GHS/OCD blamed the false alarm on “human error.”
Guam – Guam Homeland Security and the Office of Civil Defense wants to assure residents that the alert they heard at 12:25 am Tuesday was a false alarm.
Homeland Security Advisor George Charfauros clarified on NewsTalk K57 that the alarm went off as a result of “human error.”
Residents tuning in to their television and radio stations at 12:25 am were frightened by the alert as it did not specify that it was only a test. Homeland Security and the Guam Police Department became flooded with calls from concerned residents, said Charfauros, as a result.
To complicate matters, power to some villages tripped off-line for a couple hours in a number of villages just hours before the alert went off.
Residents expressed fear and frustration at the apparent mistake that coincidentally occurred on the date many believe an attack from North Korea is imminent. However, as Charfauros had repeated in interviews with the media, there is no threat of a missile attack from North Korea and the threat level on Guam has not changed.
The combination of power going off line and an alert blasting on television and radio with no specification of the emergency was just an unfortunate event caused by human error, said Charfauros who added that should a true emergency occur, an alert would be specific as to what the danger is.
