North Korea tensions prompt Hawaii to revisit emergency attack plans
As tensions with North Korea mount, Hawaii lawmakers anxiously are dusting off the state's emergency plans in preparation for the possibility – however remote – of an attack on the islands, Fox News reported.
The plans were last revisited in the 1980s. But the Hawaii House Public Safety Committee on Thursday formally called for the state's defense agency to repair their hundreds of Cold War-era fallout shelters and restock them with medical supplies, food and water.
While the bellicose threats and displays of weapons capability in Pyongyang are playing out on the other side of the world for most Americans, Hawaii residents – some old enough to remember the last time their home was at the frontlines – see the dispute much differently. Honolulu is roughly 4,600 miles from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
A North Korean missile launched Sunday to showcase the country's nuclear and missile capabilities in honor of the birthday of its late founder failed just seconds after launch. A long-range missile launched from North Korea could reach Hawaii or Alaska, experts say.