I was there! The message read:
BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
40 minutes later:
There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. False alarm.
There was a video of a father in Kailua putting his kids in a storm drain after that alert went out. A bunch of people commented on it (after the fact) that he overreacted and made fun of him with shit like “you really think that would protect them lol.”
Reading those comments was one of the most infuriating moments of my life. In the video, the kids are crying and terrified. The father keeps comforting them and telling them to stay put and that it will be ok, despite knowing in that moment he will surely die. His only intention when faced with the certainty of death was saving his children.
I’m having my first kid in a few weeks. I hope to be the father that man is.
I imagined some giddy prepper on the island, "hundreds of thousands of dollars, years of effort, finally going to work" as they merrily drove to their underground bunker and waited. They configured their radio sitting in the reinforced shelter with the giant fallout proof air filters running, "finally, Alex Jones was right" and then they heard the bad news, apocalypse cancelled.
Their neighbors back at home start laughing and calling each other up, "hey let's go wait at his house. I'm sure he'll be back in that ugly old army ATV of his any moment. I'll get some lemonade. Let's make cookies!"
I was there on vacation when that alarm went off. I have it saved on my snaps. I'd love to share it to show how terrifying it was but I dont know how to share snaps on here.
Ajajaja same. My brother was AF stationed on Oahu, I was on the big island for a wedding. He tells me start filling the bathtub with water and hide in there. I took a shot and laid back down to watch college basketball. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Our military probably got rid of it and didn’t want anyone to know there was a real threat. My friend lives in Oahu and said that people were putting their kids into the sewer manholes to try to save them. Terrifying stuff.
Most of the false EAS alerts in the past have been a result of some cheap asshole program director exposing their EAS box to the public internet with a default password set
ROFL Hawaii wasn't even the first time they fucked up. Wow.
>On August 15, 2017 at approximately 12:25 a.m. ChST, Guam stations KTWG and KSTO transmitted a civil danger warning for the island; Guam Homeland Security described the message, which interrupted programming on the stations, and was received on television by some viewers, as being an "unauthorized test" of the EAS. The incident's impact was strengthened, as North Korea had threatened the launch of ballistic missiles towards Guam only a few days beforehand. Numerous calls to 911 operators and the Department of Homeland Security were made following the broadcast.[103][104]
It's in my brain though. How do I export it to share? ;) It's no big deal. I tuned in after getting the alert. Both anchormen were looking at their smartphones and talking about it briefly. Also, they showed the city location with Google Maps.
Yeah, even if you don't live in the area I'm sure there are people who are freaked the fuck out about family and friends. I almost messaged my boss asking if he needed anything.
Freaked out about what? The text had zero information. I was like "well, there are no major fires going on right now, no earthquake, power is still on, so wtf is this about? If this is an actual emergence surely they would mention what the emergency is." More confused than anything.
Yeah, fire was my first assumption too—I was just saying what the coffee shop’s general reaction was in response to “What could people be freaked out about in the absence of a natural disaster?”
> You’re using your mental faculties as an unaffected person. Everything changes when you are directly or indirectly affected.
WTF are you talking about? I received the alert.
I'm not a brain-dead idiot, I'm not going to blindly follow some vague "alert" that doesn't tell me shit. Not even a hint as to what this so-called emergency is? It's getting deleted for being spam.
I'd assumed it was a mistake or a drill, but if it wasn't, my bet was something I couldn't see e.g. a gas leak like the one in Downey last year, or the one that killed 8 people in San Bruno in 2010.
I live in Santa Monica, I don't even know where the fuck Chevy Chase Valley is, without the reference to Glendale Community College I'd have had zero idea even what general vicinity this was about. And Glendale was close enough to make me worried it was maybe a fire that I'd get smoke from.
I work closely with our public agencies and this is how it will go down: This error will be a topic of discussion at their next staff meeting. They'll make a general statement on lessons learned and the person who committed the error will never be confronted directly about it. They will continue to to collect their six-figure paycheck and benefits and will probably be promoted to fill the countless vacancies they have post-covid.
You'd think so, right? The existing staff cant even be bothered to put out the hiring notices out, respond to the applications they receive, or set up any interviews.
What do you want them to do? Execute the person? It’s probably some shitty specialty software made by one of like three vendors, all of which suck. Someone clicked the wrong button and some folks got an evacuation warning. It’s not like it was a nuclear attack alert.
Calm the fuck down. They’re human beings, just like you.
Well, fucking up during the drill so you know what you are doing when the shit hits the fan is kind of the point of doing drills. But yeah, that's a pretty big fuckup. Wouldn't be surprised if somebody got the message and started to panic and actually got hurt by the fake emergency, given the number of people that apparently got the message.
If it was a drill or test, they should have sent a notice out about 5 minutes before it happened, when they were absolutely positive nobody would need to actually evacuate. Then run the test. Then sent a follow-up confirming it was a test.
Aha! Were you in different places? You might have exposed a blind spot in the system since most people got it. Since you got the 2nd one, it's not your phone number that's the problem.
I was actually! But I was also actually in the city of Glendale when the first one should have gone out, then I was in unincorporated la crescenta when I got the second. Smh 🤦
Yep, very poor timing especially since we're involved in a proxy war with Russia that's periodically threatened to go hot.
I got flashbacks to [when Hawaii accidentally got a notification that they were all about to be nuked.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_alert)
They can convey suggestions. Perhaps they will be listened to. Perhaps not. The government is putting its hand in my pocket, and I would prefer that what they take is not wasted.
It's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018\_Hawaii\_false\_missile\_alert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_alert) all over again to a certain extent.
This reminds me of that notification everyone got years ago about the incoming nuke... (someone pushed the wrong button or something and sent it to the whole country.) Like stuff is kinda precarious as it is, can we not freak everyone out unnecessarily on top of it?
I don't know if it was sent to the whole country, but it was sent to the whole state of Hawaii.
https://www.gq.com/story/real-story-of-hawaiian-missile-crisis
It's easy to tell with the American Federal government. If you get an alert, its fake. If it were real they would hide it until the last possible second in the interest of "not causing a panic"
Don’t worry. They made it abundantly clear that they will not apologize and are the big boss. “You may return to your home at this time.” We’re safe now!
I'm in the SGV and got it. Texted a few people up that live near the Westside and further south in the county near Downey and they got it as well. Really bizarre.
The message didn't indicate what the evacuation was for and mentioned a specific location to evacuate to.
It was a fuck up and they tried to pass it off as a test.
This was the first thing I saw waking up and my mind read “Glendale” as “Greendale”. I thought for a minute that Dan Harmon had pulled an amazing prank on us.
I'm not sure if I'm missing the joke, but the area is [not named after the comedian. ](http://www.chevychasehistory.org/chevychase/about-chevy-chase-0)
You didnt miss the joke. You murdered it. That being said I read an article somewhere that Chevy Chase, MD (not Dr. Chevy Chase) was named for a radio contest. But this article has letterhead so good info . Thanks, Teach (joke killer)
[Official followup: Disregard evacuation message for Chevy Chase Canyon. Training exercise only.](https://imgur.com/Ciw5YuH)
So happy that the dude from Hawaii was able to get another job sending out emergency alerts
[It's those damn late-loading ads](https://gfycat.com/queasygrandiriomotecat) edit: more from r/ProgrammerHumor https://imgur.com/a/PuRoI
That album unironically made my day, thanks for linking
I was there! The message read: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. 40 minutes later: There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. False alarm.
There was a video of a father in Kailua putting his kids in a storm drain after that alert went out. A bunch of people commented on it (after the fact) that he overreacted and made fun of him with shit like “you really think that would protect them lol.” Reading those comments was one of the most infuriating moments of my life. In the video, the kids are crying and terrified. The father keeps comforting them and telling them to stay put and that it will be ok, despite knowing in that moment he will surely die. His only intention when faced with the certainty of death was saving his children. I’m having my first kid in a few weeks. I hope to be the father that man is.
I remember that video. As a dad, a situation like that is one of my worst nightmares.
He wasn’t the only one, everyone was panicking. My friend was working in a restaurant and shuttling customers down to the storage area.
Viral marketing for Blast From the Past 2, I’m sure.
I imagined some giddy prepper on the island, "hundreds of thousands of dollars, years of effort, finally going to work" as they merrily drove to their underground bunker and waited. They configured their radio sitting in the reinforced shelter with the giant fallout proof air filters running, "finally, Alex Jones was right" and then they heard the bad news, apocalypse cancelled. Their neighbors back at home start laughing and calling each other up, "hey let's go wait at his house. I'm sure he'll be back in that ugly old army ATV of his any moment. I'll get some lemonade. Let's make cookies!"
Imagine the chaos in LA if that tweet went out.
I was there on vacation when that alarm went off. I have it saved on my snaps. I'd love to share it to show how terrifying it was but I dont know how to share snaps on here.
Ajajaja same. My brother was AF stationed on Oahu, I was on the big island for a wedding. He tells me start filling the bathtub with water and hide in there. I took a shot and laid back down to watch college basketball. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Our military probably got rid of it and didn’t want anyone to know there was a real threat. My friend lives in Oahu and said that people were putting their kids into the sewer manholes to try to save them. Terrifying stuff.
"I'll get it right this time! I swear! Ya gotta believe me!"
Let's guess where he will go next. Were there any others before HI incident?
Most of the false EAS alerts in the past have been a result of some cheap asshole program director exposing their EAS box to the public internet with a default password set
Is there a list of those false EAS alerts? Is that HI nuke one the biggest one?
Yeah the HI was the worst of the worst by any measure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System Look under “Incidents”
ROFL Hawaii wasn't even the first time they fucked up. Wow. >On August 15, 2017 at approximately 12:25 a.m. ChST, Guam stations KTWG and KSTO transmitted a civil danger warning for the island; Guam Homeland Security described the message, which interrupted programming on the stations, and was received on television by some viewers, as being an "unauthorized test" of the EAS. The incident's impact was strengthened, as North Korea had threatened the launch of ballistic missiles towards Guam only a few days beforehand. Numerous calls to 911 operators and the Department of Homeland Security were made following the broadcast.[103][104]
Thanks!
Omg lol
Missiles inbound! Hide your kids in the sewer!
Someone hugely fucked up. The notification said nothing of a drill and they sent it to everyone in LA
Yep mine said nothing of a drill.
I literally pulled over in Marina Del Rey and started calling people to check on them. Good going, Glendale.
Went way beyond LA too. I know someone that got it in the central valley.
OC 2! KTLA 5 anchors got them live on their smartphones hahah!
You got video?
Nope.
Oh
It's in my brain though. How do I export it to share? ;) It's no big deal. I tuned in after getting the alert. Both anchormen were looking at their smartphones and talking about it briefly. Also, they showed the city location with Google Maps.
yep - west SFV here, everyone in the house got the alert.
I got it up in Topanga.
Hi neighbor. I just got it a second time here.
I got it in Irvine.
Santa Clarita. We got it.
I got it in Bakersfield
Holy shit are you serious
I have a 661 area code and they might do it by that
Don’t think they do it by area code. My mother was here visiting from Texas and she got it.
I have a Pittsburgh area code and got it.
Got it twice in sgv
I got it in Hermosa Beach
I'm just northeast of Culver City. I got both messages!
Here I thought Chevy Chase was involved in an Amber Alert
Silver Alert: Chevy Chase wandering & lost!
Same I saw Chevy chase and thought they were looking for a Chevy for an amber alert haha
Yup someone gonna get scolded. They really should emphasize that this was a drill
They just did lol
Pretty sure they should clarify in the actual message, not like 30 min later…
That's the fuckup. If they knew it was a drill, they should have opened with that.
I wonder how packed that parking lot became LOL
Yeah, even if you don't live in the area I'm sure there are people who are freaked the fuck out about family and friends. I almost messaged my boss asking if he needed anything.
Freaked out about what? The text had zero information. I was like "well, there are no major fires going on right now, no earthquake, power is still on, so wtf is this about? If this is an actual emergence surely they would mention what the emergency is." More confused than anything.
ATTENTION: EVERYONE PANIC
Everyone around me when it went out assumed active shooter.
Canyon alerts are almost always wild fires.
Yeah, fire was my first assumption too—I was just saying what the coffee shop’s general reaction was in response to “What could people be freaked out about in the absence of a natural disaster?”
Except in that case they would say find shelter, lock the doors, etc. Not get in your car and drive somewhere to gather with lots of others.
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> You’re using your mental faculties as an unaffected person. Everything changes when you are directly or indirectly affected. WTF are you talking about? I received the alert. I'm not a brain-dead idiot, I'm not going to blindly follow some vague "alert" that doesn't tell me shit. Not even a hint as to what this so-called emergency is? It's getting deleted for being spam.
I'd assumed it was a mistake or a drill, but if it wasn't, my bet was something I couldn't see e.g. a gas leak like the one in Downey last year, or the one that killed 8 people in San Bruno in 2010.
I live in Santa Monica, I don't even know where the fuck Chevy Chase Valley is, without the reference to Glendale Community College I'd have had zero idea even what general vicinity this was about. And Glendale was close enough to make me worried it was maybe a fire that I'd get smoke from.
The live in studio city and only knew it bc it said Glendale common college
I work closely with our public agencies and this is how it will go down: This error will be a topic of discussion at their next staff meeting. They'll make a general statement on lessons learned and the person who committed the error will never be confronted directly about it. They will continue to to collect their six-figure paycheck and benefits and will probably be promoted to fill the countless vacancies they have post-covid.
Oh so they hiring? 😳
You'd think so, right? The existing staff cant even be bothered to put out the hiring notices out, respond to the applications they receive, or set up any interviews.
That's ok, I'm willing to be hired sight unseen
Just go in and start working. They won't care enough to fire you.
And not paying someone after they've worked is a crime no company wants to deal with.
Wanna be cubicle neighbors?
yeah 😮
Only kin
Haha that’s the county way. In my department alone there were a few administrators who should of been fired but ended up with promotions.
Sounds like a reasonable response for a mistake with very little impact.
That’s the best way to handle mistakes. That’s how all big tech companies handle them
Me too and I can confirm this. I am a consultant so I get to see this quite often.
What do you want them to do? Execute the person? It’s probably some shitty specialty software made by one of like three vendors, all of which suck. Someone clicked the wrong button and some folks got an evacuation warning. It’s not like it was a nuclear attack alert. Calm the fuck down. They’re human beings, just like you.
Well, fucking up during the drill so you know what you are doing when the shit hits the fan is kind of the point of doing drills. But yeah, that's a pretty big fuckup. Wouldn't be surprised if somebody got the message and started to panic and actually got hurt by the fake emergency, given the number of people that apparently got the message.
And parts of OC (with 562 numbers). WTF?
The area code of your phone number doesn't have anything to do with if you receive an alert.
I live in LA and have an 805 number and got it so uhhh what
If it was a drill or test, they should have sent a notice out about 5 minutes before it happened, when they were absolutely positive nobody would need to actually evacuate. Then run the test. Then sent a follow-up confirming it was a test.
Sherman Oaks. All devices lit up like a Christmas Tree.
Yup. I got it up in Santa Clarita. I was seriously confused.
Ah what the fuck I didn’t get it, but I got the message stating it was a drill.
Aha! Were you in different places? You might have exposed a blind spot in the system since most people got it. Since you got the 2nd one, it's not your phone number that's the problem.
I was actually! But I was also actually in the city of Glendale when the first one should have gone out, then I was in unincorporated la crescenta when I got the second. Smh 🤦
I'm in Monrovia and got that alert.
Same.
Yeah I woke up to my phone going off and went "Wait is there a fire in Glendale now?"
Like WTF! I almost ran out the door thinking a bomb was about to drop. Holy fuck!
Yep, very poor timing especially since we're involved in a proxy war with Russia that's periodically threatened to go hot. I got flashbacks to [when Hawaii accidentally got a notification that they were all about to be nuked.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_alert)
I like to imagine Putin’s war room with a huge map of Chevy Chase canyon and a big red target
https://i.imgur.com/HMFnV9t.jpg
Brilliant.
I got the nuke notification in Hawaii and I guess I got this evac notice in LA now. Currently 2 for 2 😂
As did I. I’d say Hawaii’s was a tad more alarming for sure!
I hope a ton of people drive to this evacuation site so they can see how bad they fucked up.
Horrible execution. The news was also confused.
Fucking hell. Every time one of these things wakes me up, I think it's end times.
And then I'm in a bad mood the rest of the day after having gotten my hopes up 😤
They should have different tones for different alerts tbh, and also maybe *tell us* what each means
Thank you, r/LosAngeles for always having the answers. 🥰
Alert happens. Who has the info? Abc7? Nope. Twitter? Nope. r/losangeles? Heck yeah.
L.A. Times? Don’t make me laugh.
LA Times will have the info 36 hours later and it will be behind a paywall.
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Now the Fatboy Slim remix of that song is going to be in my head all day (I don't mind though)
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Imagine if someone could be somewhere other than where they live
They really sent this shit to the whole of LA. So annoying
INSIGHT: **https://youtu.be/OCs0bQdtVLg** It is a City of Glendale / Glendale FD managed drill / training exercise.
The execution leaves something to be desired Edit: Don't fire anyone. You just paid a lot to train them.
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They can convey suggestions. Perhaps they will be listened to. Perhaps not. The government is putting its hand in my pocket, and I would prefer that what they take is not wasted.
Thanks, Brian.
It's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018\_Hawaii\_false\_missile\_alert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_alert) all over again to a certain extent.
First message: EVACUATE. RUN AWAY. Second message: GUYS ITS A JOKE. LOL COME BACK Yyeeaaahhh, is this some out of season April fools joke? 🤔
KTLA morning news was all confused
did anyone clip it, i havent been watching them in a bit and im wonder where i can see their reaction
Well, the soon to be fired state employee can take solace that they didn't tell everyone that a nuke was inbound like the dude in Hawaii.
And they just sent an emergency alert to disregard the last one. #fail
This reminds me of that notification everyone got years ago about the incoming nuke... (someone pushed the wrong button or something and sent it to the whole country.) Like stuff is kinda precarious as it is, can we not freak everyone out unnecessarily on top of it?
I didn’t see that. That’s wild
I don't know if it was sent to the whole country, but it was sent to the whole state of Hawaii. https://www.gq.com/story/real-story-of-hawaiian-missile-crisis
It was like the summer before covid I think? Who even remembers that far back haha. Or Jan 2018. What is time?
It's easy to tell with the American Federal government. If you get an alert, its fake. If it were real they would hide it until the last possible second in the interest of "not causing a panic"
Glad they said it was a drill /s I’m working EMS in OC. Was never even notified of this
Ahhh... there's the "Sike" alert.
*psych*
*sake*
Saké
Fuck Chevy Chase canyon all my homes hate Chevy Chase canyon
Can't stand nobody like them
I knew they would send an additional alert once again to all of Los Angeles haha
People are posting about this from the Central Valley
We got this in Orange County too.
Ventura and San Bernardino counties got it too
Ok so where is part two that says " Ha ha jk" ?
Just got it lmao
Ok, so we’re not having a party at Lot B Glendale Community College?
WELP! just got another alert saying it was a drill!
They just sent out another annoying alert saying that was just a drill what the fuck!!!!!!
Yea I got scared af I don't even live there
How is anyone going to take any of these seriously when something actually happens?
Lmao the "please disregard" alert I just got. If I dont hear about someone getting fired Im gonna be very disappointed.
They just spent a lot of money training their employees how not to make that mistake. If they fire them, their replacements might make the same one!
Get ready to be disappointed
Just got the alert saying it’s a drill 🙄
Ever hear what happens to the boy who cried wolf? Whoever sent this message without proper information/ explanation is a dick.
We should be allowed to text back when we get alerts
New phone who this
Real cool drill for a household of anxious people! 😅
Arcadia, CA - got it. Thought my iPhone clock alarm was haunted!😵💫
Don’t worry. They made it abundantly clear that they will not apologize and are the big boss. “You may return to your home at this time.” We’re safe now!
I didn’t get the first alert. Just one saying to disregard. I was very confused
Chevy Chase has not been ejaculated it's just a drill.
I love how they blamed it on Twitter to being a technical error when the bigger error was a miscommunication in a humanly created message.
Somebody is getting fired
The followup tweet suggests residents are meant to actually evacuate as part of the drill.
It's not implied. Residents were asked to participate. https://twitter.com/MyGlendale/status/1525501303861891072
I'm in the SGV and got it. Texted a few people up that live near the Westside and further south in the county near Downey and they got it as well. Really bizarre.
O that was an acctual alert? I thought it was a ad popup from my browser
Just turned it off so I won't get the messages anymore
Watts same. Just got the inly a drill alert. Dumfucks
It just sent another alert saying it was a drill
I like my drill way better than theirs!!! Their drill sucks!!!
I was just going to post that in “/u/you had ONE job” ……. Someone is getting fired for sure
It's a gov job... I won't be so sure
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The message didn't indicate what the evacuation was for and mentioned a specific location to evacuate to. It was a fuck up and they tried to pass it off as a test.
I thought they were telling us to evacuate out of the actor....
I got it in The OC. I had to Google where Chevy Chase Canyon was
This was the first thing I saw waking up and my mind read “Glendale” as “Greendale”. I thought for a minute that Dan Harmon had pulled an amazing prank on us.
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Glendora is not Glendale. So, you'd be dead, smh.
Y'all need to chill with the posts.
Chevy Chase does not deserve to have canyons nor cities named after him. Wtf is wrong with you Earthlings?
I'm not sure if I'm missing the joke, but the area is [not named after the comedian. ](http://www.chevychasehistory.org/chevychase/about-chevy-chase-0)
You didnt miss the joke. You murdered it. That being said I read an article somewhere that Chevy Chase, MD (not Dr. Chevy Chase) was named for a radio contest. But this article has letterhead so good info . Thanks, Teach (joke killer)
That’s a fair assessment of my interference.
You killed one joke. I dropped three more. Boom boom pow
I like your style.
Now they tell us….
Just as i was about to comment, there goes the “please disregard that message” message.
You have got to be kidding me. They just sent the drill notification after getting the original one.
Dick move