Posted on 01/15/2018 8:46:07 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Shortly after 8 a.m. local time Saturday, an employee at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency settled in at the start of his shift. Among his duties that day was to initiate an internal test of the emergency missile warning system: essentially, to practice sending an emergency alert to the public without actually sending it to the public.
It was a drill the agency had started with some regularity last November — around the time Hawaii reinstated its Cold War-era nuclear warning sirens amid growing fears of an attack by North Korea — and so, while the tests were not yet routine enough to be predictable, they were not entirely new either, according to an agency spokesman.
Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii emergency employee initiated the internal test, according to a timeline released by the state. 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.
“In this case, the operator selected the wrong menu option,” HEMA spokesman Richard Rapoza told The Washington Post on Sunday.
Around 8:07 a.m., an errant alert went out to scores of Hawaii residents and tourists on their cellphones: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” A more detailed message scrolled across television screens in Hawaii, suggesting, “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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The 38-minute thing makes me think that the guy accidentally pushed the button, and then went to the bathroom for a long while, and only when he got back and answered a call or two...he realized what he’d done.
I’ll say this as well....if this had occurred in Alabama or Mississippi...the weather guy for the local station would have looked at the mess going on about three minutes into this and stopped the feed from going out from the station.
If you read them.
I’ve blown by them a couple of times, not paying attention.
Exactly what does it take to fire a Government employee?
The NYT has already said, in effect, that although this was a false alert, nevertheless it shows that Trump put the world in nuclear danger etc bla bla.
Didn’t take them long. The liberal mind can reach that contrary-to-fact conclusion in a flash. They don’t process reality as sane humans do.
If it were a real missile attack then the “worker” would be heading for a shelter, not sending out a warning.
That does happen. Having very different prompts for the “test” versus the “real” buttons might have helped.
We were in Maui at that moment and the family took a few minutes to gather to a common location.
As soon as we were all together my first comment was, “This is Bull!”
“Kim has no targeting, no re-entry vehicle, and we would have shot it down.”
Much more likely an errant message.
Of course the family preferred to believe the god of their smart phone, than listen to me.
They weren’t comforted when I later said it would have been here already, before the error was publicly acknowledged.
Who knows what they think of my dismissive attitude now, but I’m happy to have introduced some sanity amid the panic.
If this is true, this is programming negligence.
I can tell you that even developers off apps and programs used at the consumer level exercise a lot more forethought and care. even something that can profit you needs to have a very deliberate interface... in fact, a lot of times you need to avoid having a customer claim you tricked them into a purchase, so after then initiate an action, either intentionally or by accident, you throw up a confirmation dialogue that is DIFFERENT than other dialogues a user would regularly interface with. Example: [in capital bold lettering- center screen- ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO INITIATE MISSILE WARNING? Hit yes to confirm.
Not a clue as to nationality...Chinese? Korean?
That’s true. We all know it was Trump’s fault.
The Twilight Zone episode, “The Shelter” came to mind, I wonder if anyone who knew if their neighbor had a shelter suddenly pretended to be their best pal?
Geez....
I have to go through 3 steps to delete a picture on my camera.
I've worked for the government before, I totally believe it could have been shitty coding. There should be multiple screens with big fat warnings about what the operator was about to do... smh..
Years ago, we had a computer operator at our corporate data center who yawningly chose a 2 instead of a 1 on a menu and performed a full system restore, rather than a full system backup. For hours, he just mounted tapes as the system told him to. When folks arrived to work the next day, all hell broke loose and my team ended up spending the next 60 hours in the computer room putting everything back together as best we could.
I’d like to know if the text warning was accompanied by an air raid audio warning.
*Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii emergency employee initiated the internal test, according to a timeline released by the state. 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.”
If this is really the way the system work, it’s criminally amateurish beyond belief. Even when I delete an email or picture in my phone it asks me if I really want to do that. It allows me to correct a possible error. But that’s not available for a missile alert?!
Not only that but they have test and actual alert on the same pull down menu next to each other??
Solution = Blame Trump!
And, just in time, the liberals ALREADY ARE blaming Trump.
why it took so long to catch said error and send out correction.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Combination of government incompetence and early nooners?
sounds like a pull down menu option gone bad.. they haven’t said what operating this was on.. Microsoft Windows or Apple iOS.. or was it Linux??
If some of the local FEMA pukes were involved with the planning and install... it is very plausible.
These control freaks at FEMA always want a piece of the proverbial pie. Whether on the operational side or the training side.
In other words “Keep It Simple” is not spoken at FEMA. If a systems design is too complex FEMA is there to run it. If deployment suffers the Human Systems Interface - FEMA will gladly help with training and education. It is how they roll. Control freaks.
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