alerts???

[Royall]

Alert signal going off down on Maku'u.. Anything to be aware of??

[Royall]

Never mind... it finally shut off... I couldn't post this as there is an active flood alert in progress??!!

[LazyLehua]

Got an alert on my phone that it was a “runaway siren” and that there was no emergency.

Stacey
Living the life in Cali and Hawai‘i

[Kiana]

And just what is a "runaway siren"? It didn't sound like the usual tsunami warning sirens. It sounded more like a European ambulance/police car siren. Very strange. Had no idea what to think when it was going off, so unusual. And very loud.

[TomK]

I no longer subscribe to civil defense alerts because they were mostly useless, but still get relevant ones forwarded to me via work. See below. I think a runaway siren is simply one that goes off accidentally and can't be stopped by the usual means.

"From: Civil Defense Alerts <noreply@everbridge.net>
Date: Sat, Feb 22, 2020 at 5:33 PM
Subject: Run Away Alert Siren

This is an important message from Hawaii County Alerts and Notifications:
Incident: Runaway Alert Siren

This is a Civil Defense Runaway Siren message for Saturday February 22 at 5:15 in the afternoon.

Hawaii Police Department reports a runaway siren in the vicinity of Makuu and 6th Avenue in the Paradise Park area. There is no emergency at this time.

If this had been an actual event you are asked to tune into your radio or television for additional information.

You will be informed should conditions change.

Thank you for your attention.

This is your Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency"

[Chunkster]

Who ever heard of a "runaway alert siren?" I guess it was just too hard for them to admit that one of them malfunctioned for yet another time, so they said it ran away. This would be funny if it didn't demonstrate the extent to which the system doesn't work. I recall one occasion when it took them over nine months to replace a siren that didn't work at all.

[TomK]

Hopefully, most people can ultimately figure out what CD said, but they could have just posted "A siren at XXX location has gone off by accident and it should be ignored. There is no emergency and we're trying to fix it. Sorry for the inconvenience."

[TomK]

Think I've told this story before here, but back in the early 1980s we were walking home from school one day and heard a siren going off in the distance. No-one thought much about it, just commented on it and wondered what it was. We lived near Broadmoor which was a medical facility that held the most criminally insane people in the country at that time and they had a siren warning that would go off if anyone escaped - it sounded like an air-raid siren. All the local schools would go into lockdown if that happened, but we were allowed to walk home, so everyone was curious but not concerned.

The next day we learned that one of the nuclear attack warning systems had gone off triggering the siren. In those days it was referred to as the 4-minute warning because back then that's how long the UK had before Soviet nuclear missiles would reach the UK. And no one took a blind bit of notice. Of course there were no cell phones in those days and no internet, so the local "civil defence" had no opportunity to confuse people further.

[dan_c]

Similar 80's situation. We had moved from the country to the city and weren't aware of the monthly tests. My mother, two brothers and I (all kids) were walking and away from home in bright summer sunshine when the sirens went off. My mother was frightened -- thinking the worst had happened. She finally flagged down someone driving by to ask about what was going on and was immensely relieved to find out about the test. We were all scared. It didn't get better for me as a pre-teen watching Testament and The Day After...

I still think about that every time I hear one now.

If any of you are interested, Radiohead produced a pretty but haunting song about the 4 Minute Warning. Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xruauLm9u3k

[Obie]

That siren hadn't worked for quite a while. Then someone stole the batteries.
The entire siren was replaced just over a month ago.

The alert that went off was the burglar alarm for the batteries and it went off when someone broke in to steal them again.