Can you imagine checking your phone and finding out that there was a ballistic missile headed straight for your state?
Fear and panic took over when families received the frightening news, and then confusion set in, as to what to do next.
The state recommends that residents have a 14-day survival kit of food and water on hand and somewhere to seek shelter in case an attack occurs.
Both residents and tourists remain rattled in the days after the mistaken alert was sent out to cellphones across the islands, warning people to seek shelter, concluding with the ominous statement, "This is not a drill."
Lisa Foxen, a mother of two young children who lives just east of Honolulu, said that some good did come from the blunder.
"I kind of was just almost like a deer in headlights," she said. "I knew what to do in a hurricane. I knew what to do in an earthquake. But the missile thing is new to me."
More than a million people in Hawaii were fearing that they were about to be struck by a nuclear missile, and now some familiar faces are speaking about about the incident.
Jim Carrey, Magic Johnson and Diana Ross were among the celebrities that were ducking for cover during the false alarm in Hawaii.
"I woke up this morning in Hawaii with ten minutes to live," Carrey admitted in a tweet, before turning political.
"It was a false alarm, but a real psychic warning. If we allow this one-man Gomorrah and his corrupt Republican congress to continue alienating the world we are headed for suffering beyond all imagination. ;^\," he added to his message.
Diana Ross had a much different reaction to the alarm. The "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" songstress went deep underground when the alert came though.
"We had to evacuate. We were very frightened. We went to the basement of the hotel. But we were positive, and we were so happy to come home," she said.
A Twitter photo revealed that Magic Johnson was also caught up in the false alarm and had to go to a shelter to wait out the events.
"My friends are in a "˜fall out shelter' in Hawaii due to the missile threat and hanging with Magic Johnson," according to John Haltiwanger, along with a photo of the five-time NBA champion.
Chaos rippled across the Hawaiian islands when people woke to a message Saturday morning from the state's emergency system that read: "Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."
Gov. David Ige later confirmed that an employee had "pushed the wrong button" causing panic to millions of people.
People were left in fear for nearly 40 minutes before a second alert was issues to clarify the first one was sent in error.
If a missile were to be launched from North Korea towards Hawaii, the 1.4 million people on the islands would have just 20 minutes notice before it hit. The state began testing a nuclear warning siren system for if the worst happened, to prepare residents in case of emergency.