this was the emergency alert system of the State of Hawaii, and not a federal or military emergency response department.
Apparently, it took only one person to push the button or click the software prompt to send out the message. It happened at the change of shifts, so it could have been just an elbow accidentally brushing against a button or a key on the keyboard. Dan Matyola http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola On Sun, Jan 14, 2018 at 4:02 PM, P. J. Alling <[email protected]> wrote: > I was just reading the CNN account, and they seem to have asked the right > questions. It's all about peoples reactions. what it should be about is, > > 1 Where did the false report originate. If it was with an actual > responsible official that duty should be removed from them immediately, if > not. > > 2 Who has the task, and or authorization, to actually send out this > message? > > 3 If it is an actual physical button, and not software, and it's must > likely software, what safeguards are there against a false alarm being sent. > > This shouldn't be a matter of pushing just one button or picking a simple > software option from a menu. There should be either actual interlocks, > (can't actually be locked with a Key, because what if the person with the > key isn't available), but there should be reasonable level of "are you sure > you want to do this" after the option is chosen. > > It seems to me that it would take a fair amount of effort to make this > happen, given reasonable safeguards. Someone should be fired because they > ignored all of that. > > > > On 1/14/2018 2:09 PM, Daniel J. Matyola wrote: > >> We are at the beginning of our annual sojourn on Maui. >> >> Yesterday, at a little after 8:00 AM, we were having breakfast at a lovely >> beachfront restaurant All of a sudden my phone started to scream, as did >> those of my wife, my son and all the other patrons in the restaurant. >> Picking up my phone, I read: "Emergency alert -- BALLISTIC MISSILE >> THREAT >> INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." >> >> I looked at it a few times, looked around the room at the other patrons, >> shrugged and went back to my breakfast. I mean, if it was real, what >> could >> one do? go to the basement, so the building could collapse on me? Head >> up >> the mountain, where I would be more exposed to blast and radiation from an >> explosion at Pearl Harbor? Not much would help. After all, if one is to >> die, why not do it in paradise with a glass of fresh guava juice and Eggs >> Benedict? >> >> All of the other patrons in the restaurant -- probably mostly Canadians -- >> also shrugged, put their phones down, and continued with breakfast. >> >> It took 38 minutes for the "authorities" to issue a retraction through the >> emergency system. My son was able to find a couple of reliable tweets >> stating it was a false alarm within about 10 minutes, but still, the delay >> was inexcusable. >> >> Elsewhere in Hawaii, there was real panic. In Honolulu, hospital patients >> were moved from their beds to the basement. tourists panicked on Waikiki. >> Children were in tears. The biggest problem is that, if there ever is a >> real alert, who would believe it. >> >> An hour after the event, CNN was covering nothing else. The mistake >> appears to have been human error, at the level of the state emergency >> center in the crater of Diamond Head, and even the senior military on >> Hawaii (who would be the first to know of a real attack) were caught by >> surprise and confused. >> >> On Maui, most were more concerned with the high surf warnings than the >> ballistic missile warning. >> >> A bit of excitement in the midst of the serenity of paradise. >> >> >> Dan Matyola >> http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola >> > > -- > America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. > America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well please. > - P.J. O'Rourke > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
