It’s been a weighty week for a former resident now making her home in Hawaii. First, on January 13, there was the false alarm about a possible nuclear attack, and then she and her husband were involved in demonstrations regarding the state’s place in America.
“Saturday (January 13) was crazy,” Helen (Rumancik) Kahuananui, said in an email from her home in Hawaii. “Some people really over reacted, but it depended on your scenario or location.”
Helen was a school teacher who had lived in Pelly and retired about three years ago from the Kamsack Comprehensive Institute.
Last week she sent several photocopies of pages of the Hawaiian Star Advertiser newspaper which included “some of the over-the-top reactions” of the residents after having received text messages saying: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
Helen said that she and her husband Kamakani Kahuananui had been planning to attend a funeral that morning and Kamakani had gone to the local store to get the customary flower leis.
“When the alarm came across my cell, I personally didn’t believe it as I was sitting in a vehicle, but I did see people running out of the store.
“I heard no warning siren, as we are supposed to hear if an attack comes. The nuclear warning siren was implemented in December and is different from the regular one that goes off every first Monday of the month. That one warns us of an incoming tsunami.
“We flipped on the radio and could only find one station that commented ASAP as employees there also got the text. All the rest played usual music and commercials.
“We knew it was a false alarm at that time, maybe five to seven minutes after the alarm sounded.
“Kamakani was in the local business store called Longs, and he said it was bizarre. At any one time, there may be 15 to 30 people in the store and he said it was crazy as it was a busy long weekend Saturday and about 30 cell phones went off.
“By the way, if you happened to be on your cell texting or talking, you did not get the emergency alert until after you hung up, so alarms went off randomly.”
She said that Facebook seemed to have been the fastest to say that it had been a false alarm.
According to a report on CNN, hotel guests had been “herded like cows” into the basement by staff and people were crying and were “obviously super scared.” Human error had turned the island paradise upside down. People crawled under tables in cafes, were ushered into military hangars and huddled around televisions to watch the news for the latest developments.
“It was a mistake made during a standard procedure at the changeover of a shift, and an employee pushed the wrong button,” the governor had told CNN.
After about 20 minutes, people were told that the alert was a false alarm, and they were free to resume their day.
If a missile were launched by North Korea toward Hawaii, the 1.4 million residents of the islands would have only about 20 minutes' notice before it hit, CNN said. The state's emergency management agency has begun testing the state's nuclear warning siren system. Hawaiians have been told their best plan of action is to remain inside and shelter in place until it's safe to leave.
But many on the islands aren't residents, but tourists. They're visiting and have had no experience preparing for a ballistic missile attack.
Some residents and visitors CNN spoke to said the escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea, and the war of words between the two leaders, lent the threat additional credibility in their minds.
“Monday was Martin Luther King Day, and I forgot to get a paper,” Helen said. “There was lots of fallout politically and locally from it.
“As if it was one button!
“There’s been a lot of controversy as four people are on shift at any one time. However, it does sound like Governor David Ige is taking the heat. Schools, businesses, etc. are all talking more intensively about making plans for two weeks of food and water if we ever got attacked. Apparently many of them have not really studied what happens when a nuclear bomb contacts the earth.
“Personally, if it had been real? You only have 15 to 20 minutes and I would have just hugged my husband, enjoyed the smell of the beautiful rose he just bought for me and would have enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted.”
When the Times had initially attempted to contact Helen on January 17, she had been out.
“Aloha Bill, got your calls, but I was participating in a march of a few thousand people,” she said in a text message the next day. She explained that her husband was one the protesters at the Hawaiian Peaceful March recognizing 125 years of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and Queen Liliuokalani.
Kamakani had also participated in a similar march 25 years ago, Helen said.
“Hawaii had been illegally overthrown by the Americans on January 17, 1893 and annexation of the state was illegal in 1959, but trying to peacefully break away from the USA will never be easy. Everyone knows it, but it is hard for the sovereign groups to come together as one.”
“News coverage of the thousands of Hawaiians for Wednesday’s demonstration got a whole two minutes or less on all local channels. Control or what? They give more coverage to lost dogs and traffic reports. It’s no wonder why the Hawaiians are so frustrated.
“By the way, another interesting note is that Hawaiians are really close with Alaska and lots of Hawaiians have family there.”
