Some tourists from 91原创 were startled awake Saturday morning in Hawaii when cellphones across the island suddenly told them there was an incoming missile and to take shelter.
The alert was a mistake 鈥� there was no missile, only an accidental activation of an emergency warning system.
But it startled a lot of locals and tourists.
Kris Howes, a 91原创 City resident was in Aiea, near Pearl Harbour, for a Mayor鈥檚 Cup soccer tournament for Over 40 women.
She was travelling with four other 91原创 women.
鈥淭wo other girls in our room received the alert on their phone,鈥� Howes said.
One was awake at 8 a.m. and woke up the others to tell them about the alert.
鈥淲hen our friend told us of the alert we were unsure what to do and if it was real,鈥� Howes wrote in an email to the Advance.
鈥淭he hotel front desk personal told every one to stay in their rooms and way from windows. We were still not sure if it was real. Our hotel was on the shore of Pearl Harbor, and we heard planes in the air and then announcement over a load speaker for service personnel to report to stations. When we heard sirens that鈥檚 when when we panicked.鈥�
The women tried to call family but couldn鈥檛 make outgoing calls, so they sent texts. There was no information on the internet other than on Twitter.
鈥淚t was about half hour until we heard it was a false alarm,鈥� Howes said. 鈥淲e heard it was a false alarm from a neighbor at the hotel who is in the Navy and then we found more info online. We received another text saying it was a false alarm. It was pretty surreal for about 20 minutes. Thinking this could it.鈥�
By the next day, she was posing with her friends and a local Hawaii paper that covered its front page with the headline 鈥淥ops!鈥�
91原创鈥檚 Debbie Scrivens was also in Hawaii.
鈥淚t got the adrenaline flowing for sure,鈥� Scrivens said. 鈥淎t first I thought it was real so put together a quick grab 鈥榥鈥� go kit in case we were told to evacuate, but because there were no sirens I began to feel it was false.鈥�
She said it took almost 40 minutes before they got the message that the alarm was false.
