4 ms·

Nearly forty minutes passed before a second message went out: “There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. ...“It was a mistake made during a

Nearly forty minutes passed before a second message went out: “There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. ...“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the changeover of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button.” I've seen some shitty Admin Panels, but somebody "pushed the wrong button" and an end-of-your-world false alarm was going off for 40 minutes?! WTF?

herbst 9y ago
Exactly my thoughts. Errors happen, Developers are lazy and interfaces suck. However this is definitly not a excuse, multiple things have to be completely wrong that it even could get this far.
- beamatronic 9y ago
  I've built a lot of alerts. The "This is not a drill" text should not have even been entered until the system was fully tested and operational.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
Clubber 9y ago
>I've seen some shitty Admin Panels, but somebody "pushed the wrong button" and an end-of-your-world false alarm was going off for 40 minutes?! WTF? Ya, it's the same panel that is installed in the White House. :) Now that's a comforting thought.
- spikels 9y ago
  This is clearly on the State of Hawaii not the US government.
mfukar 9y ago
What sort of procedure do you imagine is in place for a 'false-alarm' type of situation like this?
- cbr 9y ago
  If the alarm is as easy to trigger as pushing a single button, then issuing an update that it was a mistake should be designed for. Ideally just a couple presses, something that can be done in under a minute.
  - mfukar 9y ago
    Firstly, I think you're mistaking "pushing the wrong button" with "pushing a single button". Not that we know either to be true, but anyhow.. ..that's not what I asked. The EAS, EBS, DEAS, etc. they've all had issues with false alarms and operator error before. What kind of provisions and procedures for case like this do you think have been made?
stordoff 9y ago
It remaining like that for 40 minutes is a bad sign, but it being easy to issue a warning seems reasonable (the counter-story is "No warning of the genuine threat was issued, due to the process for doing so being too involved/difficult").
- tzs 9y ago
  That suggests an interesting question: if you issue a false alarm should you retract as soon as you can or can it be better to wait a while? I could see retracting quickly leading to even more confusion as you then have a mix of people who have received (and believed the retraction) trying to resume normal activity and people who still thinking they have to get to a safer place right away. I could see this leading to some escalating tension and even violence. It might be better to wait until a good majority of people have reached their shelters and stopped moving before you issue the retraction.

herbst 9y ago

Exactly my thoughts. Errors happen, Developers are lazy and interfaces suck. However this is definitly not a excuse, multiple things have to be completely wrong that it even could get this far.

beamatronic 9y ago
I've built a lot of alerts. The "This is not a drill" text should not have even been entered until the system was fully tested and operational.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

Clubber 9y ago

>I've seen some shitty Admin Panels, but somebody "pushed the wrong button" and an end-of-your-world false alarm was going off for 40 minutes?! WTF? Ya, it's the same panel that is installed in the White House. :) Now that's a comforting thought.

spikels 9y ago
This is clearly on the State of Hawaii not the US government.

mfukar 9y ago

What sort of procedure do you imagine is in place for a 'false-alarm' type of situation like this?

cbr 9y ago
If the alarm is as easy to trigger as pushing a single button, then issuing an update that it was a mistake should be designed for. Ideally just a couple presses, something that can be done in under a minute.
- mfukar 9y ago
  Firstly, I think you're mistaking "pushing the wrong button" with "pushing a single button". Not that we know either to be true, but anyhow.. ..that's not what I asked. The EAS, EBS, DEAS, etc. they've all had issues with false alarms and operator error before. What kind of provisions and procedures for case like this do you think have been made?

stordoff 9y ago

It remaining like that for 40 minutes is a bad sign, but it being easy to issue a warning seems reasonable (the counter-story is "No warning of the genuine threat was issued, due to the process for doing so being too involved/difficult").

tzs 9y ago
That suggests an interesting question: if you issue a false alarm should you retract as soon as you can or can it be better to wait a while? I could see retracting quickly leading to even more confusion as you then have a mix of people who have received (and believed the retraction) trying to resume normal activity and people who still thinking they have to get to a safer place right away. I could see this leading to some escalating tension and even violence. It might be better to wait until a good majority of people have reached their shelters and stopped moving before you issue the retraction.