Last week, residents and tourists in Hawaii were sent into a panic after an emergency alert stated that a ballistic missile was heading their way.

Fortunately, the alert was a false alarm after it was determined that an employee pressed a wrong button dispatching the warning to all cell phones, radio stations and TVs.

Airdrie resident Chris Glass was vacationing in Hawaii with his fiance when the incident happened, but he says their initial response was not to panic.

"Everybody's phones start making these noises, then when you read the text message people had varied reactions. Mine was more of a wait and see reaction because it really didn't make sense considering globally what's going on, it didn't seem there was a lot of heightened tension. To a lot of other people surrounding us, it was quite scary."

The alert was corrected in less than an hour, though some in Hawaii were still a shaken.

"In about 20 minutes our hotel lobby was a lot calmer, but there were people openly crying and people making phone calls home and people saying goodbye just in case."

Despite the chaos, Glass said that it eventually became a moment that they could laugh away.

"It became a bit of a joke as the day went on. Everywhere you went in Hawaii people were like 'oh, you survived too?' Ballistic missile awareness, that kind of thing. It was pretty funny."

 

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