Police reports for threatened employee not yet filed
HONOLULU — Hawaii emergency management officials have yet to file police reports about the death threats made against the warning officer who triggered a false missile alert.
Richard Rapoza, spokesman of the state Emergency Management Agency, said on Tuesday the threats are being handled “in the midst of everything else.” Rapoza says the agency’s chief of operations is preparing to contact authorities.
Gov. David Ige condemned the dozens of threats made against the officer, who on Saturday sent the state into a panic by falsely warning of a missile strike heading toward the islands.
The alert told people it was not a drill and wasn’t retracted until 38 minutes later.
The incident has prompted state officials to take a closer look at how they warn people.
False missile alert in Japan, too
TOKYO — Japanese public broadcaster NHK says its erroneous alert of a North Korean missile fired at Japan was sent by a staff member who meant to file a different news flash.
NHK denied any mechanical flaw and said Wednesday it is studying preventive measures.
The erroneous news flash Tuesday said North Korea appeared to have fired a missile at Japan and that the government was warning people to take shelter. NHK retracted the mistake within minutes and apologized on air and on other formats.
NHK isn’t sure how many of its 300,000 social media followers saw the alert or notification and it’s unknown if anyone followed the instructions.
Days earlier, Hawaii’s emergency authorities sent a mistaken warning of a missile attack to mobile phones across the state, triggering panic.
Hawaii lawmakers sit down with fed, state departments
U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie K. Hirono and senior staff members for U.S. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Colleen Hanabusa were briefed on Wednesday by federal and state agencies on the false emergency alert. The delegation was able to question state and federal officials and discuss how to prevent another false alarm from happening again.
Organized by Schatz, the briefing included officials from the Department of Defense, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, and the Hawaii Department of Defense.
“This is a state responsibility but we need federal support – federal oversight and expertise,” Schatz said in a press release. “Today, the FCC, FEMA, and DoD committed to providing that support and helping our state figure out what went wrong and how we can fix it. That is the first step on the road to regaining the public’s trust.”
Don’t use old shelters in event of nuke
NEW YORK — A generation of Americans knew just what to do in the event of a nuclear attack — or during a major false alarm, like the one over the weekend in Hawaii. Take cover in a building bearing a yellow fallout shelter symbol.
But these days, that might not be the best option, or even an option at all.
Relics from the Cold War, the aging shelters that once numbered in the thousands in schools, courthouses and churches haven’t been maintained. And conventional wisdom has changed about whether such a shelter system is necessary in an age when an attack is more likely to come from a weak rogue state or terrorist group rather than a superpower.
“We’re not in a Cold War scenario. We are in 2018,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, head of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “We’re not facing what we were facing 50 years ago, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. had nuclear warheads pointed at each other that would devastate the world. There’s a threat, but it’s a different type of threat today.”