The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
January 16, 2018

Panic in Hawaii as Residents Receive False Alarm Warning of Incoming Ballistic Missile
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Residents of Hawaii experienced panic on Saturday morning when an
emergency management worker mistakenly sent out a false alarm warning
residents about an incoming ballistic missile. The alert, which
residents received to their cellphones, read, "Emergency Alert:
Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound to Hawaii. Seek Immediate Shelter. This
is Not a Drill." It took 38 minutes for Hawaii to then inform residents
that the alert was, in fact, a mistake. This is Hawaii Governor David
Ige.

Gov. David Ige: "Today is a day that most of us will never forget, a day
when many in our community thought that our worst nightmare might
actually be happening, a day when many frantically tried to think about
the things that they would do if a ballistic missile launch would
happen."

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Japanese residents also received a false alert
about an incoming ballistic missile. This alert was sent as a news alert
by the national broadcaster NHK.


.