On Saturday morning, Minneapolis resident Norah Shapiro had just completed a yoga class on a picturesque beach on Maui as whales crested in the distance.
But seconds after she uttered "Namaste," chaos erupted across the resort-laden island and other parts of Hawaii when an emergency alert warning residents of a ballistic missile was issued by mistake.
"It was maybe one of the more surreal experiences I've ever had," said Shapiro, a Twin Cities film director who was visiting the islands with her husband, Andrew Harrison. "Welcome to paradise."
As Shapiro collected her belongings, someone else in the class read the alert, which had been sent to Hawaii residents, aloud.
A couple of minutes later, one of the men on staff at the Grand Wailea Resort came sprinting down the beach and yelling, "Get inside! Get inside!"
Shapiro, who had left her phone in her hotel room, immediately thought of her husband, a prominent Twin Cities eye doctor who was giving a presentation in the hotel's meeting room. She took off her flip-flops and sprinted, skipping the elevator and taking the five floors by foot instead.
Most people around the resort seemed more confused than hysterical, she said. An announcement over the hotel's loudspeaker told guests to stay in their rooms.
Meanwhile, St. Paul resident Peggy Stang was visiting her brother, former Minnesotan Jim Kelly, at his home in Honolulu — making cinnamon rolls and leisurely reading the paper — when his phone buzzed with the alert.
