"Is this really the end": how the residents of Hawaii and tourists reacted to the message of a missile strike

“How could this even happen? How did this happen? This only causes anger,” recall people who survived the terrible 40 minutes of their lives.

Someone was crying, someone was saying goodbye to the children, and someone was quietly collecting things and going to the shelter: January 13 at 08: 07 am local time in Hawaii got messages about the launch of a ballistic missile on the islands and saw them on TV. People were asked to seek asylum and stressed that "this is not a doctrine." Only after 38 minutes, US authorities confirmed that the alarm was false.

No one launched the missiles, and the messages were sent by mistake.

State Governor David Ayge apologized to the residents and said that one of the responsible employees "pressed the wrong button." He noted that this man "feels terrible." Authorities launched an investigation.

By January 14, the authorities in Hawaii changed the procedure for notifying the public: now, not one employee but two will be responsible for sending messages about the attack.

Hawaii is closer to North Korea than other US states. From December 2017, exercises on air attack have been conducted on the islands. In the case of launching a rocket from the DPRK, the inhabitants of Hawaii would have remained about 12 minutes to seek refuge. Countries all year exchanged threats of the outbreak of war and nuclear strikes.

Locals and tourists shared the feelings and thoughts they had experienced in almost 40 minutes between sending a false alarm and denying it.

Residents stocked the most necessary. Photo twitter.com/HawaiiNewsNow

Local residents

Oahu resident Adam Kurtz said he woke up four minutes after receiving the signal. He immediately began to count how much time he and his wife had to get to a safe place. Kurtz tried to take into account that no more than 15 minutes would pass from the moment of the alert to the fall of the rocket. The couple grabbed their pets, closed the windows and hid in the bathroom. That the signal is false, Kurtz learned from a friend who contacted the Ministry of Defense:

“We just jumped out of bed. We were pretty clear and did not panic. We did not reach [the full scale of the situation]. ”

The inhabitant of the island of Kauai, Trisha Padilla, her husband and two children hid in a cargo container near the house:

My husband and I just took ourselves in hand and tried to protect the children so that they would not panic. Husband dressed children, we quickly gathered and took the most necessary things and products.

My 10-year-old son was sitting on my lap and shaking him, he asked: "Mom, shall we die?" Why don't you answer me? ” I wanted to answer him, but I could not. I felt like a worse mother.

The family took with them cereal, protein bars, apples, cookies, a turkey bag, a bucket and toilet paper. “It seemed to me that every breath could be my last. I just thought [the rocket] would land and everything would disappear,” said Evan Padilla, Trisha Padilla’s son.

Wedding Coordinator with Kauai Kourney McLaughlin said that the alerts caused a "mass hysteria" on the roads.

Courtney McLaughlin, a local resident, recalls: "My boyfriend asked who to judge for this?" We need not just an apology, we need an explanation. Someone might have a heart attack. It was all incomprehensible and happened very quickly. Suddenly you start thinking that this is the end of your life. I called mom, dad, brother and said goodbye to everyone. ”

Palolo resident Toni Foshee and her friend from California behaved as if in a hurricane - they checked if the cat had returned home, closed the windows and began to wait. They learned that the signal was false from the police. "I think I'm just numb," says Tony Foshee.

The sailor, who wished to remain anonymous, said that his girlfriend woke him up with questions about the alert. He turned on the TV to find out more and called his mother in Massachusetts to tell her he loved her. He later called the police, where he was told that the signal was in error: “How could this even happen? How did this happen? This only causes anger. Even now I'm shocked that this happened. With the thought of the possibility of dying comes this [anger]. It's a very strange feeling."

Ted Tsukiyama, an 97-year-old resident of Oahu, recalled the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and said that the people of Hawaii were used to such incidents.

“The residents of Hawaii, an outpost, are accustomed to constantly being on alert and on alert. But mainlanders are worried about this. “We’re not very excited about messages like this,” shares Ted Tsukiyama, and Tsukiyama’s daughter, Sandy, said she felt vulnerable. She woke up due to an alert on her smartphone. Her partner did not receive the message and noted that the sirens did not go off: “We were not prepared and it’s terrible. We need to advocate for peace, not fight each other."

Journalist The Washington Post Jen Park told the story of his friend from Hawaii, whose family members were in different parts of the city. The man did not know where to go, and burst into tears.

“Right now I am standing in tears on Bishop Street. Five minutes before the alert, I sent my eldest son to the airport and went to the Nimitz Zippys restaurant, where I learned about the threat. And I thought about where I should go: to my two younger children back home, back to the airport, or to work with my wife. I was in 15 minutes from each of the items. I decided to go to the children - so most of the family would have gathered. At the same time, I realized that I could not have time to get home. When I rushed home, I learned that it was a false signal. To hell with you, Hawaii Department of Defense. "

Tourists

Tourists talked about the panic in hotels. Travelers were forced to stay in the rooms, but they defied calls down.

From a Twitter post: “I called my parents to find out what they would do with the child. They tried to force us to stay in the rooms, but we went downstairs. There were crowded people, and the staff sent us to the garage and storage rooms. Some people held each other, others sat in golf cars and tried to catch signals on their phones. One guy was able to go on Twitter and read that the alarm was false. The longest and terrible half an hour in my life. "

Jocelin Azbell told CNN that she had just woken up in her hotel in Maui, when she was asked to go down to the basement to hide from a ballistic missile. A few minutes before, a notification came to her phone.

You start thinking: “Oh my God, shall we die? Is it really a rocket, or is it just a test? ” We really did not know. [...] ".

Jocelin adds:

"Hawaii is beautiful, but this is not the place where I would like to die."

Azbell, her boyfriend and hundreds of other guests of the hotel "like cattle" were taken to the basement, people were crying and were very scared. After becoming aware of a false alarm, she "was relieved."

After becoming aware of a false alarm, people were relieved.

Adnan Mesihuala rested on Waikiki with his family to celebrate his father's 40 anniversary. He added that “in the current political climate, the family thought it was serious. That morning we were going with the family to the beach. I have a two month old baby. Our family was assembled when we heard the alarm and we were terrified. It was a crazy morning. My wife cried and I didn’t know what to do. ”

However, some residents were quite calm about the anxiety.

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.