LIHUE — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has recommended changes to strengthen the nation’s emergency alert system after Hawaii officials sent a false ballistic missile alert throughout the state in January.
But, Hawaii already had the inspector general’s recommendations in place when that false alert was sent.
The Office of Inspector General’s report says to make Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert Warning System run effectively, the software needs to have message preview and cancelling features.
Hawaii’s system does.
Officials say Hawaii could use better training both on the system and the software, which was also recommended in the report.
But, lack of training wasn’t found to be a concern in Hawaii, the inspector general’s report said, and the office didn’t address the causes behind Hawaii’s false missile alert in the report.
“While the report states that Hawaii’s false missile alert did not result from these concerns (message canceling and review options), the OIG recommended staff training and the inclusion of safeguard capabilities in emergency alert software as alerting authorities may continue to face challenges without them,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, who co-sponsored a bill requesting the OIG report with Sen. Brian Schatz.
Hirono did thank the OIG for doing the report and “providing answers on FEMA’s role in the false missile alert sent to Hawaii residents.”
“The inadequate safeguards found in the report are unacceptable and I will closely monitor FEMA’s progress in implementing the Inspector General’s recommendations to ensure such an incident never happens again in Hawaii, or in any other state that utilizes an emergency alert system.”
For Kauai’s Sen. Ron Kouchi, the report is a step in the right direction.
“My only desire is we get the best warning system in place to ensure the safety of our residents and visitors alike,” Kouchi said.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige is currently in Japan and unavailable to immediately comment on the report.
The Jan. 13 message broadcast to cellphones across the state triggered panic that continued even after the message notifying people it was a false alarm. That happened 38 minutes after the original message was sent.
Multiple investigations blamed Hawaii’s false missile alert on human error and inadequate management safeguards and the Associated Press reports the individual who sent the alert believed a real attack was imminent even though his colleagues understood they were participating in an exercise.
He selected the missile alert warning template from a drop-down menu, and clicked ‘yes’ in response to a prompt that read, ‘Are you sure that you want to send this Alert?’
Hawaii officials successfully canceled the message five minutes after it was sent, which prevented its retransmission over radio and television airwaves and stopped it from being sent to cellphones that were turned off when the alert was initially issued.
The report looks at the rest of the states, using Hawaii’s false missile alert as a teaching moment for everyone else. For example, the state of Georgia once intended to send an alert about a winter storm warning but instead sent a confusingly worded message that referenced a civil emergency. Its software didn’t allow the state to cancel the message.
In June 2017, Florida authorities attempted to send a child abduction Amber Alert to 54 counties but didn’t know their software only allowed dissemination to a maximum of 31 locations at a time. As a result, 23 counties didn’t receive the alert.
FEMA said it agrees with the recommendations.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
