Human Error - False Alarm  -  Awe but no shock

We were having an excellent breakfast (banana, coconut, macadamia pancakes) at Hannara's in Waianae this morning. An emergency alarm went off and suddenly everyone's looking at their phones. Needless to say, we're all right. ">The radio was playing, and the alarm didn't play there, which gave me confidence that there was nothing genuinely amiss.  But the alarm was persistent, intermittent and moments after it began in the restaurant itself, people's mobile phones went off and everyone began checking (if they hadn't been already, which most were).  The phone message was clear.  Incoming missile threat--State of Hawaii--This is NOT a test or exercise--Shelter in place. The restaurant cleared out immediately and staff phoned their families.  People cars immediately were heading west (away from Pearl Harbor, honking horns, horning in, flashing lights, running stop signals).  It wasn't pretty.

We were sheltering in place as far as we could figure, certainly as much as we could in the next twenty minutes.  At home, we'd be facing east through a wall of glass.

So I continued to work on my tall stack.  And thirty-seven minutes later.  (That's thirty-seven) minutes, ten minutes after the window for nuclear obliteration, the message came through that this was a false alarm.  We finished our breakfast and headed out for some bread (because we are completely tolerant of gluten--and lactose, for that matter).  The town, the stores were abuzz.  It turns out that the imminent threat of and deliverance from nuclear annihilation makes the aloha spirit absolutely effervesce. People were very cheery, very friendly.  Even our dour waitress laughed.

There were some facts that gave me confidence that we were going to be OK right out of the gate. The first was that the radio kept playing.  I knew that if there were a genuine emergency, as per the tests, all radio programming would be interrupted, and we wouldn't still be listening to Pink's "Try."  Secondly, the signal was intermittent, the signal for tsunami warnings.  My thinking was that if there were a genuine nuclear threat, they would have, as it were, gotten their signals straight.  The signal for nuclear threat is an undulating, constant siren. (I do pay attention to the first of the month noon-day tests.) Finally, only indoor and phone alarms went off, not the very loud, intrusive outdoor alarms.

There were several facts that did not give me confidence.  The first is, what does it mean to "shelter in place"? bring our plates under the table a la 1950s-elementary school?  The second is that, with all the recent talk about buttons, this was caused by "wrong button pushed during shift change." Someone could have hit it with their elbow. It shouldn't be right next to the time clock.  Thirdly: thirty-seven minutes to correct this?  Fourthly, the White House response was that the president, golfing at Mara Lago, was informed and that this "exercise" was, well, nothing.  No explanation from him or the military.  While a lot of frightened people drove frantically away to outrun an imminent nuclear explosion.  I don't begrudge the president golf or Florida.  He can have both as afar as I'm concerned.  But neither he nor the military (I almost said "his" military, but I seriously hope not) have an explanation about a mistake? The problem is that there was no apparent coordination between the phone and building alert, the emergency broadcast radio system, and the outdoor public alarms.

I'm back up, looking out my window to the southeast.  The sun is shining.  The pool is calling to wash and bake out my cold, and this afternoon we're heading west, away from Pearl Harbor to look in awe at the exceptionally high surf.  The faces here will be thirty-five feet.  On the North Shore, fifty.  Gotta get your awe on somewhere.