38 Minutes
January 15th, 2018“…..The Federal Communications Commission said on Sunday that its initial investigation of the mistaken alert had concluded that Hawaii did not have “reasonable safeguards or process controls in place” in its emergency notification process. The alert was sent to cellphones across Hawaii on Saturday morning when a state employee pushed the wrong button in the midst of a shift-change safety drill. It then took 38 minutes for the agency to withdraw the alert.
The prospect of a battery of investigations by state and federal lawmakers, with public testimony about the timeline of events, suggested that the alert would probably be a dominant subject in Hawaii life for months to come…..
As officials tried to reconstruct exactly what happened on Saturday, a spokesman for the Pacific Command in Hawaii said the military had moved quickly to push back against the Hawaii state alert as soon as it was known to be incorrect.
“Upon confirming yesterday’s message was a false alarm, Uspacom Public Affairs worked quickly to inform the public through traditional and social media channels,” Cmdr. David Benham, a military spokesman, said in an email Sunday, using an acronym for the Pacific Command. “We will use this as an opportunity to improve our internal processes as well as coordination with State authorities. “
The Pacific Command first told Hawaii media that there was no approaching ballistic missile at 8:23 a.m. — about 13 minutes after Hawaii sent out the alert………”
