(WHDH) — It pays to know your logins and passwords. Just ask Hawaii Gov. David Ige.
When the state pushed out an incoming ballistic missile alert earlier this month, Ige knew just two minutes later that it was a false alarm.
Ige wanted to let residents know of the mistake on Twitter, but there was a problem.
“I was in the process of making calls to the leadership team, both in Hawaii Emergency Management, as well as HADUZ. I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account logons and passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made. I’ve been putting that on my phone so that you can access the social media directory,” Ige said.
It took 15 minutes after Ige learned of the false alarm for Hawaii to relay that news on social media. It took another 38 minutes until the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sent out a second message confirming the false alarm to the public.
Ige says that steps are being made to make sure a false alarm never happens again.
The false alarm was blamed on a worker who pushed the wrong button while wrapping up a work shift.
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