Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm

originally posted by: Catch_a_Fire
Is it normal for one button to start the broadcast of an emergency through phone, tv and radio all at once? .... I'd of thought it would have to go through all the channels (no pun intended).

You don't want an operator to have to go through too many channels to issue the warning if a missile is detected, especially given there's only about 20 minutes until it hits. However, that doesn't mean the button needs to be just sitting out on a console where someone can accidentally hit it. If they're still using a physical button, it should be isolated in a part of the console away from other buttons so you can't get mixed up, AND it should have a cover on it so you can't hit it unless you purposefully open the cover. It's probably computerized, and if that's the case there should be several layers of confirmation before it actually issues the warning. There's a layer of confirmation protecting you from accidentally emptying your Recycle Bin for Christ's sake.

ETA: So yeah, whoever did this screwed up, but it's more than one person's screw up. This is a systemic problem. They had a lousy system to begin with if this can happen this easily.

a reply to: MotherMayEye

It's very disturbing that many people didn't do anything. I heard a man saying he had been watching the banner on tv for fifteen minutes when he looked out his window and saw there were folks still holding a yoga class on the lawn. Some with their phones out sharing the message but not ending the class apparently. Some people panicked but some just kept streching. After digging my heart out of my throat I could only call my children. Maybe one could get here in any acceptable amount of time. The others are at least forty minutes away on a good day.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: MotherMayEye

It's very disturbing that many people didn't do anything. I heard a man saying he had been watching the banner on tv for fifteen minutes when he looked out his window and saw there were folks still holding a yoga class on the lawn. Some with their phones out sharing the message but not ending the class apparently. Some people panicked but some just kept streching. After digging my heart out of my throat I could only call my children. Maybe one could get here in any acceptable amount of time. The others are at least forty minutes away on a good day.

For once I am in agreement with you. I saw a video of some idiot who just went up to the roof of his hotel to livestream for a few minutes and then say "Well I hope it's not gonna hit the hotel." It reminds me a year or two ago when there was a fire on a plane and all these morons were stopping during the evacuation to get out there phones and record. Every one of them should've been charged with reckless endangerment of lives.

originally posted by: face23785

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: MotherMayEye

It's very disturbing that many people didn't do anything. I heard a man saying he had been watching the banner on tv for fifteen minutes when he looked out his window and saw there were folks still holding a yoga class on the lawn. Some with their phones out sharing the message but not ending the class apparently. Some people panicked but some just kept streching. After digging my heart out of my throat I could only call my children. Maybe one could get here in any acceptable amount of time. The others are at least forty minutes away on a good day.

For once I am in agreement with you. I saw a video of some idiot who just went up to the roof of his hotel to livestream for a few minutes and then say "Well I hope it's not gonna hit the hotel." It reminds me a year or two ago when there was a fire on a plane and all these morons were stopping during the evacuation to get out there phones and record. Every one of them should've been charged with reckless endangerment of lives.

I have a good bottle of Jack Daniels , a rocking chair , a fine cigar , and a welder's helmet for just such an occasion .
I have had this Order of the Day since 1982

What do you do?

There is nowhere to go. Not much you can do to protect yourself. You don't know where it's going.

So what do you do?

a reply to: face23785

This is a systemic problem. They had a lousy system to begin with if this can happen this easily. 

Do you really think that the system allowed for this to be done accidentally?

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: face23785

This is a systemic problem. They had a lousy system to begin with if this can happen this easily. 

Do you really think that the system allowed for this to be done accidentally?

Having worked for the government, absolutely I believe it. The government is incompetent. That applies to the federal, state and local level. Someone has probably wanted to change it for years, but there's too much red tape.

originally posted by: ketsuko
What do you do?

There is nowhere to go. Not much you can do to protect yourself. You don't know where it's going.

So what do you do?

Wait, and watch. Live. Call or text a few people.

Hell, might as well watch it if it's going to happen.

a reply to: face23785

I am surprised that it doesn't happen more often then, if it is just a matter of accidentally pushing a button.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: MotherMayEye

It's very disturbing that many people didn't do anything. I heard a man saying he had been watching the banner on tv for fifteen minutes when he looked out his window and saw there were folks still holding a yoga class on the lawn. Some with their phones out sharing the message but not ending the class apparently. Some people panicked but some just kept streching. After digging my heart out of my throat I could only call my children. Maybe one could get here in any acceptable amount of time. The others are at least forty minutes away on a good day.

You are in Virginia, and you will likely have more warning time than Hawaii would.

Research that so you know what you have to work with.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: face23785

I am surprised that it doesn't happen more often then, if it is just a matter of accidentally pushing a button.

It doesn't make sense. It seems it would be hard for this to be accidental.

A hostile hacker or an inside job, or a system error, but without knowing the system it's hard to say.

Who knows, it could be a test to see how DJT would react in the event of such a situation.

I'm thinking this is deliberate, but for what reason I'm unsure.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: face23785

I am surprised that it doesn't happen more often then, if it is just a matter of accidentally pushing a button.

And isn't it interesting it 'accidentally' happened in Hawaii, and not, say, Indiana?

I am sure the civil defense warning system is probably pretty standard because so much of it is based on information provided by the federal government.

a reply to: EchoesInTime

its been used as a refuge of last result in a few movies probably works as well as a 1950s frigidaire.

Seriously doubt this was a button push mistake,prob testing it to see the reactions would be with citizens and how well it worked.Could be a war with North Korea in the future.

Who's making political hay off of this incident immediately?

Hawaii is a #Resistance stronghold with deep ties to Obama.

Congressional Liberal Loon Gabby Gabhead instantly blaming Trump.

MSM are dragging out all the talking heads calling for renewed talks at the table with Lil Kim.

They are trying to force Trump into the old policy to negotiate at any cost, pay off Kim so he can upgrade to even deadlier weapons in the decades ahead.

This is a deep state move, it is obvious now.
There hasn't been a Statewide alert that scared the crap out of an entire population before.
This is designed and purposely executed by Trump opposition, there are supposed to be too many failsafes in place for a few Joe's spilling coffee at shift change for this to happen. Obama decimated the nuclear deterrent people, publicly humiliated them and reformed them while he was POTUS, a few new willing minions to turn keys for him must have been left in place.

wonder how many suicides they had before it was announced that it was a false alarm .

Just a theory, but if North Korea is actually behind this "accident" then we may be on the edge of nuclear war. An opposing force could trigger false alarms in order to induce stress fatigue in the population and reduce the effectiveness of modern day civil defense.

If only 25% of Hawaiians write off the next warning as an "error" then that could mean up to 25% more fatalities in an actual surprise attack. Contrary to Hollywood depictions, nuclear weapons are not planet-busters. Civil defense works, and can greatly reduce fatalities during and after a nuclear event. For a NK missile attack to work, they'd have to successfully defeat our missile defense (highest chance of success would be SLBM out of the Pacific) as well as our civil defense planning for maximum effectiveness since they'd only have a limited amount of time and limited number of missiles to begin with. We would destroy them shortly after any such action, and they can't inflict maximum destruction on us while those two things are functional

People were putting their kids into storm drains, rushing around without a destination and many only managed to send good-bye messages. This really highlights the need to prepare. All of those people who labeled preppers as "crazies" need to get over it and start preparing for the worst.

Did any government come to the rescue? Did they start ushering you into massive underground shelters? Were you provided with locations of food storage caches via EAS? Of course not. When SHTF, it is everyone for themselves for a little while. I'm sure the better parts of humanity would prevail, and some semblance of cooperation and normalcy would return. But for a little while after such an event, things would be perilous for the survivors. Even in areas far from the blast zone people could be affected by foot shortage, fallout or other indirect effects (like lower standard of medical care, due to an overtaxed health system) or higher crime due to occupied first responders.

Get prepared. Don't be the person left with incineration vs. throwing your child in a drain (which arguably would just prolong their suffering without provisions for an extended stay. And better hope no water is actually flowing, otherwise radioactive "black rain" would quickly contaminate the area.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: seagull


I forget where I read it, but once upon a time back in the cold war era you have approximately 45 minutes from launch till impact, so take off some more time for double checking before we start our counter and you may have 30 mins.

I say get a bottle of scotch grab the significant other get buzzed and have one more big finish before the long sleep.

The time for a response depends on the country. For North Korea it's currently 38 minutes I think. With Russia in the Cold War it was I want to say 22 but that number could be getting pulled out of anywhere. More interesting in the Russian case, while the response time was longer there was only a 4 minute window where we would have time to give the order to prep our own missiles and retaliate before impact.

Thinking not a mistake.. but it does happen. Once while working with another IT guy to swap out some switches in a rack, a laid-back guy from Nebraska was sitting in a chair, kicked back, chatting with us. Suddenly.. all the UPS's started going off. Power to half the building went out. We looked at the dude in the chair.. he had a stunned look on is face - he just pushed a big ol' red button that was on the wall (and none of us knew what it did), just because he wanted to see what it did. Was hilarious really.. took us a few hours to track down the breaker box that button set off.

But.. you'd think something like this has some sort of system in place to keep it from being -that- easy from "accidentally" setting off an alarm.

a reply to: face23785

I would assume that there's two systems, one to send a test message which simulates a broadcast to all media and one which actually does it for real. It's probably relatively easy to mix up which one you're sending.