Connecticut Evacuated

Residents of the entire state of Connecticut were ordered to evacuate yesterday, after someone in the state emergency management department accidentally "pressed the wrong button" and sent out the evacuation message to broadcasters (thanks to Gary for forwarding the story). Even though TV and radio listeners were told that the state was being evacuated, nobody paid any attention. The police didn't even receive any calls about it. Obviously Connecticut needs to revise its emergency evacuation message. Something more along the lines of 'the state has been invaded by Martians' proved quite effective in nearby New Jersey in 1938.

Yesterday's incident recalls the time on February 20, 1971 when the National Emergency Warning Center in Colorado mistakenly told broadcasters that the country was under nuclear attack. The nuclear alert included the proper code word, 'HATEFULNESS', which meant that broadcasters should have treated it as real, but almost all of them just ignored it. Great to know people take these emergency alerts so seriously.

Law/Police/Crime

Posted on Wed Feb 02, 2005



Comments

...maybe they don't watch T.V.? They were all having clambakes or something.
Posted by Maegan  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  05:12 AM
Maybe the Shrub Who Cried Wolf syndrome has kicked in.
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  07:56 AM
Clambakes I don't know about...that's more of a RI and MA thing...

But as someone who spent the entire day in Connecticut yesterday, with the TV in my office on throughout the afternoon I must say this is the first I've heard of this. This had to be the least effective emergency broadcast in history.
Posted by Lothar Ignatius  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  08:00 AM
Yeah, clams in Conne****** WE INTERUPT THIS POST WITH AN IMPORTANT AND URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SCRUTINY IN CONJUNCTION WITH STATE AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES. THE BIG IDIOT IN CHARGE HAS ORDERED THE MANDATORY EVACUATION OF ALL RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ALL RESIDENTS MUST LEAVE AMERICA WITHIN ONE MINUTE OR BE SUBJECT TO REPEATED BODY CAVITY SEARCHES WITH A FORK. PLEASE LEAVE YOUR DOORS UNLOCKED AND VALUABLES IN PLAIN SIGHT SO THAT WE MAY MORE EFFICIENTLY ROB- I MEANT SEARCH EACH DOMICILE FOR THOSE IN DISTRESS. THOSE UNABLE TO EVACUATE ON THEIR OWN SHOULD CALL 1-888-TOO-LATE. WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED POST*******cticut must be the reason everybody ignored it. I heard that a lot of people Maryland enjoy crabs. Personally, I'd see a doctor.
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  08:20 AM
I recently heard a NYC commedian who mentioned something regarding 9/11: "Where was the Emergency Broadcast this time?" I thought it was difficult to not know about that tragedy as it unfolded. He was neither deaf or mute, but after this stab at a joke, the audience appeared to be.
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  09:55 AM
Hey, Chad. Are you closer to rt 100 or Concord Pike. I love 100.
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  10:10 AM
I'd probably ignore it too.

Kind of like my opinion on school fire drills: by the time you get all those idiots out of the school and a proper distance away from the building, we'll all be burned up anyway.

It also appears that "false alarms" happen more often than not. But if someone sends me an alarm with "hatefullness" on it, I'll make sure to grab the cat and go down to that nuclear war bunker I dug in my back yard.
Posted by James D  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  06:00 PM
Then there was the tsunami warning in Colorado...

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=1687488
Posted by Mike  on  Thu Feb 03, 2005  at  06:00 PM
Err.... I live in Connecticut, and this is the first I've heard of this. At all. Maybe it will be mentioned in today's paper...?

Last night would have been a bad night to be forced to evacuate, as it was sleeting. Maybe that's why no one listened.
Posted by PlantPerson  on  Fri Feb 04, 2005  at  07:02 AM
Oh, and by the way, there's more to Connecticut than clam bakes. In fact, very little of Connecticut has anything to do with fishing. That's just down on the shoreline. Most of it is forest.
Posted by PlantPerson  on  Fri Feb 04, 2005  at  07:05 AM
Hairy, I grew up near Rt. 52 and Rt 1. I'm in the home of the soon to be Super Bowl Champs now. (I can dream, can't I?).

Our quarterly fire drills at work are actually dangerous - dim, steep, concrete stairwell with steps so tiny I have to walk like an Egyptian.
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect  on  Fri Feb 04, 2005  at  11:07 AM
I lived in Newark, De. (Home of the soon to be Champ of Rock and Roll, George Thorogood) for 25 years, and I know evry inch of the Brandywine Valley by heart. I used to tube down the Brandywine whenever I could. It's like stepping back in time. THAT's why I moved up here in North Central, Pa. You guys will be camping in my back field when they drop the big one. Just Kidding. Sorta.
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Fri Feb 04, 2005  at  12:33 PM
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