Guam residents unnerved by accidental 'civil danger warning'

Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Two radio stations on Guam conducted an unscheduled test of the Emergency Alert Broadcast System, temporarily panicking some edgy residents, the local civil defense agency said Tuesday.

Guam, a Pacific Ocean island and U.S. territory, has been threatened recently with missile attacks from North Korea.

Stations KTWG-AM and KSTO-FM each broadcast an emergency warning shortly after midnight Monday -- starting with a shrill blast and followed by an alarm that read, "A broadcast station or cable system has issued a civil danger warning for the following countries/areas: Guam; at 12:25 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2017, effective until 12:40 a.m. Message from KTWG/KSTO."

Guam's Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense agency later said the warning was a mistake.

"The unauthorized test was NOT connected to any emergency, threat or warning. GHS/OCD has worked with KSTO to ensure the human error will not occur again. There is no scheduled test of the EAS or All Hazards Alert Warning System sirens today," a statement from the agency read.

The statement also mentioned that there was no correlation between minor power outages on the island, the emergency alert and the possibility of attack.

Guam resident Jade Pandora Herrera commented, in a reply to the agency's Facebook statement, "Why would you TEST a civil danger warning on the day we're expecting to get bombed AND NOT INDICATE THAT IT'S A TEST."