Really unfortunate. The more so in that it took 38 minutes to announce that it was a false alarm. This is not going to help Ige's re-election effort!
My wife lives on our farm on the Big Island, and I was on the phone with her during this event. Later in the day we talked about the thought of finding yourself with 12 minutes to live. She made a cup of tea and sat out on the Lanai looking towards Maui.
I've seen enough false alerts to not trust these dummies. If there ever was a real attack, they probably wouldn't know about it.
It was horrible. We packed 14 days worth of food and water into coolers and crammed into our only interior space. A tiny full bath. Daughter was crying and didn't want to die. It looks like no one is going to be fired for this...unbelievable!
Kevin, If a nuke was headed to Oahu, the whole island would be vaporized. My wife's thought was, do I want to live thru this, and if I do..... how long before an even worst death by radiation.
I live on the opposite side of Oahu from Waikiki, Honolulu, Pearl Harbor and Hickam AFB. Between my home and those targets is the Koolau mountain range that is 3,000 feet tall. I thought this might help us survive....No? I had envisioned an impact, earthquake type event and seeing a great mushroom cloud on the other side with the wind sucking in from the ocean filling in the low pressure zone created by the lift of hot gasses and debris.... bringing intense winds from the East. This would be clean air but then the fallout! If we have normal trade wind conditions I think it "could" be minimal. Of course that day it was Kona winds which only occur 5-7% of the time so that would bring the fallout right on us! Am I underestimating the power of the nuke?
With all due respect I think you are underestimating the quality of life afterwards. With a child you would naturally want to try to save them ........but for what. My wife just said, I was going to watch for the flash and wait for the **** storm. She has always been very tough that way.
If I received the alert and was awake, I'd just sit back and wait for it to happen. You are right about the quality of life. I wouldn't want to live in a post-nuclear world as everything around us would be toxic. If we didn't die, we would have to deal with radiation burns, sickness... And then we would have to figure out how to get food/water that is safe. Wither away, die in pain or be vaporized. I'd want to be vaporized.
You gotta do what you gotta do. If I was there with my granddaughters I'm sure my perspective would change drastically.
Amazingly, Hawaii has no missile defense system, and would have to rely on interceptors from Alaska, or California. The facility on Kauai is only for testing purposes. There has been talk for many years of establishing an onshore missile defense system, but to date there is none in place. Of course the leftists (of which there are many in Hawaii) are against the idea. Ironically, Japan, and S. Korea will be better protected than Hawaii (using US made systems).
Looks like I have a 50% chance of 3rd degree burns with a device that is surface impacted and is not larger than 5 megatons. http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ Anything larger that is burst at altitude and we are going to have way less of a chance. Got this sent to me today..
I have spent a bit of time at PMRF Kauai, they can deploy and have done so in the past defense THAAD missile systems there to defend.. and there may be such a system there now we don't know that. Since there is an excellent tracking system there, even worse the alert went out...
What they need is AEGIS Onshore. I am sure there is no operational system on Kauai in place now, but it is being talked about. One of the Destroyers at Pearl could possibly intercept a long range missile. https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/28/hawaii-missile-false-alarm-calls-better-defense.aspx