Phones buzzing with warning messages telling the person on the receiving end to prepare
for the worst . What if what if is vast becoming a what now?
What do you do?
How do you react?
How do you try to survive?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I am Rebecca Felgate and today
I am asking what if a missile hit Hawaii.
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So shortly after 8am on Saturday the 13th January 2018, residents of Hawaii received
a ballistic missile alert that read “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII.
SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL”.
What followed was 38 minutes of panic as residents prepared for the worst.
In the end it turns out the alert was caused by a government employee error…but what
if it hadn’t have been a mistake?
As tensions grow with Rogue nation North Korea, who have explicitly threatened the United
States on several occasions, an inbound missile wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
If one were on its way, it would be travelling 4,600 miles towards the islands.
According to military experts, a missile would take 20 minutes to hit the island, with a
warning period of between 12 to 15 minutes.
As we already know from what unfolded on the 13th January, there would be mass panic as
people did their best to grab supplies and head to shelter.
The problem would be timing.
On the Saturday of the false alarm, the alert came at 8am….which means a lot of people
may simply sleep through it.
Hawaiians have already been advised to keep a 14 day supply of food and water near them
at all times ahead of hurricane season, and by now the island is well aware of the threat
from the west, so the chances are most residents will be reasonably well prepared and ready
to move.
As we know from previous episodes of Life’s Biggest Questions, those who have the best
chance of survival following a nuclear attack are those with some kind of sealed shelter.
A sealed basement, for example, would be ideal, or middle rooms of high rise buildings with
no windows or vents to the outdoors.
As residents discovered during the false alarm, phone lines would quickly be clogged as people
tried to make their last contact with their loved ones.
Hawaii’s population of 1.43 million would be trying to use the phone network to get
in touch with loved ones.
The best way, as many already found out, may be via email.
The well prepared among the islands would spend their 15 minutes of warning period trying
to reach out to the ones they love.
The Unites States and their allies have a missile defense system.
Should an attack be noted, US intelligence would be attempting to track the trajectory
of the missile and shoot it down, either via Japanese Missile Defense or by warships in
the Pacific Ocean.
However, there is a bit of a problem.
According to the head of Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, while he believes the
system in place protecting Hawaii right now is okay, he thinks it could be overwhelmed.
That’s worrying.
If a missile was on its way to Hawaii and it was unable to be intercepted, the scale
of damage would depend where it hit.
It is thought the worst case scenario would be a 15 kiloton missile exploding 1000ft above
Honolulu.
This could kill 75 thousand people and injure a further 100 thousand or so, razing the downtown
area.
The Nuclear fall out could significantly harm the majority of the residents of the island
of Oahu.
However, 15 kilotons is the size of the bomb used over Hiroshima, if the North Koreas were
able to launch anything bigger, the damage could be much worse, and of course, there
is no knowing before hand exactly where it could hit.
Of course, the big question would be response.
Would there be a counter strike.
If Hawaii was hit while Donald Trump was president, well….we already know what he has to say
about his big button, and I am sure he wouldn’t hesitate to launch full force on North Korea.
Of course, this opens up a whole can of worms when it comes to South Korea, Japan, China
and possibly even Russia and the middle east.
That very well could be the start of a brand new era of wartime.
So, that is what would happen if a missile hit Hawaii.
It would not be great for anyone.
While the error made in January 2018 must have been scary, I hope it prepared residents
for the very real possibility that it could happen one day, and helped them prepare themselves
in case it does…of course, nobody ever wants this answer to be a reality.
So guys, what do you think would happen if a missile hit Hawaii?
Let me know in the comments section below?
I am your host Rebecca Felgate.
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I’ll catch you in the next video, but for now, stay curious, stay alert and never ever
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