Hawaii panics after alert about incoming ballistic missile is sent in error

While the cellphone alerting system is in state authorities' hands, the detection of missile launches is the responsibility of the United States Strategic Command and Northern Command

An early-morning emergency alert mistakenly warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack was dispatched to cellphones across Hawaii on Saturday, setting off widespread panic in a state that was already on edge because of escalating tensions between the US and North Korea.
 

The alert, sent by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, was revoked 38 minutes after it was issued, prompting confusion over why it was released — and why it took so long to rescind. State officials and residents of a normally tranquil part of the Pacific, as well as tourists swept up in the panic, immediately expressed outrage.

“What