ST. LOUIS -- Second baseman Kolten Wong was eating breakfast and scrolling through social media in St. Louis on Saturday morning when he spotted the news. Back home in Hawaii, his family and friends were receiving alerts that a ballistic missile was headed toward the island. "This is not a drill," it read.
"I was freaking out; absolutely freaking out," said Wong, a native of Hilo. "It was just a surreal moment."
He phoned his dad, who was just waking up. He also reached his brother, Kean, a Rays Minor League who was out cliff fishing. Kean Wong frantically began to pack up his poles even though he knew there wouldn't be enough time to seek shelter.
"It's supposed to take only 15 minutes for a missile to hit Hawaii," Kolten Wong said.
It took more than 30 minutes from the time the alert went out for those on the island to be informed that it was a false alarm. The governor of Hawaii later stated that the erroneous information had been the result of human error.
Asked what Hawaiians can do when they receive such an alert, Wong responded: "Pray."
"We don't have underground shelters there. We don't have basements. If that thing hits, it wipes out everything."