Hawaii governor's bizarre admission about false missile alert
Hawaii’s governor has revealed why it took so long to tell panicked residents and tourists the ballistic missile alert was actually a false alarm.
An all-caps push alert was sent to smartphones on the US island state, warning a ballistic missile was inbound to Hawaii on January 13 about 8am, which soon turned out to be a false alarm because someone hit the wrong button during a shift change.
The alarm came amid several months of bellicose rhetoric between the US and North Korea, including threats to unleash nuclear-tipped missiles upon each other.
The false Saturday morning warning that an ICBM was inbound lasted for nearly 40 minutes, and Hawaiian Governor David Ige has revealed why it took him so long to correct the facts.
It turns out he forgot his Twitter password.
According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, Mr Ige said in his State of the State address on Monday he was in the process of communicating to the leadership team in the Hawaii Emergency Management during the chaos when he couldn’t access his social media account.
"I have to confess that I don't know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that's one of the changes that I've made,” Mr Ige said.
“I've been putting that on my phone so that we can access the social media directly."
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There is NO missile threat. https://t.co/qR2MlYAYxL
— Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) January 13, 2018
According to the New York Times, the Hawaii National Guard told Mr Ige the missile alert was false minutes after it was broadcast to phones.
Hawaii State House majority leader Della au Belatti said the false alarm as identified “so many gaps in the system” but added “we won’t see this kind of communication breakdown again”.
Mr Ige has also apologised for the false alarm since it was issued along with the “stress, anxiety and fear” it created.
