On the Morning of January 13th just two weeks into the new year Hawaii residents were carrying on with their day, when around 8 A.M. a statewide alert was sent out by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency that warned of a nuclear missile inbound for the state.

The alert stated “ BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER.THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

The 38 minute nuclear scare came in a sensitive time with relations between the North Korean regime and the U.S. being on edge. With The Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump throwing nuclear threats back and forth, it was believed that the threat was credible.

With President Trump releasing a tweet just 10 days prior to the drill in response to the North Korean leader stating he has his “Nuclear button on his desk at all times” . Trump’s tweet said “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

The alert that scared the hawaiian citizens and caused them to think they were in danger was nothing more than a human caused error by one of the employees at the agency. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has been doing routine tests since last November as a result of North Korea partaking in so many practice ICBM launches ( Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). The tests have have been going smoothly up to this point when a simple accident occurred.

One of the employees initiated the test, when the menu dropped down it displayed two options, “ Test missile alert” and “Missile alert”. The employee accidentally clicked the wrong one and unfortunately sent the alert to all residents in the area.

The question to ask is why was it this easy to accidentally send out a real life alarm and whether or not the agency will implement any sort of system to make it harder to initiate the drill in order to prevent this accident to recur.

Even though the routine drill turned into a statewide panic, it gave residents a chance to see how prepared they really are. According to a post made by the local news in Hawaii, citizens need to be better prepared for a real life situation, that hopefully will never happen.