There are concerns over staffing at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency in the aftermath of the resignations of two top officials and the firing of the unnamed worker who set off the Jan. 13 bogus nuclear missile alert.
HI-EMA Administrator Vern Miyagi resigned Tuesday, and the so-called “button pusher” was fired Friday while another worker was suspended without pay as a result of the state’s internal investigation into the false alarm that caused widespread panic throughout the state.
| FCC REPORT
Key preliminary findings released Tuesday by Federal Communications Commission investigators:
* The employee who sent the false alert thought the missile attack was real.
* Miscommunication between the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s midnight shift supervisor and the day shift supervisor resulted in a drill being run without adequate supervision.
* The midnight shift supervisor initiated the drill by playing a recording that deviated from the agency’s drill script because it incorrectly included the statement, “This is not a drill.”
* The warning officer who sent the false alarm said in his written report that he failed to recognize that the exercise was a drill, because he had not heard the script statement, “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise,” although five other warning officers had.
* When the false alarm was taking place, HI-EMA did not require warning officers to check with a colleague before double-clicking a live alert prompt.
* The state conducted an atypical number of no-notice drills, heightening the potential for error.
* HI-EMA had not anticipated the possibility of issuing a false alert and wasn’t prepared to issue a correction.
* Gov. David Ige delayed sending out social media notification because he forgot his Twitter password.
Source: FCC
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Toby Clairmont, the agency’s executive officer, posted on Facebook on Saturday that he also has retired. He told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week that he had made that decision a while ago but never publicly disclosed his plans. He said he was planning to stay in the position until the end of Gov. David Ige’s first term in December but was contemplating leaving sooner.
State Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, who ordered an investigation of the agency, visited HI-EMA after Tuesday’s announcements to talk with employees and “try to buck up their morale,” said HI-EMA spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Anthony.
“Because we are cognizant that this is a very difficult time period, we’re taking measures to try to help morale,” Anthony said.
While HI-EMA isn’t facing any staffing issues at this point, there are concerns over future departures in the wake of the investigation findings.
The departures leave total staffing at 61, including 14 warning officers and supervisors in the emergency operations center, Logan said. There are still about three employees per eight-hour shift overseeing alerts, he said.
“It has not had a major adverse impact on staffing at this point, but it’s something that we’re very cognizant of,” he said. “It’s worth tracking.”
Following the mishap, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz announced plans to introduce legislation to give the federal government — specifically the Defense and Homeland Security departments — the sole authority to send missile alerts, prohibiting the state and local authorities from issuing those warnings.
“The reports from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the state of Hawaii demonstrate systems and judgment failures on multiple levels, and they reinforce my belief that missile alerts should be handled by the federal government,” Schatz said in a statement.
FCC Report by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
