Hawaii governor couldn't correct missile alert sooner because he forgot Twitter password

HONOLULU — Forgetting a password to a social media account can be embarrassing, and that memory lapse caused some anxious moments in Hawaii when a missile alert was sent by mistake.

When the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sent the incorrect alert on Jan. 13, panic gripped the state. It took Hawaii Gov. David Ige 17 minutes to take to Twitter to reassure the public that the alert was a false alarm.

The reason, he admitted Monday, is that Ige forgot his Twitter password, The Washington Post reported.

“I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made,” Ige said after he gave his State of the State address, the Post reported.

The missile alert was sent at 8:07 a.m., and Ige was informed by the state's adjutant general that it was false two minutes after it was sent, the Post reported. Ige posted to Twitter at 8:24, tweeting, "There is NO missile threat."

The governor posted to his Facebook account 23 minutes after the alert was sent. Ige did not say if he had forgotten his Facebook login credentials, the Post reported.

“I was in the process of making calls to the leadership team both in Hawaii Emergency Management as well as others,” Ige told reporters Monday. “The focus really was on trying to get as many people informed about the fact that it was a false alert.”

Cox Media Group