There were some tense moments for a Calgary MLA on vacation in Hawaii.
Karen McPherson, MLA for Calgary McKay-Nose Hill was on the Hawaiian Island of Maui when a false text message warning about an incoming ballistic missile came through her phone Saturday Morning.
She told Global News Radio 770 CHQR in a phone interview that she was preparing for a conference call when the alert came through.
“I’m vacationing with a friend. I grabbed my keys for the car, I grabbed my phone and the key for the condo and yelled at her to get out of the condo right away. I showed her the alert and away we went to the car,” McPherson said.
McPherson said the actions of people around her prompted her to take a second look at the alert.
WATCH: Global BC anchor Lynn Colliar, who was on vacation in Hawaii, describes her reaction and those around her as she got an accidental missile alert warning.
“Nobody was really doing anything. People were still out jogging and walking and taking to the beach. It seemed like there must have been some crossed wires somewhere. And there was no alarm outside, usually they have sirens if there’s a tsunami coming and there was nothing like that so we started to think that it probably wasn’t accurate.”
McPherson said she then went online to confirm her suspicions.
“NBC News had tweeted that it was an error, that there wasn’t actually a missile coming which was a huge relief. Probably about ten minutes after that I got another alert on my phone which startled me again but thankfully it said that there was no missile coming.”
Hawaii’s emergency management agency is trying to figure out what happened.
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