A malfunctioning civil defense siren inadvertently sounded for about 20 minutes in Honomu early this morning, prompting a few calls to authorities from concerned members of the community.
Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said the siren went off at about 1:30 a.m.
Oliveira said the siren sounded until he was able to reach the agency’s headquarters in Hilo at which time he sent the “cancel tone,” which shut the siren down.
He said Civil Defense and police have the ability to shut down runaway sirens remotely. If both should fail, the fire department has the ability to manually shut it off at the siren site.
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The cause of the malfunction is not yet known.
“We will work with the technicians to identify the cause and resolve it,” Oliveira said.
He said under the circumstances, the callers were very supportive and understanding about the problem.
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“Obviously it causes stress and frustration because it’s blaring at 1:30 in the morning.”
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