it's because of this alert. ballistic missile threat inbound to hawaii seek immediate shelter. this is not a drill. this was a warning sent to people's phones and they showed up on their tvs and played on radio station across the state. >> officials say the panic was caused by someone hitting the wrong button. a federal investigation is going to begin to figure out how one incident to cause this many problems. >> cnn sara sidner is in hawaii and has more details for us this morning. >> reporter: that emergency alert that said there was an incoming ballistic missile to hawaii to seek shelter and that it was not a drill, did send out a sense of panic to folks here. people trying to figure out w t exactly what to do and where to go. knowing that emergency management has been telling people in hawaii only a 20-minute span between the time