Oops… Hawaii governor was late in retracting false missile alert because he ‘forgot’ Twitter login

On January 13, an emergency alert of an incoming ballistic missile and calls to seek shelter caused panic among Hawaii residents. It took officials more than half an hour to retract the false warning and reassure the terrified residents that there was no danger.

The retraction of the alarm might have come earlier though…

Ige was aware of the false alert just two minutes after it went out to residents’ phones, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper. However, the governor confessed that he could not access social media to tackle the situation immediately as he could not recall the password for his Twitter account. 

Gov. David Ige explains that part of the delay in notifying the public that the Jan. 13 missile alert was a false alarm was because he did not know his Twitter password. pic.twitter.com/S3tmoswOpZ

— SA Politics (@starpolitics) January 22, 2018

There is NO missile threat. https://t.co/qR2MlYAYxL

— Governor David Ige (@GovHawaii) January 13, 2018