That's the best response to this cock-up that I've heard. Pragmatism at its finest. Well done Dan!
Chris On 14 January 2018 at 19:09, Daniel J. Matyola <danmaty...@gmail.com> wrote: > We are at the beginning of our annual sojourn on Maui. > > Yesterday, at a little after 8:00 AM, we were having breakfast at a lovely > beachfront restaurant All of a sudden my phone started to scream, as did > those of my wife, my son and all the other patrons in the restaurant. > Picking up my phone, I read: "Emergency alert -- BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT > INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." > > I looked at it a few times, looked around the room at the other patrons, > shrugged and went back to my breakfast. I mean, if it was real, what could > one do? go to the basement, so the building could collapse on me? Head up > the mountain, where I would be more exposed to blast and radiation from an > explosion at Pearl Harbor? Not much would help. After all, if one is to > die, why not do it in paradise with a glass of fresh guava juice and Eggs > Benedict? > > All of the other patrons in the restaurant -- probably mostly Canadians -- > also shrugged, put their phones down, and continued with breakfast. > > It took 38 minutes for the "authorities" to issue a retraction through the > emergency system. My son was able to find a couple of reliable tweets > stating it was a false alarm within about 10 minutes, but still, the delay > was inexcusable. > > Elsewhere in Hawaii, there was real panic. In Honolulu, hospital patients > were moved from their beds to the basement. tourists panicked on Waikiki. > Children were in tears. The biggest problem is that, if there ever is a > real alert, who would believe it. > > An hour after the event, CNN was covering nothing else. The mistake > appears to have been human error, at the level of the state emergency > center in the crater of Diamond Head, and even the senior military on > Hawaii (who would be the first to know of a real attack) were caught by > surprise and confused. > > On Maui, most were more concerned with the high surf warnings than the > ballistic missile warning. > > A bit of excitement in the midst of the serenity of paradise. > > > Dan Matyola > http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
