So at 8 a.m. this morning, I’m reviewing some FRC vision processing code when my cell phone starts blaring with a civil defense message saying: “Emergency Alert: BALLISTIC MISSLE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
30 minutes later we were informed by the government a mistake was made. Whew!
And now I will always remember what I was doing the moments before the “bomb” dropped.
In other news… Starbucks reporting a massive drop in coffee sales, Local Sewer Treatment plant overloaded, and there’s been a run on new underwear at WalMart.
I am so glad this was a false alarm. Hawaii is one of my favourite travel destinations and I was there just two months ago. I love the wonderful people, the great food and of course the beautiful scenery (including robotics teams working out of a storefront in a shopping mall :D)
edit: BTW on Hawaii (at NELHA in Kona) I had my first tsunami warning experience, which is wholely different from this warning, but nevertheless we were told that the nearest safe elevation was the airport runway, which would involve crossing the lava field and scaling the fence.
This was quite surprising since many of us were on Oahu at the VEX state championships… They just recently reinstated the air warning sirens in the state, so I figured it was an error. That and my phone didn’t get the blasted message, so at first I thought the student were joking…
Added a good 30 minute delay to the start of the tournament causing cascading delays throughout the tournament… which seems the norm for Vex, missile crisis or not…
What I did learn is the civil defense needs to get some training and better information to the public in a more timely manner.