you know, especially since in 1989 when the wall came down, soviet union dissolves. we have become relatively complacent. having said that is correct i don't think the strategic threat was not very different from many years ago, because the intention of our enemies is not necessarily to conduct a preemptive strike on the united states. because the counter strike would be disastrous. but no doubt about the fact that the civilian world is not nearly as well prepared for a situation like this as the military world. >> well, it is a sobering conversation we had to look at as an error sent out. thanks for calling in. doug per owe who is on vacation and also to my family friend sandra stephenson first to alert us with an eye witness or just a

witness encounter to everything going on. that is a wrap. david gura, not much news. i'll hand it off to you. thank you very much. we are talking about this alert that was sent about an hour ago. joining me about now hans nichols. what do we know about how this happened, hans? >> well, we know pacific command, david, sends something out within an hour of their being an initial report of a launch. when there is indeed a launch from north korea, tends to be within that hour range, sometimes a little more. a little bit longer. they have very good detector. secretary mattis told me they know within minutes avalanche from north korea what direction it's going in. so when i initially saw these reports from this text that was sent out, a lot of folks called the pentagon. pentagon said they are aware of

the reports and looking into it. then they quickly determined that they did not detect anything. so now the issue will become how this did false alert get set out. was it hawaii ema that had ha misfire. seems likely. to what extent how is hawaii integrated with them. and in general at the pentagon there was been a great deal of optimism this week about the talks taking place every day it seems there is a little bit, if not in substance, in tone, progress between north and south korea. >> hans, let me ask you about how much confusion there was on your end, and how much within the pentagon. we saw a tweet from brian representing hawaii in d.c. i noticed as i noticed the alert, you had them weighing in here, saying in fairly short order there wasn't a missile alert. we haven't had a corrective

alert sent over cell phone system. how much confusion within the pentagon? hou how easy was it to get a response? >> they were pretty fast on it, 10 to 15 minutes, they see as one of their roles to make sure the public is informed. to me when i initially saw this, it didn't make a lot of sense, in part, because almost 90% of the time there is a missile launch from north korea, we first hear about it from a news agency in south korea called it. they have it first. they haven't been wrong. then it takes like i said about an hour for u.s. officials to confirm it to give us a direction, was it a threat, and a little bit more information how far it traveled. usually though that comes out of the region first. comes out of south korea. in this case, there was nothing coming out of south korea. so i initially thought that i was skeptical. of course that's assuming the threat was coming from north korea, right. it's possible that missile could be coming in from hawaii from

another country, another location. >> sure. >> so those were my initial thoughts. >> hans, let's talk about capability here. been distracted by the rhetoric between the leader of north korea and our president as well, president trump when it comes to north korea nuclear capability. where is the northern program at this point in terms of their ability to launch a weapon like this? >> well, they have the range to reach the west coast of the united states with the pay load likely. we don't know whether or not they have the range to reach the east coast with a pay load. all the tests they've done, we don't know how heavy the front of the tip of the rocket has been. they also don't know to what extent they can do controlled re-entry and bring in something through the atmosphere and have it still maintain its ability to have direction and targeting. in terms of defenses, in hawaii the main thing is something called an age es missile system, sea and land base, and this intercepts missiles when they come in, terminal phase. talk about the terminal high ald

tu altitude that we set up in south korea. usually when they are coming back down. not a debate, but there is an effort inside the pentagon on how to knock out potential missiles from north korea in their boost phase going up in the air when boosters are firing. the challenge with that is you don't have a lot of time. you have two, three minutes depending where you'll knock it out. and so that might prevent less of a threat to the u.s. but it's very difficult to do. that's where we are on ballistic missile defense. remember at the end of last year trump asked for $4 billion funding for defense system and he go the that quickly in an end of the year spending bill. >> hans, you mentioned you spoke to secretary of defense james mattis about these issues. we focus so much on the state department about diplomatic about this stand off with north korea. at the same time you've had secretary of defense james

mattis talking about how he and his colleagues are continuing to plan for military action should that be required. give us a sense of how that has kept up here with north korea continuing to work on and improve nuclear capabilities? >> they continue to pursue options. and they continue to purvisue options to the president. and that's what the pentagon does. plan for variety of con conti e contingencies. yes, it's a war planning, but planning agency and look around the corner. and the concern is intel they have on north korea hasn't been accurate. they have had to rejig era lot of their assessment saying you actually, north korea could have nuclear capabilities much sooner on top of the missile, 2018 is the latest assessment from the intelligence community that agreed upon assessment but in the past they've been wrong. but most analysts that look

inside and outside the government that look at 2017 saw a great deal of progress and some disturbing surprising progress on the northe korean side. >> thanks very much. i want to bring in tulsi gabbard joins me from the state f hawaii. we looked to her twitter account. she tweeted, hawaii, this is no incoming missile. congress gabbard, let me get a sense how it unfolded? how did you first hear of that? did you get the alert? and what did you do upon getting it? >> aloha. i'm here in washington. short weekend and coming up on monday. so i was not in hawaii but was immediately notified through my cell phone. someone sent me the alert that went out to all cell phones in hawaii. i immediately started calling hawaii state officials to figure

out, because they are the ones, hawaii civil defense is the one who puts out these alerts, to find out what was going on. this was just minutes after the alert went out. i was immediately told that the alert was sent out mistakenly. it was an inadvertent alert message. and that there was no ballistic missile heading to hawaii. so i immediately got on twitter, got on the phone, started getting the message out as quickly as possible to the people in hawaii who literally were going through this thought process of i've got 15 minutes to seek shelter from an incoming ballistic missile. what do i do? how do i protect my family? where do i go? so this is stark reality that hawaii faces now of what a potential nuclear strike on hawaii would be where do people go. >> just temporary eruo interrup.

if there are ready answers to that? we heard from our colleague a moment ago when it comes to military strategy that's advanced. when it comes to what civilians are supposed to do what this happens? do hawaiis know what to do? how open-ended are those questions? >> they are extremely open-ended. people of hawaii have been briefed that should they get an alert such as the one that they got today, they've got 15 minutes to seek shelter. to protect themselves and their families. there are not nuclear bombshell tears shelters in hawaii. not within 15 minutes of someone's home or job or school. so this points to what the people of hawaii went through. what my family and so many families in hawaii just went through is it a true realization they have 15 minutes to find some form of shelter or they are going to be dead. gone. so this is something that i hope

everyone in america heeds to. because this is a threat that's not only facing hawaii but this country. and if they had gone through what our families in hawaii just went through, they would be angry, lieke i am. we've known about this and talking about this threat for years. our leaders have failed us. donald trump is not taking this seriously. and no time to waste. we have to get rid of nuclear threat from north korea. we have to achieve peace, not play politics. because this is literally life and death that is at stake for the people of hawaii and the people of this country. >> congresswoman, you mentioned you are in washington this weekend. when you are back in hawaii how much is this part of the regular conversation? in guam, we remember that missile threat. this becomes more and more a parent.

is this something people are talking about in hawaii? >> this is something people in hawaii have been talking about for quite some time. even before the news. even before most of the people in the country have been talking about it. because hawaii has fallen squarely within north korea's intercontinental ballistic missile range for quite some time. before their missiles were proven to be proven to reach the mainland united states, this was already a real threat to the people of hawaii experienced. i've had kids in elementary school, middle school, coming up to me and asking about this nuclear missile threat. what are they supposed to do? where are they supposed to go? this is reality hawaii has lived with far too long and something needs to be addressed immediately. >> it surprises me too big issues one is the alert itself and second is how do you correct the false alert. you went to twitter to say this was a false alert. i don't believe we have seen the collective alert sent in the

same way. what's the plan going forward to correct the way this happened? i guess we could look at this as learning experience. how should this have unfolded? >> i'm not looking at this quite so charitably. understanding what the people of hawaii has just gone through. there was another message that was put out in the same way that the first one was. saying that it was a false alarm. but quite bluntly it took far too long to get out to the people of hawaii especially when they've been briefed by state officials if they get an alert of incoming missile, they have 15 minutes. corrective message that went out from the state took much longer than 15 minutes to reach people. that was why i knew it was critical. as soon as i knew there was no real threat coming in, immediately i used every avenue to t to try to get the word out because i knew what people were

going through there. >> the geographic shift here. how do you convey to president trump and others in washington they need to take this more seriously? >> i've been conveying this message for quite. my hope is that today's event serves as a strong wakeup call for them, that this is something very real, that there is no time to just talk more about it or say, oh, well maybe it is, maybe it isn't. we don't know what their capabilities are. we do have a pretty good idea what their capabilities are. and we are squarely within their cross hairs and the range of their missiles. so the time for all of this talk within washington is done. the talk that needs to be happening is between donald trump and kim jong-un. the united states and north korea to de-escalate and to

denuclearize and get rid of this nuclear threat. this is not a new norm that the people of hawaii and people in this country have to live with. >> i know you are busy. but let me ask you lastly how is this supposed to happen? you were able to get through fairly quickly, find out this was a false alarm. what is somebody who represents something to do? how is this information supposed to be conveyed? how should this play out when in fact it does? >> well, i mean, these alerts are set out to go out when there is an actual threat coming towards hawaii. and there are other, both through text message, audio alarms, they are supposed to send these messages through the news, et cetera, et cetera. but we have to get to the bottom of exactly what happened this morning, why this message was mistakenly sent out, who was responsible, why it took so long for the corrective message to go out, and make sure that something like this never happens again. >> and just to be clear here.

you used the word mistakenly, is this your sense at this point no foul play, this was just something that happened by mistake? >> that is what i've been told. >> appreciate the time. that's tulsi gabbard representing the second district of hawaii joining me by phone from washington. joining me now is general in honolulu. great to have you with us this afternoon. hearing about how folks in hawaii responded to this erroneous message. let me get a sense how this unfolds on the military side of things. we got a note saying has detected no ballistic missile threat to hawaii. earlier message was sent in error. state of hawaii will send out a correction message as soon as possible. we heard that it went out but too long to come out. what's happening on the military side of things as all of this unfolds? >> well, by the way, before the military side, i'm sitting hooer

in gorgeous beach, and i'm looking at probably 7,000 hotel rooms. when that alert went, and both our iphones went off with a big noise, there was, as far as i could see, no reaction in this area. none at all. there was no sirens going. the traffic didn't pull over. i think most people just completely ignored it as far as i could tell. no hotel announcement came on for over 30 minutes. and then it was. so i think they'll have to look at dissemination of warnings for missile attacks, tsunami, sets, because it didn't look like it was locally at all. no local tv came on and said here's what's going on. turning to your direct question. >> please. >> on the alert.

i was confident knowing the geopolitical situation we are in, that there count possibly be a ballistic missile launch out of north korea unless it was some preprfrom the ground. it was a ton itchistonishing sl correct it. i don't think the system work. congress gabbard said it. but the real issue north korean capability which will in a couple of years be able to threaten all of the continent ental united states. so it has to be reviteized. >> who is supposed to give the

notification? i talked about missile tests in the past, go to the news agency to see what happens here. i take what you are seeing about how people reacted there and i wonder if people were looking at iphones seeing ambiguous warning, didn't know where it came from. odd noise as you said. is this supposed to come from the military? is the u.s. military supposed to it be the outfit, place where we get notice there has been a missile fired like this pure potato he hadly was? >> by the way, the warning was not ambiguous. first time i've heard it on an iphone saines tornados in virginia. and there was a horrendous racket on the iphone followed by a scrolling tape that said, this is no test, inbound missile, and stated it was coming from pacific command. so one would hope, and i'm sure

there is an air gap in pacific command headquarters, over there in command, where they have to analyze the data, then push the button for the local target, saying, disseminating a warning. and that air gap i'm sure is there. so there was some human error over there in the headquarters this morning. i bet there was an electronic malfunction where somebody in that headquarters thought there was a missiled launched. we'll find out in the next couple of days. but, again, surprising conclusion i got to was there didn't appear to be any significant local reaction, either sirens or announcement from hotels. i didn't see traffic pulling over. and then it was well over a half hour before anybody responded, significantly saying this was not the case. so we have some major system

flaws. by the way, never mind in hawaii. north korean icbm threat within a couple years will be real to the entire country. what do we do? and taking cover from a thermo nuclear blast is the least effective thing you can do, as hans nichols gave a wonderful summary of this, you have to get boost phase ballistic missile defense, and we have to enhance the current system we have on strategic ballistic missile defense based primarily in alaska. we have to get serious about this. the north koreans are not going to give up their nuclear weapons, period. so we are going to have to figure out how to mitigate that threat in the coming decades. >> i just want to circle back to something you said. sounds like your reaction to the social reaction to this was one of surprise. and again the focus has been here on the back and forth, the war of words between these two

leaders donald trump and kim jong-un. and then of course the diplomatic action taking place in washington and in new york at the u.n. what would you prescribe here? what action needs to be taken to better prepare those living in hawaii and territories closer to north korea and living in west coast and parts of the u.s. to know how to react in a situation like this? i said to the congresswoman that maybe a charitable read on all this is we need to take action and figure this out f that were the mandate, what would you say needs to happen going forward? >> well, again, the least effective way to defend against a thermo nuclear icbm launch in the united states is with civil defense. the civil defense part is really recovery after a nuclear attack. and that's a decades long desperate problem. what you want to do is make sure you haven't taken millions killed during initial attack by aggressively developing the most capable ballistic missile defense you can.

that hasn't been done adequately mu we are just now starting to react to t so i don't think civil defense will actually be the answer. and by the way on another reassurance, currently i would in the assess the north koreans as having a real capability to strike the continental united states. with long range missiles that can survive re-entry on with the nuclear weapon. i don't think they are there yet. but they will be fairly soon. and we have to get moving. and i sense a real lack of focus on congress part to pro-actively funding and guiding this effort. >> retired general joining us from honolulu as it happens. for you just joining us we are following frightening moments for people in hawaii after a

push alert sent out seven minutes past 8:00 hawaiian time. this said this is not a drill. but 13 minutes after the management agency put out a tweet saying there was no missile. joining me from washington, that's the think tank in washington d.c. let me just ask you for your reaction and response to this. it's one thing to respond when you are on the island of hawaii but another to respond from washington. you knowing the military apparatus, defense system as you do, what do you make of what happened here? >> what i think is it the broader g broader geo political situation. when you have donald trump, and kim jong-un, really conflicting serious harm on another. you are creating an environment where a false alarm could come

and squacare ourselves into starting a war. this is something we were told sent in error. the other potential risk is there is some vulnerability and question whether or not someone could interfere with that to scare us when a missile is coming when in fact no missile is coming. i think it's clear that the north korean leadership knows if they were in fact to launch like this on the united states it would be suicide for them. united states has capability of completely destroying that country. no one wants to have this conflict. but we are at a point now where we have created fear inside the population of hawaii and fear across the broader united states. and when people react in fear, they can make very serious mistakes. >> what's the consequence of that, just to interrupt you, now that you have people dealing with what might have happened, how does that change the conversation, as you see it where things go from here? >> i think a lot of focus what we do to protect people from

ballistic missile launch. and we have been working on this technology for over 20 years. it's come a long way. still far from perfect. still unclear whether it could actually be effective shield against in docoming ballistic missile. but what do we do before launch? not really in communication with the north korean. how can we check with them? when the cold war with soviets we actually had conversations who was doing what to provide greater transparency so you wouldn't have these kinds of mistakes. we are not having those kinds of conversations with the north koreans. and that's a real problem. >> i want to ask you just about some of this. far from perfect. more money to improving the defense system. when you looked at the tax bill signed into law, element of that designed to expand the missile defense system. what's your prescription what needs to be done in that regard when you look at how it stands, how untested it is? is expanding it the solution?

>> there is not another solution on the horizon. once the adds ver sversary nati launched it's hard. this is really hit a bullet with a bullet problem. we have seen some success in smaller scale missile they tear programs with like the patriot missile systems. a we have seen in the case of smaller threats like rockets in israel, so it is technologically feasible. but given the ranges and speeds of the missiles is much greater challenge. and we are not there yet. >> i want to draw from your experience capitol hill dealing with the issue of north korea and weapons capabilities. did this come up? did preparing for the social aspect of this, how folks in populations that would be vulnerable to attack from north korea come up? what do you make in light of what we have seen play out here

over the last 90 minutes of how inadequate our response is or preparation for response is? >> yeah, what you see here and what general mccaffrey was describing was a population not taking it seriously. there is a fine line scaring them too much. but i think it is a conversation that we need to be strg acrohavs the country like the cold war what steps people can take in an emergency like that. knowing how to get ahold of people in case the communication grid goes down. a number of steps that people need to be reminded of that we did a long time ago that we have to bring back. >> stay with us. vice president third way think tank on capitol hill. we are trying to give you the broader ramifications what

happened with the false alert just awhile ago and get a sense of what happened on the ground as that first alert went out. on the phone now is honolulu resident karen hall at a gym class when everyone's smart phones went out. i want to get a sense what that was like? living here in new york i've gotten alerts if someone is missing or storm on the way in. not an unfamiliar thing to have happen. there is the buzz. you look at your phone. what was your reaction? what was the reaction in that gym class? >> actually, we were in a cycling, time trial which is pretty isolated area on the island. and we were all waiting in line to start the time trial. and everybody's phone went off. and we looked at it, and it said this is not a drill. and it's so very surreal. and everybody is trying to make sense of it. is this for real?

even though it's a text that says this is not a drill. we were -- there was a lot of people that, you no hknow, i'm looking at everyone thinking, i think it's natural and normal when something like that happens, it catches everybody off-guard. everything was trying to validate it in their mind. and saying it's real. it's happening. and we know that it could happen, because the emergency management agency has been educating the public on this what to do. the coach finally said to us, some of us, we are close to the school, so go to the school. the others go go a mile down to our cars. i choose to go to the cars. because the school is not open. it's 8:00 in the morning here. this is saturday and school wasn't open.

so i rode to my car and thought i could roll up the window. so the sirens were right there. and the sirens didn't go off. so i'm trying to call the department of emergency management. i'm trying to call 911. couldn't get through to anybody. and then about 20 minutes later, i heard that it was a false alarm. >> carolyn, you mentioned the emergency management had been educating you and other people of hawaii what to do. explain what that's like. you entertained this was a possibility. what had the government told what you to do in a circumstance like this? >> shelter in place. and there is it really not much you can do. we were told that if there was an actual missile launch, it would be at the islands in 12 minutes. not much you can do in 12 minutes. >> you mentioned you knew this

was something could happen. how much had you thought of this in light of what we've heard from the north korean leader and from president trump about this stand off between these two nations about the accelerations in the north korean nuclear program? is this stg that yomething that your friends have talked about this happening? >> oh, definitely. and for us, for me, it's an all hazard thing. we are so susceptible to hurricanes, floods. this north korea would just be another threat to the hawaiian islands. and, yes, the possibility, watching the news and seeing allstaall the rhetoric and craziness, yes, there is all of that possibility and that's what makes it scary because it is a possibility. >> i appreciate all the time.

thank you for joining us here on msnbc. >> you're welcome. >> i want to recap for those just joining us. following frightening moments for the people of hawaii after an alert warned of an incoming ballistic missile. that alert said this, quote, this is not a drill. what stands out there for the message, ballistic missile inbound to hawaii. seek immediate shelter. this is not a drill. joining us now vacationing in hawaii. separated from her family on the north shore. just curious what this reaction to this was? you were on vacation. i'm sure this is not something you were entertaining something as a real threat. how did you respond when you looked at your phone and saw other people looked at their phones when you saw this emergency alert go out 90 minutes ago? >> i think my family got the worst of it. because i was sleepingment and i woke up and sent the tweet out a few minutes ago the screen grab

of what my phone looked like when i woke up. and i woke up to that alert. and then to subsequent texts from my family saying, shelter. i love you. what is happening? these kinds of things. and so and i have nine missed calls. so give you perspective i'm in honolulu in a town that overlooks the ocean and all of way kiki and i looked out the window and couldn't see anything happening. and my dad called me they are on the north shore about an hour away and they are the ones lived that fear of thinking there was a missile heading right at them. >> we just talked with carolyn hall lives in hawaii. prepared in some respects. heard from emergency management what she's to do in a circumstance like this. how is it for you out of town reacting to all of this? who were you looking to for

guidance if there was a real threat? >> i'm in the news, right, so i first thing i do is start checking email. i was checking twitter. obviously there is a tremendous military presence here in hawaii, including the united states pacific command. so i was trying to check official sources. at the time i woke up, they had already told me this is not happening. this is not real. just as the text said. that it wasn't a drill. which i think is the most chilling part of that message. but for them, my family, they had gotten that text while they were up and above, and right on the beach, on the north shore, which is complete opposite side of the island from where i was. and they were the ones trying to destied, okay, whedecide, okay we go, and my mom was trying to call me because i'm by myself.

and just like any other families on the island, they were thinking how are we going to survive. what do we need to do to be safe. and their decision was to hide in a detached garage. and they were waiting there for a while. and just my mom was very upset. and you know understandably because she couldn't reach me. and they didn't know what was happening. >> appreciate the time. joining us with our affiliate in houston happens to be on vacation giving us update on what transpired about 90 minutes ago. just about that long ago folks in hawaii were greeted with a push alert indicating a ballistic missile was headed toward hawaii with the code this is not a drill. subsequently there was tweets and other indications it was a false alarm. we now know that to be the fact. but certainly the fear in those moments no less acute. joining us now msnbc jacob in honolulu. what happened on waikiki beach?

what was the reaction when thoughts began to process what was going on? >> reporter: i have to tell you, david, i'm here on assignment for nbc left field digital video unit been here the last couple of days shooting a story about what happens in the event of a nuclear attack. i was litter i in the room yesterday at hawaii civil defense where they would pick up the phone if the pacific command were to make the call to say there is inbound missile hand they would sound the sirens. i was without my phone at the time this all happened. actually down on waikiki beach. and it didn't get to that point. there was no siren sounded. it was business as usual. down on waikiki beach. but the minute i got, frankly, out of the water, become onto shore, and started talking to people, i realized, and a colleague here that's with me from nbc left field push alert on the phone. >> i did not. but i know many hawaiians did.

it did not get to the point where hawaii emergency management decided they needed to sound the sirens. there are 394 sirens reactivated cold war sirens that are normally used for hurricanes, for tsunamis here. and they have a new siren that they brought back that they used during the cold war that has a distinct noise that would sound in the event of an inbound ballistic missile from north korea or otherwise. they obviously did not determine in this small room that we were in at the civil defense agency yesterday that they needed to push the button to sound those sirens. so something happened in between the point of pacific command calling hawaii civil defense or maybe something happened before, but the sirens did not go off. they did not tell anybody to shelter in place in terms of the siren signal at least. but does sound like the push alerts came through the phones.

three prong strategy out here which is shelter, stay there, and then lister for what's next, stay tuned. and thankfully this was a false alarm. >> valuable perspective. you were at civil defense yesterday. that's what is supposed to happen. what is the process supposed to play out like? i was shocked when i first saw word of this it would begin with a push alert. what is supposed to happen jake who is supposed to make that call? you mention that siren system that's throughout the islands of hawaii. how is this supposed to play out? what have they been told to expect? >> so if something were to happen, again, it's a three prong strategy. i was with vern yesterday, david, who was administrator of civil defense, and he told me you hear the siren, which means shelter in place immediately. it could be a matter of minutes

i think 20 minutes from ballistic missile to reach hawaii. amount of time it would take pacific command to determine whether or not that missile was coming here would take at least five minutes. so only be about 15 minutes for people to get into place and shelter in place. once shelter in place, you stay there. that's the second part of this three prong strategy. radiation will go down 48 hours. once that happens, you shelter in place until you get the signal. basically turn on amfm radio and you listen on amfm radio from word from hawaii civil offense. and the story we are doing from nbc left field in the case of electric magnetic repulse they hoenl expect 10%, 90% may be without communication, and ham radio is one of the ways you'll be able to hear what's happening throughout the island. whether or not people are okay.

who is alive and who that might be. just to be very clear, there was a false alarm. no inbound ballistic missile. but they have this in place. and that begins with push alerts on phones. interruptions on television. on their cell phones. on amfm radio and sounds like that did happen. the question is what happened between the alert coming out, whether pacific command in hawaii or elsewhere, and the decision to not sound those 394 sirens throughout the state of hawaii on all the different islands here? >> colleague in hawaii reporting on these very issues of the just spoke with tulsi gabbard from hawaii and talked about jacob the social situation, degree to which hawaiians know what to do when this happened. you talked about civil defense said and department of emergency management has said. as you talk to regular hawaiians

here what they are supposed to do. we heard from several of them panic, they wanted to authentic what they had just gotten in that push alert. how prepared socially are folks in hawaii for stg liomething li this? >> well, can you imagine, david, they face threats here, urgent critical threats on a regular basis, and they include hurricanes and tsunami. they are prepared for them what to do for a siren for a hurricane. but the prospect, you talked to people out here, virtually everybody tell you they don't think that a threat of north korean missile is something that is likely or highly likely. so to get those alerts today, to get word, and again i have not seen the alerts, so it would be helpful someone tells me exactly what they said, or if you, david could let me know what they were getting, the idea to get that

i'm sure is terrifying to the million plus people here in the honolulu area. did you get one here? here's the alert. nbc naus producer shown me the alert. ballistic missile inbound to hawaii. seek immediate shelter. this is not a drill. this is the key words. they have been drilling for this last of two months they have been launching the sirens. they are different from the hurricanes siren. so to get this, and let me see if i can show you on the screen here. >> we have it up there on the right. >> that's terrifying to look at. >> i want to ask you about what the general said happened to be there as well, terrorism analyst and retired general said he was surprised how little manifest panic there was. there weren't people running out to the beach or reacting with any real panic. from your perch above waikiki

beach? did you notice any reaction? were people headed to the hotel? >> let me show you something. take a look. so out in the distance, quite frankly, this is the last day of a long reporting trip, we'll shoot some stand ups, in the water where those people were surfing right out there. not a siren to be heard. not a word spoken in the water and once we got back to shore. about to have breakfast and meet our colleague sky from nbc left field. and she basically ran up to us with terrified look on her face. and she said did you guys hear what happened? and i'm actually astonished that we didn't hear. so about 30 minutes in between the time that alert went out and we learned that it happened. that's part of the challenge. if people don't have their cell phones handy or are not in front of the tv or radio on, you won't get that word and you won't be able to shelter in place in time. it bears repeating how fast this

would play out. thank goodness it didn't play out. but matter of minutes. less than 20 minutes. less than 10 minutes between the time the alert officially goes out and the time would you have to shelter in place. and for at least the tourists here waikiki part of the island, it was relatively business as usual. there was not running or screaming. sky said she was in the gym when this all happened and people in the gym saw this happening on television and it was business as usual. and i think that it doesn't mean they are not preparing here, but it means i bet you there is a lot to learn from what transpired this morning throughout the islands. >> in hawaii, maybe two or 3 missile tests ago when guam was within the range, a lot of introspection what would happen. do you get a sense, as you've been out reporting and talking to people in and out side of

government that the conversation has changed? when that news came across that the capabilities of the north korean program had gotten b.e . longer, it changed about their vulnerability? >> yeah, i do. and i think that with vern, again administrator of civil defense, the reality is kim jong-un is letting everybody know the capability he has and they are watching the tests very closely. it would not be an exaggeration to say they have ramped up their missile. there was a conference with pacific command and others on the island drilling just for that. this is the front page of the star advertiser here on island

today. north korean threats. it was a huge conference here on the island just yesterday. and at the time that i learned about this, looking at the newspaper to see this photo here of admiral head of pacific command, keynote speaker at a luncheon yesterday with the hawaiian chamber of conference basically talking to people what to do on the island in case something like this happened. >> stand by, if you would, colleague in hawaii doing reporting on how hawaii could react if in fact a missile were headed its way. seemed like there was a possibility just about 90 minutes ago push alert indicating missile was heading towards the islands of hawaii. end of that statement saying this is not a drill. there was some panic and confusion in the minutes that followed as folks processed whether that was in fact a real push alert. if a ballistic missile was

headed in the direction of hawaii. gabbard saying she tweeted out. saying it was a false alarm. no incoming missile to hawaii. and we continue to follow what happened since then and where hawaii goes from here. the people live and deal with this threat from north korea. coverage continues right here on msnbc. i don't like it. oh. nuh uh. yeah. ahhhhh. mm-mm. oh. yeah. ah. agh. d-d-d... no. hmmm. uh... huh. yeah. uh... huh. in business, there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you. so we're doing it. yes. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we help all types of businesses with money, tools and know-how to get business done. american express open.

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welcome back. i'm david gura following breaking news out of hawaii about 90 minutes ago a bush alert sent out to folks living on the islands of hawaii ballistic missile missile threat to hawaii. seek shelter. this is not a drill. turns out that message was false. it was corrected about 10 or 15 minutes after that initial one sent out but caused panic in the moments that followed. joined now by richard with hawaii emergency management spokesman for this. richard, let me ask you what we know what happened? how it came to be that the message was sent out to the folks on the island of hawaii?

>> [ inaudible ] someone pushed the wrong button and basically today there was a problem and human error. >> sound like you said somebody appreciated the wrong button there. let me ask you what happened after that. you were there at the department of emergency management. how did you and your colleagues react to what had happened there? we spoke to many people living in hawaii who have said here as a result of that they tried to call the department of emergency management and called the local police department and wanted to know whether there was a real threat. what was the response like within the department of emergency management on hawaii? >> [ inaudible ] appears there was a breakdown and sent out a cancelation message. there was supposed to be a text. >> we'll call you right back. the line is a bit difficult to hear you. we'll call you right back to see what happened there.

jacob my colleague at msnbc is on waikiki beach in honolulu on assignment working on pieces related to this, what would happen if there were a north korean threat. bring us up to speed. we talked about the response and what is supposed to happen. what have you learned about the circumstances surrounding that push alert that came out just about 7 minutes past the hour in the last hour? >> well, i have to tell you, dade, listening to that, i know the audio, listening him someone pushed the wrong button is interesting. i was in the room. small room. inside the bunker inside the diamond head crater here in the honolulu area. and staffed 24-7 around the clock. two people sitting there. there is a phone direct line from u.s. pacific command which would warn about an incoming threat. sounds like from what he said

that phone did not ring and that theta letter, this is u.s. pacific command, inbound missile detected from north korea, this is where it's supposed to hit basically what that's supposed to say. that's not what happened. sounds like one of the people staffed that room, could have been one of the people that i met yesterday, trying to turn around some of the footage, may have actually pushed literally the wrong button that they were to push in the event that that did happen. that's a big problem for the emergency management services here on hawaii. that sends a lot of people into a panic. again, i want to be really clear. i did not see a panicked environment from our vantage point on waikiki. but this is a very big mistake by the civil defense and emergency management whoever pushed that button. because it's a dedicate the phone line coming from pacific command and only instance in which that alarm is to be

sounded especially if it is a drill. and message clearly stated this is not a drill. >> following the news from hawaii and washington response to it. i want to read a tweet from federal communications. he tweeted just moments ago fcc is launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert that was sent to residents of hawaii. again, the chairman of the fcc saying the fcc launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert sent to residents of hawaii. the president right now not in washington d.c. he's in west palm beach at private club for the long weekend. a statement crossing through the white house from the deputy press secretary at the white house. that's lindsey walters. it's been characterized here as something different. i want to read from what she had to say. the president has been quote on the state of the exercise. this was a state exercise.

so we'll dig into that further. what we learned is this is a mistake. >> david, if i could jump in. this was not an exercise. we were there yesterday. they were very clear to us about the exercise and what those exercises look like. if that is the statement coming from the white house. what i learned within tthis was mistake. this was not an exercise whatsoever. those people are trained only in that room only to push that button when they get a call from u.s. pacific command. from what i heard from your guest earlier, that we did not hear that this was a call from u.s. pacific command. >> much more to come. false push alert sent about 90 minutes ago to folks in hawaii indicating a ballistic missile was headed to hawaii. conclude wg the phrase, this is not a drill. a few minutes later we found this was a false alert.

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welcome back. i'm david gura covering breaking news out of hawaii start the by the push alert you see on the screen there. ballistic missile threat inbound to hawaii seek immediate shelter. this is not a drill. that crossing the transom just about two hours