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A8 WORLD NEWS
Monday 13 January 2020

Canadian officials accidentally

push nuke alert to millions

By ROB GILLIES the nation's most populous overreact the way I did."
Associated Press province, was accompa- Many people slept through
TORONTO (AP) — People nied by a shrill emergency the first alert and saw it was
throughout the Canadian broadcast noise. It said an a false alarm by the time
province of Ontario awoke unspecified event had oc- they woke up.
Sunday to a cellphone curred at the Pickering Nu- Jonathan Davies, also 44,
alert warning them of an clear Generating Station. was taken aback when
"incident" at a nuclear There was no abnormal he spotted the alert while
plant just east of Toronto release of radioactivity, it driving. But he waited until
— only to later be told the added, and people did after he picked up his Tim
An emergency alert issued by the Canadian province of On- message was a mistake. not need to take protec- Hortons coffee to check
tario reporting an unspecified “incident” at a nuclear plant is
shown on a smartphone Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. The message, which was tive action. the news.
Associated Press transmitted throughout More than an hour later, "I can't cope with much un-
utility officials sent another til I have my coffee, at least
message saying the alert a few sips," he said. "I got
"was sent in error" and that scared and went online
there was "no danger to but found no information."
the public or environment." He later saw the the follow-
"No further action is re- up alert that indicated it
quired," said the message, was a false alarm.
which was also sent to tele- Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan
vision screens. said he was "very troubled"
The alert went out during by the message. He said
a routine training exercise on Twitter that he spoke to
being conducted by the provincial officials and de-
Provincial Emergency Op- manded an investigation.
erations Centre, Ontario Toronto Mayor John Tory
Solicitor General Sylvia joined him, tweeting that
Jones said in a statement there were "far too many
that apologized for the mis- unanswered questions"
take. about the warning that was
She said the government sent across the province of
had started a full investiga- 14 million people.
tion and would "take the "When we have continu-
appropriate steps to ensure ous problems in these sys-
this doesn't happen again." tems, then we have a lack
Jim Vlahos, a 44-year-old of trust and people begin
Toronto man, awoke to to ignore them. So that's
the alert and quickly made the biggest fallout from this
a hotel reservation more scenario," he said.
than 60 miles away in Niag- The U.S. Department of
ara Falls. He said he figured Homeland Security's in-
he would go as far west as spector general recom-
possible and then cross the mended changes to the
border. emergency alert system
"Having watched 'Cher- in the United States after
nobyl' didn't help," he said, Hawaii officials in 2018 mis-
referring to the HBO show takenly warned the public
about the 1986 nuclear di- about a nonexistent in-
saster in the Soviet Union. coming ballistic missile. An
"The lack of communica- employee at the Hawaii
tion following the alert Emergency Management
didn't help either," he said. Agency sent the missile
"I have no problem leav- alert to cellphones and
ing my phone on for these broadcasters, triggering
types of alerts," Vlahos said. panic until the agency sent
"But I would expect some another message 38 min-
more info from the govern- utes later notifying people
ment so I wouldn't have to it was a false alarm.q