NATIONAL SECURITY/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR: “As tensions between the United States and North Korea continue to simmer, Hawaii will start a statewide test on Friday [11-24-17] of a Cold War-era early warning system designed to inform its residents of an impending nuclear attack.
The Attack Warning Tone, described as a ‘wailing tone,’ will be heard for about 50 seconds on the first business day of every month, beginning on Dec. 1. It will sound after the regular monthly test of the sirens that warn residents of hurricanes or tsunamis, the Emergency Management Agency said in a news release on Monday that was intended to update the population on what the agency is doing to ‘prepare our state for a nuclear threat.’…
The last time Hawaii residents heard the attack warning siren test was in the waning days of the Cold War. The siren, if used as an actual warning, would signal to people that they should immediately seek shelter, Toby Clairmont, the executive officer of the emergency agency, said in a report by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser earlier this month.
While the officials did not link the siren test to a specific development in North Korea, it is the latest step the state has taken to prepare its population of more than 1.4 million people for the possibility of a North Korean nuclear strike.”
-Christine Hauser, “Hawaii Brings Back a Cold War-Era Nuclear Warning System,” The New York Times online, Nov. 28, 2017