes, to figure out it was a false alarm. A missile would take 20 minutes to get there, so after 20 minutes, why didn't somebody figure it out sooner?
The solution will require more tax dollars be spent in the future. That is always the solution to any failure in government.
Political Theater!
ABSOLUTELY....
“TRUMP is Responsible!”
All the Bed Wetters won’t Forget
This episode and
Rocket Man probably wet
Himself too.
The way they must have figured out that it was a fake alert is by looking in the sky after 20 minutes: “No missile? Okay the alert is fake.”
Either it was a hack/prank or something much more then pressing the “wrong button.” There would be no preprogrammed estimate of the arrival of incoming - the person(s) who did this had to enter the specific message.
The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump calls this a “failure of leadership” by President Trump. Bump buys into the image created by Bill Clinton, who as President was front and center in the White House Press Room at the drop of a hat to comment on the latest commuter train derailment, or Kansa twister. It was as if Clinton thought the populace was bunch of sheep who knew not what to think of things, until the President, as our national father figure, weighed in.
Given that it was a false message from the Hawaiian Civil Defense folks, what exactly would Bump and Co have found acceptable from Trump? Oh, I see, it’s a trick question....
They already have b lamed Trump, which is idiotic!
“...an employee of the Democrat state administration...”
Probably says it all.
Someone needs to go to jail.
But, he’s all over this one, right? Downright astonishing, isn’t it?
A rhetorical question, meant to further the chaos; maybe Former Canadian didn't mean to harm, but the original query surly did.
The false alarm in Hawaii revealed an abdication of leadership by Trump
Falsely told to “DUCK & COVER!”
I’ve heard speculation that the false alarm was a deliberate attempt to provoke Trump into pushing his big button and thereby start a nuclear war so he could then be impeached.
Hey, it would make perfect sense to a liberal!
This episode speaks to the lack of professionalism, laziness, entitlement and lack of seriousness commonly found within America’s massive nanny-state governments.
As a friend overseas pointed out to me - if this happened in most other countries, the bureaucrats involved would be literally jailed for incompetence.
I’ll bet $100 you never hear of any blow-back or follow up from this case.
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