Editorial: Another non-emergency

Accidents happen … OK. But two emergency-related, islandwide government blunders in 20 months?

The reference, of course, is to the emergency alerts that turned out to be false alarms due to worker error as well as bad protocol. On Wednesday, Oahuans — and some Mauians — got a bit of PTSD jolt when outdoor sirens started blaring. Newsrooms and broadcast stations were deluged by worried folks wondering what was going on. Nothing, it quickly turned out — other than another government training exercise gone wrong. Someone at the Honolulu Police Department had hit the wrong console button, setting off the sirens.

Chief Susan Ballard said HPD would now be looking for a training console, or at least be working off screenshots, instead of training on the live system.

Good idea. This embarrassment comes a mere 20 months after the globally infamous false missile alert, in which people on Oahu experienced at least 38 minutes of panic on Jan. 13, 2018, thinking Hawaii might be under missile attack.

Hawaii’s emergency alert systems, and the people operating them, have to be above reproach. More than other governmental agencies, they hold direct and immediate responsibility for the wholesale safety of Hawaii’s communities. The last thing we want is for people, inured by repeated false alerts, to brush off the alarm when real disaster strikes.