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False alarm

Missile attack message triggers fear, panic; Hawaii officials outraged, call for investigation into ‘mistake’

Soccer coach Chazz Kaaihue takes a call on his cellphone next to daughters Leia (left) and Hiilei on Saturday morning at Keopuolani Park. The false alarm of a missile attack triggered panic for parents and children earlier at a soccer game at the Kahului Community Center. -- The Maui News / CHRIS SUGIDONO photo

A Hawaii civil defense false alarm warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack sent shock waves across the islands Saturday morning, and — while some people panicked and others considered ways to survive a nuclear attack — it took nearly 40 minutes for most people to get official confirmation of the mistake.

In Kahului, panic ensued at a children’s soccer game. In Kihei, paddlers and coaches left canoes, tents and other equipment on the beach during a canoe regatta. People screamed and scrambled for safety. At the Target store in Kahului, patrons were told to leave and sought safe shelter elsewhere.

Hawaii officials expressed outrage and called for an investigation.

The emergency alert went to cellphones statewide at 8:07 a.m. It said: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

About 10 minutes later, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted there was no threat, but that didn’t reach people who aren’t on the social media platform. A revised alert informing of the “false alarm” didn’t reach cellphones until 8:45 a.m., 38 minutes after the initial warning.

This alert blasted to cellphones statewide sent frightened residents and visitors scrambling for cover Saturday morning. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

At her home in Kula, the alarm at first confused paraplegic Mahealani Bettencourt, 55, who has been confined to a wheelchair since 2013. But, while waiting for a girlfriend to take her to safety, she packed medication, clothes, canned goods and cases of water to evacuate. As she waited, she tried to remain calm.

“I was a little scared,” she said, “when you’re in a wheelchair, you can’t just get up and drive somewhere.”

Eventually, she called a 911 emergency dispatcher, and “she told me I have nothing to worry about. . . . I broke down a little. . . . I was so grateful that it wasn’t something that was really happening.”

Soccer coach Chazz Kaaihue was at Kahului Community Center when the alarm sounded off. Children rushed from the bottom of the hill up to their parents, who were screaming to them to get to their cars, he said. Parents ran onto the field and picked up their children to take them away, he said.

“It sounded off, and all of a sudden everybody was scrambling,” he said. “I think it was less than two minutes where it was really, really chaotic. It’s like if you see a bunch of ants, and you drop something on them and they scatter. It was really crazy.

Kihei Little League President Brad Nuese (left) and Treasurer Camie Schiffler (right) help Paul Skarbo and Lauren Minkler sign Minkler’s son up to play in the upcoming season Saturday morning. Sign-ups went on as scheduled after the “false alarm” alert was broadcast. Some residents panicked and others sought safety after state civil defense officials mistakenly issued a warning of an imminent ballistic missile attack at 8:07 a.m. Saturday. It took 38 minutes to clear up the confusion. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Parents “were running out, grabbing their kids and telling them to leave all their stuff. Everything was all over the field, people left tents, benches, bags and jumped in their car and dug out,” he said.

Waiehu resident Leianna Webb said there were about 200 children and parents on the soccer field.

“As soon as the phones went off, everyone picked up their chairs and ran. It was like a scene out of a movie,” she said.

Webb was sitting with friend Lynette Arcangel, a Lahaina resident. They said their husbands ran to grab their children from the field, and they put them in their cars.

Webb said her husband went to the Maui Interscholastic League paddling regatta in Kihei to pick up their son.

This smartphone screen capture shows the retraction of a false incoming ballistic missile emergency alert sent from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency system Saturday, more than a half-hour after the initial scare. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz says the false alarm about a missile threat was based on “human error” and was “totally inexcusable.” -- The Maui News / TERRIE ELIKER photo

“It just goes to show how prepared, or unprepared everyone is and for us all to make a plan, she said.

Mahina Martin, Maui Interscholastic League paddling race director, said the cellphone warnings sounded just before the start of the league paddling regatta at Ka Lae Pohaku in Kihei.

Hundreds of phones went off, beeping loudly and causing everyone to look down at their phones, she said.

Martin estimated there were about 1,000 paddlers and spectators on the beach.

“I ran to my phone, but before I could reach it the coaches yelled, ‘Mahina there’s a missile attack!’ People were just screaming. You could see how frightened people were on their faces,” she said.

Kihei mom Anna Dee lifts 8-month-old son Maddux O’Rourke from his stroller after heading to Kalama Park once the false alarm clearance was issued Saturday morning. Like many folks, she said that when she heard the initial alarm on her phone, she thought it was a weather warning. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Paddling crews left their canoes, tents and equipment all on the beach and headed for shelter. Race officials used the sound system to direct the crowd and provide updates.

“We had to weigh on the side of caution, so we abandoned our regatta and vacated the beach,” Martin said. “We arranged for the kids to go to any shelter facilities available in Kihei and had the coaches help keep everyone calm.”

Lanai paddling coach Pua Turqueza reported the situation was “pretty crazy,” especially for the Lanai paddlers away from home.

“We’re all from Lanai so we have no family here,” she said. “For some of the kids, it was hard for them to try to reach out to their parents.”

“My husband and all my kids are off island so I was texting them to make sure they found some place safe to be. I just pretty much told them ‘I love you’ because I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

She said she tried to keep the children calm until they were notified that it was a false alarm.

“We were so not happy,” she said. “I hope they do something to the person who did this because if they actually saw what the kids faces looked like — everyone was just crumbling. ‘Mom, dad, what do I do?’ Praise God it was a false alarm.”

Makawao resident Crystal DeCoite said she was shopping at Target with her mom, Hester Paiva, when the alarm sounded.

“We were in Target, and they told everyone to leave,” she said. “I guess they would be responsible for whoever is in there. I was thinking Target was good because it’s all concrete.”

Later, the store manager declined comment.

After leaving the store, Paiva said she and her daughter were among about a dozen people running to their cars in the parking lot.

The family members headed up Haleakala Highway to their Upcountry home. They reported seeing some people driving on the median and speeding up the mountain.

“We were driving like a maniac. Everyone was flying,” Paiva said.

DeCoite said her daughter was shaken.

“She said her stomach was sore, and she was ready to cry. It’s kind of scary. I just wanted to be with my family, that’s all,” she said.

The false alarm drew the attention of national news media, the Pentagon, the U.S. Pacific Command and even the White House, which reported that President Donald Trump was briefed on the incident while at his private club in Florida.

Maui County Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya said state civil defense officials “called to let us know it was done in error,” he said. “They’re inundated with calls.”

Maui Police Department spokesman Lt. Gregg Okamoto was unable to say immediately if there were any reports of panic.

Nearly all Maui Interscholastic League sporting events happened as scheduled despite the incident. (For more coverage, see Sports.)

Maui High School Athletic Director Michael Ban said the school’s gym took in 300 people after the initial alert. Most were attending a wrestling meet and a junior-varsity softball game nearby.

“We got all the kids away from the windows, and we had wet towels ready if we needed them,” he said.

Lindsay Ball, the Department of Education complex superintendent for Hana, Lahaina, Lanai and Molokai, dropped his son Kainalu, a Maui High freshman swimmer, off at the Kihei Aquatic Center before going to do some errands.

“We’ve been working with civil defense and military liaisons as well trying to figure out the safety of our schools,” Ball said. “The military has suggested we have 20-days supply (of food and water) in case we have to shelter in place. But, then, as you know, our schools can’t handle physically 20 days’ worth of supply.”

Public school complex area superintendents are part of the state emergency management system.

“I didn’t get notification on my work phone, so it was kind of wait and see,” Ball said. “We didn’t hear the sirens, and we definitely didn’t hear the police trying to clear the streets, so I wasn’t overly reactive. Then we got a mass text from the state superintendent, but that was after the fact (alerting the false alarm). Then we just had to report in what we were doing. My phone was blowing up from my principals.”

Ball added: “We have to probably sit down and look at our plans here. Obviously it’s really a time to take things seriously — not that we were dismissing things earlier. The stark reality is: ‘What can we do ­in 15 minutes?’ “

Ball checked Lokelani Intermediate School to see if anyone was trying to use it as a shelter. No one was.

“There was calm even as I as out doing my errands this morning,” Ball said. “People weren’t panicking.”

Kihei resident Anna Dee, mother of an 8-month-old son, said she thought the cellphone message was a weather warning.

“At first I thought it was a flood warning, and then I saw it,” Dee said. “You see the ‘This is not a drill’ and that was concerning. You see alerts all the time. I thought, ‘I’m already inside, what else can I do?’ I was at a loss, disbelief. I thought, ‘I guess we’re home, and we don’t go anywhere.'”

Kihei Little League Treasurer Camie Schiffler had been signing up children to play in the upcoming Little League season when the false alarm came in. She said she didn’t receive the initial alert, but her children did.

“That was scary,” Schiffler said. “My kids were all over the place. I had one in Lahaina, one Upcountry, and they started messaging me. I had kids running into the room asking, ‘What should we do?’ “

Schiffler said she logged onto the internet and found a link to the Maui Police Department page that stated the alert was a “drill.”

East Maui-Upcountry-Molokai-Lanai state Sen. J. Kalani English, the Senate majority leader, said the events surrounding the false alarm were “both unfortunate and very unacceptable.”

“I am outraged that a mistake of this magnitude occurred,” he said, noting that it took 38 minutes to clarify that the alarm was inadvertent and a mistake. “The panic and pandemonium that many in Hawaii experienced was unwarranted and completely unnecessary.”

English said state lawmakers would investigate and provide oversight “to ensure that our state emergency alert system is properly functioning.”

During a news conference, Hawaii officials apologized for the mistake and vowed it would never happen again.

Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi said the error happened when someone hit the wrong button. “We made a mistake,” Miyagi said.

Statewide, there were reports of people abandoning cars on highways and preparing to flee their homes until officials acknowledged the false alarm. Island residents already are jittery over the threat of nuclear-tipped missiles from North Korea.

In an afternoon statement after meetings and debriefings at the state Department of Defense and Hawaii Emergency Management, Gov. David Ige said: “Today is a day most of us will never forget. A terrifying day when our worst nightmares appeared to become a reality. A day where we frantically grabbed what we could, tried to figure out how and where to shelter and protect ourselves and our ohana, said ‘I love yous,’ and prayed for peace.

“I know firsthand how today’s false notification affected all of us here in Hawaii, and I am sorry for the pain and confusion it caused,” he said. “I, too, am extremely upset about this and am doing everything I can to immediately improve our emergency management systems, procedures and staffing.”

Ige said he has directed emergency management officials to make immediate changes.

“We are doing everything we possibly can to prevent this from happening again,” he said.

House Speaker Scott Saiki said the state’s emergency alert system failed miserably.

“Measures must be taken to avoid further incidents that caused wholesale alarm and chaos today,” he said. “Clearly, government agencies are not prepared and lack the capacity to deal with emergency situations.”

Saiki pledged that the state House of Representatives would immediately investigate what happened, “and there will be consequences. This cannot happen again.”

A Senate and House information briefing on the incident was scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the state Capitol.

Kula resident Bettencourt said she wasn’t angry about the false alarm.

“It’s a wake-up call for everybody to be prepared and take precautions,” she said. “You never know . . . There’s so much happening in the world.”

* The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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