Finally, at 8:48 a.m., 38 minutes after the alerts went out, authorities announced it was a false alarm, a mistake, simply human error. I, too, am extremely upset about this and am doing everything I can to immediately improve our emergency management systems, procedures and staffing,” he said. "The president has been briefed on the state of Hawaii's emergency management exercise. The alert was sent to every island in the Hawaiian chain and every cellphone in the state of 1.4 million people, emergency management officials said. The Spitzes, like other rattled Hawaii residents, questioned how the false alarm could have happened and why it took so long to get the word out if it was a mistake.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 13, 2018 18:49 UTC