Just another day in paradise - until 8:08am

[SheitlQueen]

In 4th grade my teacher at a Catholic Parochial school, during the Cuban Missile Crisis advised us that if we saw a flash in the sky, we should crawl under our desks. We all know that nothing will protect you in a nuclear blast like a 4th grade desk.

I remember those days! However, since we lived in California the teachers told us that it was a earthquake drill. I was too young to know about the Missile Crisis and just accepted that crawling under a desk would save me during a massive earthquake.

 

[Alan]

US didn't launch a counter attack immediately. That was a relief.

If you believe the article above and statement from the Governor there was never any incoming missile(s) detected, just an operator who erroneously pressed the “broadcast emergency” button during a shift change.

 

[CaptTom]

It would be neat if they weren't! I remember after 9/11 trying to get in touch with Frank, who was just outside NYC in CT. Cell phone communiciations were terrible, probably due to the huge number of calls, but e-mails went through. Same here after Katrina - - cell phones and landlines were disrupted off and on, but e-mail was better.

In the old days, the land-line system was designed to support something like 10% of the total number of possible connections. It was never expected to work properly during any kind of emergency or panic. I suspect cell service is even more limiting.

Asynchronous comms like text and e-mail have a much better chance of getting through. They consume a lot less bandwidth and can wait for a lull moment.

 

[John Galt III]

It took me 10 minutes of searching to finally find out that the name of the Homer Simpson protege who pushed the button 'was not released'. I found that info on Wikipedia, to their credit. I don't think anyone at the press conference ever asked for the name of the button-pusher. I don't want the poor guy to have his life ruined, but I'm just amazed that no one even asked the question. They did ask what would happen to him, and the answer was that he would be retrained (but not fired, apparently). I guess everyone is just too kind and considerate? Was there a skit on SNL about him last night? I don't think he should be outed, necessarily, but I'm amazed that there seems to be no interest on the internet, in his identity.

 

[RobbieB]

I heard about this and saw the news reports with people running.

I think I'll go to the bar order up some drinks and sip them on the veranda and wait for the flash in the sky.

 

[MRG]

It took me 10 minutes of searching to finally find out that the name of the Homer Simpson protege who pushed the button 'was not released'. I found that info on Wikipedia, to their credit. I don't think anyone at the press conference ever asked for the name of the button-pusher. I don't want the poor guy to have his life ruined, but I'm just amazed that no one even asked the question. They did ask what would happen to him, and the answer was that he would be retrained (but not fired, apparently). I guess everyone is just too kind and considerate? Was there a skit on SNL about him last night? I don't think he should be outed, necessarily, but I'm amazed that there seems to be no interest on the internet, in his identity.

Go over to Reddit. There's a lot of traffic on this. One was an invite to do an AMA(ask me anything), I don't think he's talking.

Hopefully anyone who sheltered heard it was false. In a couple of years some old codger is likely to come out of hiding.

 

[John Galt III]

Go over to Reddit. There's a lot of traffic on this. One was an invite to do an AMA(ask me anything), I don't think he's talking.

.........

Thanks! I found it on Reddit. Google search results had no Reddit hits, for some reason.

 

[MRG]

Thanks! I found it on Reddit. Google search results had no Reddit hits, for some reason.

I don't think Reddit shows up often. If I understand correctly it's because Reddit is an aggregator of other people's content..

 

[HadEnuff]

I had some bad days at work, but never as bad as the guy who pushed the button. He or she may be a new member of our internet community. All kidding aside, I feel for whoever did this.
Thank goodness he/she didn't have access to that other button.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Hawaii seems to have a bad luck history when it comes to warnings. When they actually needed a warning on Dec 7th 1941, the radar operators were told don’t worry about it. Now, they get warned when they really did have nothing to worry about.

Paradise don’t come free I suppose. Volcanoes and other scares from time to time.

 

[Koolau]

DW and I are heading to the Big Island in 17 days. We are going to spend the month of February there. I was in Kauai for a short week 30+ years ago, and DW has never been to any of the Hawaiian Islands before. Her daughter is jealous that we are going, and was the one to tell us about the alarm. She suggested we cancel our trip. I hope she was joking.
I hope you will share with the FIRE community on a thread, how your time on Hawaii went, what you learned, etc etc.

One of our earliest visits to the Island (back when we were tourists, not yet residents) was right after the resolution of the DC10 accident in Chicago. Sure enough, the equipment we flew was one of the first flights of the DC10 following the extensive investigation and equipment examination. DW was ready to cancel the trip instead of getting on the DC10. I told her it was the most inspected, safest aircraft in the sky at that point. She finally agreed and we flew without incident.

Regarding the threat from NK, I suppose an attack is always a possibility, but it's my personal opinion that while Kim might be crazy, he isn't stupid. Of course, YMMV.

 

[Koolau]

Koolau, I do have a serious question for you. Just wondering, how does one tell the difference between an incoming nuclear missile alarm (which I would ignore) and a tsunami alarm (which I would not ignore)?

The actual warning was specific in its verbiage, so there's that. Had I chosen to ignore the warning note, I must say that the tone on the cell phone was one that I had never heard before and I have heard at least 3 tsunami warnings. I would have to say that the cell phone tone was actually a bit frightening, though I don't know how to describe it.

Again, the biggest clue that the warning was an error was that nothing else backed it up (No tsunami/air raid sirens - and we have almost 400 on the island from what I understand; Radio traffic was "normal;" police were not cruising neighborhoods alerting folks to take cover, etc).

 

[Chuckanut]

Gosh! Pearl Harbor syndrome rises in Hawaii.

 

[Koolau]

I saw no panic where I was hanging out. It happened to be in a church building. Someone prayed out loud and then most of the folks tried to reach loved ones on their cell phones. This reminded me of the early '70s placard (available in most novelty stores):

IN THE EVENT OF NUCLEAR ATTACK, ALL LAWS AGAINST PRAYING IN THIS GOVERNMENT BUILDING WILL BE INDEFINITELY SUSPENDED. YMMV

 

[Oma_here]

Don’t you think it’s weird that this has never happened before Kim Jong Un started making threats?

Not really considering that the system was only reactivated 12/1/17. They didn't even make it two months before messing up

 

[GrayHare]

I wonder if it was an "intentional accident" to test response. Useful info seems to be coming from the event, albeit at the expense of some panic.

 

[harley]

All the people showing such sympathy for the guy who made this mistake, will you show as much for poor old Marcus Williams?

 

[gcgang]

I basically ignored it, partly because I was into the UM-MSU basketball game (great Michigan victory) partly because wtf can you do about it. Checked other stations, nobody reporting it, figured it was another example of incompetent government bureaucracy.

My 16 year old daughter was on Molokai for basketball. They prematurely ended the JV game and herded the kids into a storage room. She was mostly annoyed by it all. Not sure if there was any panic in the group.

 

[Senator]

I do not even know why Hawaii even issues a warning for a ballistic missile.

If it's nuclear, you cannot hide enough in 15 minutes. It would wipe out many items and kill many people. The ones that survived, would likely die soon due to starvation or radioactivity.

 

[ERD50]

I wonder if it was an "intentional accident" to test response. Useful info seems to be coming from the event, albeit at the expense of some panic.

On another forum, there was a discussion where one guy was promoting routine prolonged power-outage drills across the country. He claimed that an actual power-outage was the only real way to find the weak links in the system (this in response to the recent hurricanes).

I think he's right, though the general opinion seemed to be it would create more problems than it solved. Maybe, probably?

And it looks like this accident (or 'exercise'?) did point out the problems with their emergency communication system. So maybe some good will come out of it, I hope not too many people got hurt in the mayhem.

I think I would have been terrified if I experienced it. Geez, that text was definitive and specific, and it said "THIS IS NOT A DRILL". I would have been pretty freaked out.

I do not even know why Hawaii even issues a warning for a ballistic missile.

If it's nuclear, you cannot hide enough in 15 minutes. It would wipe out many items and kill many people. The ones that survived, would likely die soon due to starvation or radioactivity.

I'm not sure how North Korea's capability compares to what was dropped on Nagasaki, but in that case, it was not an all or nothing situation:

Sumiteru Taniguchi, 88, Who Survived Nagasaki to Become Activist, Dies

On the day of the bombing, Mr. Taniguchi, then 16, was delivering mail on his bicycle in the northern corner of the city, just over a mile from ground zero.

When the bomb detonated overhead, the force of the explosion tossed him into the air, and the heat it radiated melted his cotton shirt and seared the skin off his back and one arm.

Three months later, he was taken to a navy hospital, where he lay on his stomach for nearly two years ...

And yet, he lived from age 16 to age 88, with no protection from the blast.

-ERD50

 

[Sunset]

I do not even know why Hawaii even issues a warning for a ballistic missile.

If it's nuclear, you cannot hide enough in 15 minutes. It would wipe out many items and kill many people. The ones that survived, would likely die soon due to starvation or radioactivity.

As someone who grew up with the cold war, I don't think I could just sit on the beach (book reference) waiting to die.

Hi spans about 350 miles , so unless all the islands were each hit with a missile, there would easily be a good chance to survive if the island was not hit.

Besides many islands have mountains, which would shield areas from the blast, and depending upon the wind direction, all the radiation could blow away from some people's location.

 

[Koolau]

I do not even know why Hawaii even issues a warning for a ballistic missile.

If it's nuclear, you cannot hide enough in 15 minutes. It would wipe out many items and kill many people. The ones that survived, would likely die soon due to starvation or radioactivity.

I suppose it would depend upon the "purpose" of a nuclear attack. A "tactical" nuke, used to disable the military would likely leave a good portion of the population alive - maybe even unharmed, assuming they could shelter from the bulk of the fallout (trade winds would blow most away in hours, I'm guessing.) If a thermonuke were used (say 5 megaton) it's likely there would be 80+% death and nearly 100% casualty on a 600 square mile island. The purpose of such an attack would be terror rather than tactical in my opinion.

I'm too ignorant of the subject to know whether survivors of a tactical attack could survive in such an isolated place as HI. In any case, my immediate fear at the time was being a survivor, dependent on help from the mainland (2500 miles away). Realistically, HI would be a secondary concern as the mainland reacted (defensively and in retaliation.) So, it could be a very long time without adequate food, medical, even water, certainly sanitation, etc.) Yeah, I think ground zero sounds a lot better but YMMV.

 

[Proteus126]

Interesting website you can use to compute the effects of a nuclear strike. Choose a location, choose warhead variables, choose damage rings and fallout lobes to display.

I put one over Pearl City. Honolulu was largely spared.

 

[HadEnuff]

All the people showing such sympathy for the guy who made this mistake, will you show as much for poor old Marcus Williams?

Of course! (But then, I don't live in New Orleans)

 

[lwp2017]

Seeking shelter immediately is rational & makes sense.

Agree that a single warhead is a very tragic event but it is realistic to plan on what to do post event for food and water because the odds are high you will survive.

Nuclear warheads are survivable if outside the immediate, 3 mile radius. Especially because of the limited number of DRNK warheads, it is certainly not the end of the world.

DRNK is estimated to have 500 kiloton fission warheads. That size creates a blast wave that destroys buildings out to 3 miles. That takes approximately 0.5 psi over ambient 14.7psi at MSL. Thermal energy release is strong enough to create fires 5-6 miles.
If not immediately downwind, no fallout impact.

If you see a flash and have time to get under a table do it. Duck and cover protects you from flying debris generated by the shock wave.
If you are too close to react, it doesn't matter.