For the first time in more than three decades, an ominous warning siren blared across Hawaii earlier this month: a Cold War-era alarm that means a nuclear missile is imminent.<\/b>
\nHONOLULU \u2014 For the first time in more than three decades, an ominous warning siren blared across Hawaii earlier this month \u2014 an alarm that one day could mean a nuclear missile is about to hit.
The siren, a Cold War relic brought back in the wake of new threats from North Korea, is the centerpiece of the most wide-ranging campaign in the U. S. to prepare for a nuclear strike. Over the last few months, state officials have aired TV ads warning Hawaiians to \u201cget inside, stay inside\u201d if an attack is imminent. They\u2019ve also held meetings across the islands to educate residents on the danger.
Especially after North Korea\u2019s latest missile test, some experts believe California and the Bay Area \u2014 one of the closest U. S. metro areas to Pyongyang after Honolulu \u2014 should follow Hawaii\u2019s example. But so far the Golden State\u2019s reaction has been starkly different.
\u201cHawaii feels like it\u2019s on the front lines because it\u2019s so close to North Korea, but these weapons have a pretty long reach,\u201d said Alex Wellerstein, a professor who studies nuclear weapons at New Jersey\u2019s Stevens Institute of Technology. In practical terms, he said, \u201cHawaii isn\u2019t a whole lot closer than San Francisco.\u201d
Indeed, Hawaii is about 4,600 miles from North Korea, compared to 5,450 miles for the City by the Bay.
Hawaii\u2019s alarm was tested Dec. 1 following the regular tsunami siren and will be tested on the first business day of every month. It\u2019s a wailing caterwaul, impossible to ignore, and sounds different from the single-tone tsunami warning. For many locals and tourists, the foreboding sound evoked an earlier era when American schoolchildren were taught to hide under their desks in case the Soviet Union launched a nuclear strike.
\u201cI hope we don\u2019t get to that point again.,\u201d said Lance Whitney, 64, who was suiting up to go kitesurfing on a picturesque Maui beach when the siren sounded.
But amid the acrimonious back-and-forth between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, this is the new normal for Hawaii.
If a North Korean missile were actually on its way toward the Aloha State, the alarm would give residents about a 13-minute heads up, officials say. Hawaiians would also get emergency text message alerts on their smartphones \u2014 and a warning would interrupt TV and radio broadcasts.
Emergency officials are telling residents to prepare for nuclear holocaust by stockpiling up to two weeks of food and medicine. If an attack is imminent, they should get inside, seal all windows, shelter in the most stable part of their home or office \u2014 and wait for further information.
While analysts say North Korean missiles can probably reach most of the U. S., it\u2019s unclear whether the country can mount a nuclear warhead on a missile or aim well enough to hit a city.
Still, \u201cwe just couldn\u2019t ignore these constant threats and missile tests from North Korea,\u201d said Vern Miyagi, Hawaii\u2019s Emergency Management Agency administrator. He stressed that a nuclear strike from the rogue state was unlikely, but he said state leaders felt a responsibility to address it because a nuclear missile aimed at Honolulu could cause 18,000 fatalities and 50,000 to 120,000 casualties.
While some officials worried that preparing for a nuclear strike could cause a panic, \u201cwhat we\u2019ve learned from the last few months is that the public can handle it,\u201d Miyagi said. \u201cPeople are welcoming this information, and we need to share everything we know.\u201d
So far, there\u2019s no nuclear preparedness campaign \u00a0in the Bay Area or California that even approaches Hawaii\u2019s push.
\u201cWe are not doing anything to that level now,\u201d said\u00a0Mark Ghilarducci, the director of the California Office of Emergency Services.
Officials are holding weekly meetings with the U. S. Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security and receiving classified briefings about the nuclear threat to California, he said. But \u201cthe probability that Californians will be faced with a fire or an earthquake is so much higher than a nuclear detonation,\u201d he said.
San Francisco\u2019s network of alarm sirens has been\u00a0 tested weekly \u00a0for decades. While there\u2019s no specific alarm for an incoming missile, a general alarm accompanied by cellphone alerts specifying a nuclear attack\u00a0would be used in that case, said Francis Zamora, a spokesman for the city\u2019s emergency department.
Oakland also\u00a0has a siren system that it tests monthly. The Emergency\u00a0Management Services Division put a few paragraphs about a nuclear attack\u00a0 on its website \u00a0\u201cwhen all this hyperbole started happening between us and North Korea,\u201d said Mitchell Green, the agency\u2019s acting director, but there are no plans for a broader public education effort.
In San Jose, \u201ca lot of the old air raid siren systems were dismantled many, many years ago,\u201d said Ray Riordan, the city\u2019s director of emergency services. When the Cold War ended more than a quarter-century ago, \u00a0funding for nuclear warning systems dried up \u2014 one of Riordan\u2019s first jobs was helping take down the siren network. It would cost millions of dollars to rebuild it now, he said.
Public awareness campaigns like Hawaii\u2019s are important now because \u201cthere are several generations of Americans who have never had to take nuclear weapons seriously,\u201d said Wellerstein, the professor. Explaining the best practices for surviving an attack can make a difference.
But some observers question whether preparedness campaigns give people a false sense of security. Telling people to get inside their homes \u201creally sells short how catastrophic this would be,\u201d said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey. \u201cWhat you want is not to have the nuclear war in the first place.\u201d
Experts predict that if North Korea did target Hawaii, it would try to hit Pearl Harbor, the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet. A map of potential nuclear targets in a 2013 North Korean propaganda photo included Honolulu.
The idea of Pearl Harbor as a target brings back memories for Sterling Cale, who was a 20-year-old Navy medical specialist stationed there when Japanese forces attacked on Dec. 7,1941. Now 96, he volunteers at the Pearl Harbor historic site every week, wearing a colorful Hawaiian shirt and pointed Navy cap as he talks to visitors about his experience.
\u201cWe\u2019re much more prepared now than we were in World War II,\u201d Cale said. \u201cI\u2019m not worried \u2014 our people are ready for anything that might happen.\u201d
Some Hawaiians, however, fear that the nuclear threat will scare vacationers away from the state\u2019s beaches.
Makani Christensen, a tour guide in Honolulu, thought regular sirens could hurt his business. State officials should\u00a0\u201cthink about the big picture and not jump into this hysteria unless (a missile) is absolutely coming,\u201d he said.
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Several visitors did say they had second thoughts about visiting after hearing the Dec. 1 siren. Derrick and Nancy Chappell, 84 and 83, who are from Lincolnshire, England, had just disembarked from a relaxing five-day cruise to Honolulu when the wailing started.
\u201cWe heard that noise when the Germans were coming,\u201d Nancy said. \u201cIt brought everything back again.\u201d
The siren also interrupted the Waikiki honeymoon of New York newlyweds Angad and Shilpa Singh, 29 and 28. When it blared through their hotel room windows, Shilpa Singh said, \u201cit was like, should we really be here?\u201d
But Dean Nakasone, a vice-president with the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, an industry group, said those fears were overblown. For tourists to avoid Hawaii because of fear of a nuclear strike would be even less rational than avoiding California out of fear of wildfires, he said:\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re doing the preparation like we would for any other kind of emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n