While Hawaiians were misled to believe they faced certain death following an erroneous missile alert over the weekend, one family from the Pacific archipelago were reportedly on Long Island at the time.
Justin and his mother, Jacky, were in Plainview visiting family for a wedding when Justin got a call back home from his wife, who said that she received an alert on her cell phone that there was a ballistic missile inbound to Hawaii, WNYW-TV reported.
“Total panic and helplessness,” is what Jacky told Fox 5 NY she felt when she thought she’d never see her grandchildren again before learning that the missile alert was an error.
The alert triggered panic in the streets of paradise as Hawaiian residents sought shelter and sent desperate messages to loved ones for about a half hour Saturday before another alert went out indicating that the threat warning was a mistake.
“Seek immediate shelter,” the erroneous message warned. “This is not a drill.”
But, as it turned out, it was a drill. And the unnamed government official who mistakenly sent the emergency alert was temporarily reassigned pending the results of an investigation.
The mishap comes amid heightened tensions between the US and North Korea, whose dictator has been ratcheting up rhetoric threatening America with nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile strikes.
Family Scared to Death their family was going to die after Missile Alert in Hawaii Saturday. The alert turned out to be an accident/false alarm. Their story airing at 10:30pm on @fox5ny @AlisonMFox5 #Hawaii #hawaiimissilealert #AReportersLife @beckycartercook pic.twitter.com/VxQW9lNQZn
— Linda Schmidt (@LSchmidtFox5) January 16, 2018
