PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- It was a scary phone call a Portland father never thought he’d get.
Saturday, Rick Romano and his family were petrified when one of his daughters called him saying a ballistic was heading towards her family’s community in Hawaii.
She was one of the state’s residents who received an erroneous alert message from Hawaii’s emergency management agency.
Rick has another daughter, in the state, who also contacted him about the situation.
Once he found out the message was a mistake, Rick said he wasn’t angry but thinks whatever caused the message to be sent needs to be fixed and the international community should try to get rid of nuclear weapons.
“I don’t think anger's the word,” said Romano. “I try not be an angry person, but I think we need to have answers as to how this can happen and just what it means when it does happen and how things can snowball and get out of hand really quickly. Maybe the lesson learned here is a world without nuclear weapons is far better than one with.”
Hawaii’s governor said later Saturday, the message was sent by accident when a government employee was making a shift change.