Hawaii's terrifying 'ballistic missile threat inbound' alert was a false alarm

A screenshot of a false alarm emergency message to Hawaiians shared by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) on Twitter
(Image credit: NBC/Screenshot)

Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency mistakenly sent a text message to Hawaiians Saturday morning warning of an incoming ballistic missile, sending island residents into a panic for the 20 minutes it took to correct the false alarm.

"Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill," the original message said in all caps. "NO missile threat to Hawaii," the agency tweeted soon after.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) also took to Twitter to calm worried constituents. See a screenshot of the original alert in her post below. Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.