NATIONAL SECURITY: “The leader of the Hawaii National Guard told state lawmakers that he informed the governor that a panic-inducing missile alert was a false alarm two minutes after it had been sent to cellphones statewide.
The leader, Maj. Gen. Arthur J. Logan, made the revelation about the Jan. 13 episode at a hearing on Friday [1-19-18] during which legislators raised concerns about why that critical information was not conveyed to the public more quickly.
Amid the chaos and confusion, it took officials 38 minutes to send a second message saying the original message was an error. Officials have said a flaw in the alert system delayed the distribution of the correction…
A spokeswoman for Gov. David Ige did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Saturday.
General Logan, who also directs the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, learned the alert was a false alarm after speaking with the United States Pacific Command, an agency spokesman, Richard Rapoza, said on Saturday. General Logan called the governor at 8:09 a.m.
It took another 11 minutes for the emergency management agency to post on Twitter that there was ‘NO missile threat to Hawaii.’ Mr. Ige reiterated that message in his own Twitter post four minutes later. At 8:45 a.m., the message correcting the missile threat lit up cellphones.”
-Matt Stevens, “Hawaii Governor Learned Missile Alert Was False Within Two Minutes,” The New York Times online, Jan. 20, 2018