HONOLULU—The Hawaii state employee who accidentally sent out an alert warning residents about a missile strike faced a screen of links, two of them nearly identical. He clicked the wrong one.
A screenshot of what the employee would have seen, released by the Hawaii governor’s office, shows just how easy it was for someone to click the wrong link.
The link the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee was supposed to clink read, “DRILL - PACOM (CDW) - STATE ONLY.”
Instead, on Saturday morning, the employee clicked on another link above it that said “PACOM (CDW) - STATE ONLY.”
That accidentally sent out a warning about an incoming ballistic missile to people throughout the state, unleashing fear and chaos across Hawaii as people searched frantically for cover and said goodbye to their loved ones.
A new alert, saying that the warning had been a false alarm, wasn’t sent to cellphones for 38 minutes.
The false alarm was triggered during a shift change, as state employees tried to test a new missile-warning system, which has been put in place in response to rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
T. Miyagi, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said the false alarm was because of “one person, human error.” When the employee clicked the wrong link, he was prompted with a message that asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?” Mr. Miyagi said. The employee clicked “yes.”
Since the incident, state officials have said they changed the protocol so that multiple people are required to work together to send out a warning. In addition, they have added a protocol to immediately cancel false alarms that might be sent out.
The employee who mistakenly launched the false alarm has been reassigned, state officials said. Meanwhile, death threats have been sent to the Hawaii EMA, according to Richard Rapoza, a spokesman for the agency.
On Monday, Gov. David Ige again apologized for the “fear, anxiety and heartache that the false alert on Saturday created.” He also signed an executive order appointing Brig. Gen. Kenneth S. Hara to review emergency-response procedures and make any necessary changes.
