CHICAGO: A tsunami warning test was accidentally sent as a real alert to the phones of residents along the US East and Gulf Coasts and the Caribbean on Tuesday – just weeks after a false missile alert triggered panic in Hawaii. Social media posts indicated the false alert was received from the northeastern state of Maine to Texas in the south – via New York City. “The test message was not disseminated to the public via any communication channels operated by the National Weather Service,” the governmental scientific organization said in an earlier statement. The error came less than a month after a false incoming ballistic missile alarm was sent out to the mobile phones of Hawaii residents. The January 13 incident led to the resignation of the Pacific archipelago’s emergency management agency chief and the firing of the worker who sent out the alert.

Source: New Strait Times February 07, 2018 00:22 UTC