The state of Hawaii was in shock Saturday morning after a false alarm.

Residents and tourists rushed for shelter after getting an alert that read, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

A little less than 40 minutes later, officials claim it was a false alarm, but for many the fear was still real.

“I thought this is it,” Janeen Nebelski, from Blair County, said. “I’m not going to be able to see my daughter again.”

Nebelski lives in Central Pennsylvania, but her 22-year-old daughter lives in Honolulu.

She burst into tears Saturday when she got a message from her daughter that read, “I’m scared. We just got a missile threat.”

“I’m just sitting there with tears pouring out of my eyes and I’m thinking there’s nothing I can do,” Nebelski told us. “I get a hold of her and said, ‘oh my gosh what is going on?’ I’m crying and she’s like, ‘mom it was a mistake, it was a mistake mom, it wasn’t the truth mom.'”

Nebelski was relieved when she learned the terrifying messages on her phone weren’t true, but she was also a little confused.

“She tells me it was all a mistake and I’m sitting there in shock because I can’t understand how a mistake like this could be made,” Nebelski explained.

The mother said she understands mistakes happen, but this one impacted people and families across the country.

“We all make mistakes, but this one was a little bit more dire and drastic in nature,” Nebelski said.

The chairman of the FCC tweeted the agency is launching a full investigation into the false emergency alert.