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Guam Radio Stations Accidentally Conduct Emergency Alert Amid North Korea Threat (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the human-error dept.

the_webmaestro writes: A couple of radio stations in Guam conducted an unscheduled test of the Emergency Alert Broadcast System, sending some residents -- already on edge due to the back and forth between the North Korean regime and the tweets made by the President of the United States -- into a panic. From the Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense Facebook page: "The Offices of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense (GHS/OCD), in conjunction with the Mariana Regional Fusion Center (MRFC), our federal and military partners, continue to monitor the recent events surrounding North Korea and their threatening actions. Residents and visitors may have noticed at 12:25 a.m., an unscheduled test of the Emergency Alert Broadcast System (EAS) was triggered from KTWG/KSTO AM. The message read: 'A BROADCAST STATION OR CABLE SYSTEM HAS ISSUED A CIVIL DANGER WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES/AREAS: Guam, Guam; AT 12:25 AM ON AUG 15, 2017 EFFECTIVE UNTIL 12:40 AM. MESSAGE FROM KTWGKSTO.' The unauthorized test was NOT connected to any emergency, threat or warning. GHS/OCD has worked with KSTO to ensure the human error will not occur again. There is no scheduled test of the EAS or All Hazards Alert Warning System sirens today."

In addition, the Guam Power Authority (GPA) reported there were two scheduled outages, for emergency interruption of power, at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., August 14: "Unrelated to the EAS unauthorized test, the Guam Power Authority (GPA) reported there were two scheduled outages, for emergency interruption of power, at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., August 14 for customers located in Talofofo located along along Rte.17, Chalan J. Kindo, Vicente Borja Dr., Felix Dydasco St., Henry Simpson area to bus shelter by Bishop Street and other customers in these locations."

24 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. conduct by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    or broadcast?

  2. Does anyone remember the Cold War... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    Every Friday morning the civil defense alarm would go off at 10AM and everyone would duck underneath their desk. Except for the teacher, as she was eight months pregnant and ducked to the doorway. We didn't know who had the more edgier trigger finger on the red button: the Russians or Ronald Reagan.

    1. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by Psion · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Huh?

      I graduated high school just after Reagan took office, and never practiced the old 'duck and cover'. And that's after having been in nine different school districts in five different U.S. states during my stint in the public school system. What country were you living in back then?

    2. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Soviet Union

    3. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Santa Clara County, California, USA (AKA Silicon Valley).

      https://www.sjpl.org/blog/santa-clara-countys-civil-defense-system-dont-be-alarmed

    4. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by 50000BTU_barbecue · · Score: 1

      I'm the same age as you and grew up in Canada near an airport. We had the same structure nearby, they would test it only once or twice a year, and also the CF-188's would practice landing there I guess.
      Fun times.

      --
      Mostly random stuff.
    5. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Informative

      We didn't know who had the more edgier trigger finger on the red button: the Russians or Ronald Reagan.

      Well as it would turn out, it was Reagan. In fact, Mikhail Gorbachev tried to to cut a deal with Ronald Reagan to get rid of nuclear weapons but Ronnie declined because he wouldn't keep his "STAR WARS" program inside the lab for 10 years. He didn't have to cancel the program, just keep it in the lab for 10 years. Just think, we could have ended all this bullshit decades ago but ego got in the way.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    6. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by DatbeDank · · Score: 2

      Ha! You seriously think they would have actually followed through on such an agreement?

      I'm sorry, but there was absolutely no way the Soviets were going to readily give up their nuclear weapons. The world
      really does not operate altruistically like that.

      Make no mistake, they would have kept an ace ...erhm nuke... in their back pocket. Whether you like him or not, Ronnie choosing otherwise was smart. Getting rid of ones nukes in this day and age is foolish and demotes the country down in the eyes of the UN security council's eyes.

      If you have to lick any boot, it's better to be licking the boot of America over that of Russia or worse China.

    7. Re: Does anyone remember the Cold War... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      The events you are describing occurred in the early 60s, most intensely during the Cuban middle crisis.

      That was before I was born.

      Maybe you were taking some bad drugs before school?

      Early 1980's. If Silicon Valley wasn't a primary nuclear target, it was a secondary target. Lockheed-Martin. Blue Cube. Intel.

    8. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

      Matter of fact, yes. Gorbachev basically dismantled the USSR anyway.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    9. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      Many countries still have 'em; some test monthly. Quite weird the first time you hear them...

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    10. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

      Reagan didn't force the end of the USSR, he merely took credit, just as Kohl took credit for the reunification even though he merely was present at the time.
      I am not even sure that you were born yet at that time, and even if that is the case, I seriously doubt you have been close enough to have any insight into what happened during Gorbachev's reign.
      You see, economics weren't the reason for the breakup, USSR has been worse off before. But Gorbachev gradually stopped suppressing nationalist movements and it tore a multi-ethnic state apart - something similar happened in Yugoslavia only a few years later, but in Yugoslavia's case the different ethnies were nevertheless closely related, in the USSR not so much. By the late 1980ies the growing ethnic tensions resulted in a civil war between the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, between Moldova and Transnistria and between Georgia on one side and Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the other side.

      Reagan had fuck all to do with all that.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    11. Re:Does anyone remember the Cold War... by Psion · · Score: 1

      Not at all. I'm more than familiar with the practices in the '50s. I was puzzled because he specifically mentioned *Reagan*, who wasn't a U.S. President until 1981, and by that point it was my belief the practices had long-since been discontinued.

  3. It can happen here by AlanObject · · Score: 1

    In other news, local hospitals report no cases of constipation for the prior 48 hours.

    1. Re:It can happen here by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      The water turning brown around Guam is actually just some new experimental oceanic camouflage.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  4. Re:Meanwhile, in other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Everyone involved in this shit show is to blame." -Trump

    "NAAAAAZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - Braindead Leftists

  5. "Human error" by intellitech · · Score: 1

    Unless they eliminated all the humans, then human error is still possible.

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
  6. Mariana Regional Fusion Center by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Is that the euphemism for Department For Responding to H-Bomb Attacks?

  7. Stop repeating yourself by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    In addition,

    the Guam Power Authority (GPA) reported there were two scheduled outages, for emergency interruption of power, at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., August 14:

    "Unrelated to the EAS unauthorized test,

    the Guam Power Authority (GPA) reported there were two scheduled outages, for emergency interruption of power, at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., August 14

    What is a scheduled outage for emergency interruption, anyway?

    And when is it again?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  8. Second emergency alert by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    We apologise for the accidental civil danger warning. Now here's a real one: don't swim in the water around Guam. Since the first civil danger warning it's gone a funny brown colour.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  9. Nopenopenope by XSportSeeker · · Score: 1

    This is how war starts Guam, get your shit together.

  10. Happened in Dallas earlier this year by DalM · · Score: 1

    Made for great late-night Twittering.

  11. Accidental or litmus test by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    They say accident... However, this is exactly the type of thing you can gauge fear, reaction, doubt, and error checking on. "Let's see what people will do if it happens in a time of fear so we can modify the process to work better."

    Wait, I'm living in dream world again where people actually care. It was probably a mistake rooted in idiocy. ;>

  12. Re: Reminds me by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Ironic, you elected a crybaby bitch.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.