When Hawaii accidentally pushed out a ballistic missile alert earlier this month, Gov. David Ige knew within two minutes that it was a false alarm. But he couldn’t log on to his Twitter and tell everyone this information because he could not remember his password. “I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account login and passwords,” Ige told reporters Monday after giving his State of the State address, according to CNN. “I will be putting that on my phone.” On Jan. 13, Hawaii residents received the alert from the Hawaii Management Agency at 8:07 a.m. It took two minutes for a state official to tell Ige it was false, but it took another 15 minutes before the state relayed that news on social media, and another 38 minutes after the alert was sent for the emergency management agency to send out a second message saying the first was a false alarm. Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that since he couldn’t get on his twitter, he did make calls to his leadership team at the emergency management agency. The false alert was blamed on a single employee who “pushed the wrong button” during an end-of-shift procedure. According to Ige, steps have been taken to ensure that such a false alarm will never happen again. If North Korea were to launch a missile toward Hawaii, the 1.4 million residents of the islands would only have about 20 minutes notice before it hits. After the false alert was set, resident and tourists alike scrambled for safety and hid in hotel basements, under tables, and in military hangers.
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