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I bet the Navy FC's were salivating! I'm curious what the time difference was between the initial warning and the false alarm notice.
 
Johnny B said:
I bet the Navy FC's were salivating! I'm curious what the time difference was between the initial warning and the false alarm notice.
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38 Minutes.

For almost 40 minutes there was no official word on whether we were actually being attacked. Those first 20 minutes were definitely tense. The sirens and giant voice were going off on Pearl Harbor/Hickam, just across the harbor from my house, but there was relative silence everywhere else around the island. After about 15 minutes, and we still weren't vaporized, I think most relaxed a bit, but for those first 10 or 15 minutes, I accepted that it was the end and held my family close. Here's how I recounted it to another friend:

I was in that hazy area between sleep and wake when our phones started making that horrendous EMA alert screeching (you know the one). I could see it was bright and sunny out, so my confused, sleepy brain was wondering how there could be flash flood warnings going on. It took a second to register what I was reading, and I probably had to read it back a few times. I then tossed my phone on my wife, told her to read it, and proceeded to get dressed. She was initially confused, as I'm sure we all were, and then promptly proceeded to turn into her mother. If the missiles ever really do come, we're in trouble with that woman... :D

She freaked out, got the kids up and all freaked out, themselves, and then went downstairs to pack for a week's worth of camping, it would seem. I'm not sure where they thought we'd be going to. I was still upstairs trying to find ANY news on what was happening, but there was just nothing out there. I was texting with some friends at various parts around the island, and the only place the sirens were going off was on Hickam. I live just across Pearl Harbor, and the wind wasn't even carrying the sound over at all. It was quiet outside. I had a feeling that nada was going on, as there was just no other corroborating emergency action going on. As we got around the 10 minute mark from the alert, I went downstairs to be with the fam, just incase it really was really real. We're on an island -- there's nowhere to go and nothing to do but try and mitigate the immediate radiation fallout, hug those around you, and wait out your last 15 minutes. I'd rather vaporize instantly, thank you. A minute or two later, false alarm notifications started trickling out, though the official EMA recanting/update wasn't for over half an hour after we were woken up by the alert. I eventually turned on CNN to see it as their main headlines and talking heads..."
 
I truly can't imagine what it must've been like, especially in the first 10 minutes or so. As I read through your post, my heart dropped just thinking about my family and the fact that I would've been away from them (at work) during that time. Scary. I'm glad it was a false alarm for sure!
 
News this morning is equating it to a "butt dial"....

Heads need to roll when they figure out who it was at the state level that screwed up.
 
Scap said:
News this morning is equating it to a "butt dial"....

Heads need to roll when they figure out who it was at the state level that screwed up.
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They already know who. As someone who works with buttons and dials, this mistake is way too easy to make.
 
oke&coke said:
They already know who. As someone who works with buttons and dials, this mistake is way too easy to make.
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That is scary.

Being a self certified knob turner and button pusher, there's gotta be a way to keep us from ending the world with one knob turn or button push.
 
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