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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 16 January 2018
Missile-alert error reveals uncertainty about how to react

By JENNIFER KELLEHER before acting on any future The error sparked a dooms- details. Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen
BRIAN MELLEY advisory.” day panic across the is- An investigation into what urged Americans not to
Associated Press The erroneous warning was lands known as a laid-back went wrong was under- lose faith in their govern-
HONOLULU (AP) — When ment. “I would hate for
Jonathan Scheuer got anybody not to abide by
an alert on his phone of a alerts and warnings coming
ballistic missile headed for from government systems,”
Hawaii, he and his family Nielsen said on “Fox News
didn’t know what to do. Sunday.” ‘’They can trust
They went to their guest government systems. We
bedroom, then decided test them every day. This is
it would be safer on the a very unfortunate mistake,
ground floor of their Hono- but these alerts are vital.
lulu home. Seconds and minutes can
“What do we do?” he won- save lives.”
dered. “Where do we go?” With mobile phones ubiq-
People should immediately uitous, wireless alerts can
seek shelter in a building quickly disseminate infor-
“or other substantial struc- mation to a wide number
ture,” once an attack- of users, but there have
warning siren sounds, ac- been concerns about cre-
cording to guidance the ating a panic if they are
state distributed previously. sent too broadly.
The state recommends Authorities were criticized
having 14-day survival kit for not sending an alert to
of food and water. mobile phones when fires
Residents and tourists alike ripped through Northern
remained rattled after the Vern Miyagi, Administrator, HEMA, left, and Hawaii Gov. David Ige addressed the media Saturday, California in October, kill-
mistaken alert was blasted Jan. 13, 2018, during a press conference at the Hawaii Emergency Management Center at ing 40 people. Officials
out to cellphones across Diamond Head Saturday following the false alarm issued of a missile launch on Hawaii. A push had decided not to use
the islands with a warning alert that warned of an incoming ballistic missile to Hawaii and sent residents into a full-blown the system because they
to seek immediate shelter panic was a mistake, state emergency officials said. (George F. Lee /The Star-Advertiser via AP) couldn’t target them pre-
and the ominous state- cisely enough and feared
ment: “This is not a drill.” sent during a shift change paradise. Parents clutched way at the Federal Com- a wider broadcast would
“Clearly there is a mas- at the Hawaii Emergency their children, huddled in munications Commission, lead to mass evacuations,
sive gap between letting Management Agency bathtubs and said prayers. which sets rules for wireless including people not in
people know something’s when someone doing a Students bolted across the emergency alerts sent by danger, snarling traffic that
coming and having some- routine test hit the live alert University of Hawaii cam- local, state or federal offi- would hamper firefighting
thing for them to do,” button, state officials said. pus to take cover in build- cials to warn of the threat and rescues efforts.
Scheuer said Sunday. “No- That employee has been ings. Drivers abandoned of hurricanes, wildfires, flash Saturday’s mistake was not
body knew what to do.” reassigned to a job without cars on a highway and flooding and to announce the first for the state’s warn-
Lisa Foxen, a social worker access to the warning sys- took shelter in a tunnel. searches for missing chil- ing system.
and mother of two young tem amid an internal inves- Others resigned themselves dren. The state of Hawaii During a test last month,
children in east Honolulu, tigation, agency spokes- to a fate they could not “did not have reasonable 12 of the state’s 386 sirens
said the best thing to come man Richard Rapoza said control and simply waited safeguards or process con- played an ambulance si-
out of the scare was that it Monday. No other person- for the attack. trols in place to prevent ren. In the tourist hub of
pushed her family to come nel changes have been The 911 system for the is- the transmission of a false Waikiki, the sirens were
up with a plan if there is a made, he said. land of Oahu was over- alert,” FCC Chairman Ajit barely audible, prompt-
real threat. Officials tried to assure resi- whelmed with more than Pai said in a statement, ing officials to add more
“I kind of was just almost dents there would be no 5,000 calls. There were no calling the mistake “abso- sirens and reposition ones
like a deer in headlights,” repeat false alarms. The major emergencies during lutely unacceptable.” already in place.
she said. “I knew what to agency changed proto- the false alarm, Mayor Kirk “False alerts undermine People need to step back
do in a hurricane. I knew cols to require that two Caldwell said. public confidence in the from questioning who
what to do in an earth- people send an alert and President Donald Trump alerting system and thus pushed the button and
quake. But the missile thing made it easier to cancel said Sunday the federal reduce their effectiveness why and focus on military
is new to me.” a false alarm — a process government will “get in- during real emergencies,” de-escalation, Scheuer
The blunder that caused that took nearly 40 minutes. volved,” but didn’t release he said. Homeland Security said.q
more than a million people
in Hawaii to fear that they
were about to be struck by Army vet sues VA over scalpel left in body after surgery
a nuclear missile fed skep-
ticism about the govern- NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — trict Court last week, seek- Turner had to undergo sur- crat, said he was appalled
ment’s ability to keep them An Army veteran who says ing unspecified compensa- gery to remove the scalpel. and stunned by the “egre-
informed in a real emer- someone left a scalpel in- tory damages. His lawyer, Joel Faxon, said gious medical malpractice
gency. “My confidence in side him after surgery is su- Court papers say Turner doctors confirmed it was case.”
our so-called leaders’ abil- ing a veterans affairs hospi- had surgery at the VA hos- the same one. Faxon called “I have asked for a detailed
ity to disseminate this vital tal. pital in West Haven in 2013. it “an incomprehensible explanation from VA of this
information has certainly Bridgeport resident Glen- Nearly four years later, he level of incompetence.” deeply troubling report,”
been tarnished,” said Pat- ford Turner says the scalpel went back to the VA with The VA said Monday it he said in a statement. “I
rick Day, who sprang from was only discovered years dizziness and severe ab- doesn’t typically comment am demanding also full ac-
bed when the alert was is- later, after he suffered from dominal pain. on pending litigation. countability so this kind of
sued Saturday morning. “I long-term abdominal pain. An X-Ray showed there was U.S. Sen. Richard Blumen- horrific negligence never
would have to think twice He sued the VA in U.S. Dis- a scalpel inside his body. thal, a Connecticut Demo- happens again.”q