'Primal fear' as people across Hawaii get false alarm of imminent missile attack
HAWAII -- The warning buzzed on cell phones and striped across television screens urging residents to seek immediate shelter as the missile made its way towards them.
Related: Hawaii emergency officials say alert of ballistic missile threat was mistake
38 minutes later, officials confirmed the alarm was an accident but for people on the islands, those minutes between the initial alert and when it was canceled sent them into a frenzy.
The onslaughts of alerts caused chaos and confusion on the islands. Hotel guests scrambling for safety, seeking shelter in the basement, huddling together, fearing the worst.
13-year old Mati Durkin was just eating breakfast.
"My brother was just about to leave for his class, and he told us that he got a threat on his phone, it said there's a bomb threat, a ballistic missile threat. And so we all freaked out," Durkin said.
His mother went into immediate survival mode and took the children and the dog to a safe space below the house.
The people of Hawaii have been on edge in recent months as North Korea's Kim Jong-un may be closer to perfecting a nuclear missile.
Just last month Hawaii tested their nuclear attack warning sirens for the first time since the 1980s. But this alert was a fake and a whopping 38-minutes later, state officials finally issued an official correction message.
Blaming an employee for pushing the wrong button on a computer terminal. The governor, David Ige, promising his terrified residents and tourists a thorough investigation.
