At 11:03 a.m. on Friday, phones across Hawaii blared with the unmistakable tone of an emergency alert. What followed wasn’t a warning about a missile or tsunami, but it wasn’t clear what it was. Reading “proficiency demo” and “COG testing” meant nothing to many, including us. The alarm rang through the yoga studio where Rob had just finished a class. Some messages didn’t include the word “test” at all, leaving a lot of people unsure of what to think.
(“COG” refers to “Continuity of Government,” while “proficiency demo” is internal language used by emergency agencies during system readiness tests.)
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) later said this was a scheduled alert test. The issue wasn’t the test itself. It was the delivery: no prior notice, vague and unfamiliar language, and no coordination with the counties. Not even the City and County of Honolulu were in the loop.
For visitors and residents alike, it felt like déjà vu. And for many, it was worse than that.
Echoes of past alerts and unfortunate timing.
This wasn’t just a glitch. It was an emotional flashpoint. The reaction across Hawaii suggested something deeper. Some people froze – we did. Others laughed nervously. Some shrugged it off as likely nothing, which was the case. But most, especially those who remember the terrifying Hawaii’s 2018 false missile alert, felt the familiar rise of adrenaline, confusion, and dread.
And then there was the timing. With escalating global tensions—particularly in the Middle East—Friday’s unannounced test arrived as headlines about missile strikes and war circulated widely. Some reacted before realizing it was a test. They saw “alert,” heard the sound, and feared the worst. That’s not paranoia. That’s lived experience.
Visitors’ uncertainty.
Some visitors told us they didn’t know what to make of it—whether they were on the beach, in hotel lobbies, or, in BOH editor Rob’s case, mid-yoga class.
Others said they brushed it off, only to learn from residents later that Hawaii has a history of botched alerts. Still others thought the message was a technical glitch—it didn’t even make grammatical sense to them.
No one had received an advance warning. There were no coordinated messages from the tourism board. There was no visible communication plan for front-line visitor-facing workers. Just a state-level push to phones—and a scramble to make sense of it.
The emotional fallout.
While some people laughed it off within minutes, others did not. It still triggered anxiety, especially if you lived through the previous one. Some described lingering shakiness after the alert. A few admitted they dismissed the message so fast they had to double back and check whether it was real. Others said they instinctively thought “missile” even before reading the words.
Some said only a few phones went off in crowded rooms, leaving others to wonder if they’d missed something-or if the system itself was even working properly.
The state may see this as a harmless systems check. But for people here—many of whom still remember where they were on the morning of January 13, 2018—it was something else entirely.
Did emergency management fall short again?
HI-EMA said the test came from an alternate site for monthly proficiency checks. They did not explain why county agencies weren’t informed or why some users got different messages. The lack of consistency echoed the same complaints raised seven years ago.
Honolulu’s emergency management team initially called the alert a “false activation.” HI-EMA then reversed that narrative and said it was always intentional. That contradiction was never explained.
Most alarming: many recipients didn’t see the word “test” at all in the first seconds—just the tone and a string of meaningless acronyms. That’s not a communications error. That’s an oversight.
Even among those who did receive the message, the terminology—especially phrases like “COG testing”—felt confusing or even threatening, lacking any clear context or meaning for the general public.
Travel perception takes another hit.
These events leave scars for a place like Hawaii, which depends on traveler trust. You may not forget what it feels like to hear that alert and wonder if it’s real. You don’t forget watching people around you look up in wonder or fear. You don’t forget when everything suddenly feels slightly more fragile, even in paradise.
From a tourism perspective, it’s another concern. Hawaii has spent years rebuilding confidence after the pandemic, the Lahaina fire, the prior missile scare, and now, this.
When it comes to emergency messaging, perception is important. If visitors stop trusting the system or start tuning it out, that’s not just a safety problem—it’s a brand problem.
The public response wasn’t as mild as the state’s.
The temperature check came afterward. Across Hawaii, people vented frustration, disbelief, and sarcasm. Some wanted someone fired. Others wondered aloud why this happened yet again. There were expressions of trauma and concern, laced with humor. Others shrugged and said, “At least it worked.” What nearly everyone agreed on was this: the execution failed.
Will anything change?
That’s unclear. Unlike the 2018 missile alert, which led to resignations, investigations, and a public apology, this incident may pass with little follow-up. HI-EMA’s brief statement offered no commitment to changing procedures or improving coordination.
Hawaii has already experienced the consequences of emergency messaging failures. Residents and visitors alike understand how quickly confusion can spread. That’s why the lack of urgency or clear next steps this time feels like a missed opportunity.
Treating communication as seriously as the test itself.
It’s reasonable to test emergency systems and responsible to ensure they function as intended. But Hawaii failed again to treat communication as a critical part of that process. Messaging matters, and so does public confidence.
A working alert system isn’t just about the technology. It depends on clarity, coordination, and trust. If the goal was to simulate a real-world situation, the state succeeded in one respect: many people believed it, leading to a brief moment of confusion. That belief created a short moment of uncertainty that, for some, echoed past failures.
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I’ve lived in Hawaii for decades. Always have said it’s the nicest 3rd world country you can go to. It takes dollars and has a semblance of healthcare. I’m pleasantly surprised when Hawaii gets it right, which they didn’t- again.
Why should the perma government change, we keep electing all of them.
We had just boarded our flight home to Kona when that horrible high pitched tone broke out from many phones.
It was like that exceedingly loud tone that interrupts on TV with flood advisories – much louder than necessary and startling; you cannot turn the volume down enough and rush to mute the message altogether. The advisory is usually for a different island anyway.
Not to mention it comes at a crucial point in whatever you are watching.
There is no way to express the ineptness of the way in which the state handles so many things so frequently. I find this to be shocking and very concerning.
One thing about Hawaii. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It;s an island.
“No Warning”
How about No Leadership, no checks and balances by administrative staff, no informed staff with no initiative to suggest or expedite such an important civil action of preparedness like educating the public and tourist, no required system to test and (posted signs) to inform citizens on a ,mandatory basis, no collaborated effort to inform all the required agencies beforehand, and no ability to have TV media and newspaper contacted beforehand.
Nobody has proper communication skills.
Another horrible example of Hawaii’s totally incompetent corrupt state government. Sadly nothing will happen. No accountability for these idiots. The beauracracy lives on and takes care of its own, no concern for the general public whatsoever.
In Hawaii, the words ’emergency management’ are an oxymoron. Just like the words ‘government accountability’.
Looks like another fee/tax/surcharge should be imposed on those pesky tourists to ‘enhance’ the system (look at what those tourists have done now !)…
Talk about the definition of stupidity, given that previous blunder.
Are we sure we’re talking about an entity in the United States ?
Such a 3rd world clown show !
I might be one of a few who received an informative message. My phone buzzed, I read the alert, and unknowingly read “ this is a test” out loud. Others in waiting area looked up somewhat alarmed. As we compared messages we noted, as stated in the article, they were all different. Hopefully input will allow for correcting these alert notification so as not to scare people.
I don’t know what text message others got across the state, mine ended with “THIS IS ONLY A TEST”. That was enough for me and my family to go back to what we were doing. We didn’t feel any sense of alarm or panic. We didn’t hear sirens going off either here on Maui.
My husband and I were there in 2018 for our yearly trip and experienced the “Missile alert”. We were enjoying our morning when our phones went off. We read the warning, realized we had a short amount of time to contact our children on the mainland and say goodbye. We also realized we did not have a will. We quickly recorded a will, sent it to our children, called each one and left voicemails as they were working. Within minutes, we get call backs from our children, crying and telling their mom and dad goodbye. Can you imagine? My husband and I then sat in the hall of our condo and prepared to die. When we discovered, shortly thereafter, I was furious that I put my children through another mismanagement of Hawaii experience. We quit coming to Hawaii, spending 12K yearly when they were off the hook during covid. It’s too bad. Lovely place & people but the leadership the state elects & appoints continues to destroy paradise. Very sad & so preventable.
So what’s the problem? Life as usual here, one mistake after another with no accountability.
One Party Rule, January 18, 2018 all over again, then a Nuclear Attack Warning under then Governor Ige, now Governor Green, who’s Senator Mazie Hirono going to blame now, not the USN, again! Ended up being a City or County employee that didn’t follow protocols, now who?
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me lose faith in our local infrastructure. There has to be a way to test systems without catching people off guard and making them think it’s real. Especially in a place that relies so much on trust and calm and has had issues .
The worst part was being in public and watching everyone around me look up at once. No one said anything for a moment—it was just this shared, awkward silence. That’s when I realized how deep the memory of that missile alert still runs. Not cool to do this after that issue without a warning.
I get that tests are necessary, but doing it randomly with weird news headlines flying around? My husband was on a Zoom call with clients in the mainland and didn’t know what to tell them when they heard the siren go off in the background. Weird.
Can we please not have “proficiency demo” show up on my phone without any explanation? It sounds like something from a sci-fi disaster movie. If you’re going to wake up half the state, at least make the message clear enough for regular people to understand it immediately. Thanks.
Whoever is leading or running Hi-EMA needs to resign. Secondly, an independent review of operational management needs to be implemented immediately using Emergency Management professionals. Yesterday was amateur hour. A disgrace.
My question to Hi-EMA, when there is a real emergency, will you be there, or will there be excuses like lack of coordination, operator error, equipment error, or just plain old Leadership Error?
Didn’t we already see the errors in Lahaina? Did they not learn from that tragedy?
I was on the Big Island visiting family, and honestly, my heart stopped for a second when that alert went off. It sounded way too real, was confusing, and came with no context. I didn’t know if I should start driving inland or just sit tight. Still can’t believe after what happened in 2018 they’d let this happen again with no clear heads-up.
Aloha,
“Hawaii has a history of botched alerts”…”Continuity of Government”…
How about we go with “Rank Amateurs” and I’ll also throw in “As stupid as the day is long”…
Pathetic.
Mahalo
If there are no consequences for stupid behavior they will continue. Fire the highest ranking clown who approved this.