Now we know why it took so long to correct the Hawaiian missile alert — and it was avoidable

Hawaii Gov. David Ige listens to questions during a news conference about escaped psychiatric patient Randall Saito on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017 in Honolulu. Saito, who was acquitted of a 1979 murder by reason of insanity and escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital over the weekend, was arrested in California on Wednesday. He left the Hawaii State Hospital on Sunday, took a taxi to a chartered plane bound for the island of Maui and then boarded another plane to San Jose, Calif., Honolulu police said. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

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Besides the employee who mistakenly sent out a ballistic missile warning, another person’s error may be blamed for the Hawaiians’ 17-minute panic a few weeks ago.

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Hawaiians were sent into a panic on Saturday, Jan. 13, after they received alerts on their phones saying, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” After 30 minutes of fright and tearful goodbyes, a correction was issued. It was later revealed that the message was sent by mistake, thanks to human error.

Many people questioned why it took as long as it did for the information to be updated.

According to the Star-Adviser, Gov. David Ige (D) told reporters earlier in the week that he was unable to reach his confused constituents sooner because he forgot the log-in to his Twitter account: “I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made. I’ve been putting that on my phone so that we can access the social media directly.”

Ige added that he “was in the process of making calls to the leadership team both in Hawaii Emergency Management as well as others,” which also added to the delay.

“The focus really was on trying to get as many people informed about the fact that it was a false alert,” he said.

By the time the governor did find his password, he tweeted the following to the Hawaiian people.

As that was going on, at least one high-level politician in the state was able to quickly inform the public that the warning was a mistake.

Sen. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) tweeted from her Twitter account

As for how the series of events began in the first place, it was later revealed that a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee, who worked at the organization for 10 years, mistakenly triggered a real alarm instead of a drill alarm.

https://twitter.com/OtagoWeb/status/953362767909609472

The employee has since been reassigned to duties that do not “provide access to the warning system.”

RELATED: Jim Carrey thinks the Hawaiian false missile alarm has “psychic” implications about President Trump

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