TORONTO -- It only took minutes for people to take to Twitter to lament they鈥檇 been woken up by an emergency alert that essentially told them not to do anything.
The alert, which was sent by mistake Sunday morning to phones across Ontario, notified people about an unspecified 鈥渋ncident鈥� at a Toronto-area nuclear power plant.
there were no 鈥減ublic updates nearly 45 minutes after the Pickering emergency alert went out to everyone in Ontario you need to fix this.鈥�
Another , 鈥測ou can鈥檛 undo what鈥檚 been done but to restore trust in the system, the province owes a full explanation of how this emergency tweet was sent in error and make fixes to make sure it doesn鈥檛 happen again.鈥�
鈥淚 love that EVERYTHING IS FINE (in reassuring capitals) is trending. I'm genuinely happy that Pickering is safe,鈥� one . 鈥淎nd I'm learning far more about iodine pills than it ever occurred to me that I would.鈥�
Twitter user Shawn McGuirk , 鈥渘othing starts a cool Sunday morning like ALERT PLEASE STAND BY AND DO NOTHING, IT'S FINE, MAYBE. Also WHOOPS WE SENT THAT BY MISTAKE, GO BACK TO BED NOW.鈥�
Another person , 鈥淚 feel like this is how nuclear horror movies start! 鈥�. This is an alert of something we can鈥檛 say and there鈥檚 nothing you can do about it.鈥�
As for how the alert was mistakenly sent, the Ministry of the Solicitor General released a statement saying the false alarm at the nuclear station occurred during a 鈥渞outine training exercise鈥� by the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre in Toronto.
The Government of Ontario said an investigation is also underway.
More than one person pointed out that had it been a real incident at a nuclear power plant people would鈥檝e been unprepared.
鈥淲aking up in Ontario: Suddenly the ice storm doesn't seem like such an emergency any more. We all have salt, but who had iodine and homemade Geiger counter supplies on their shopping list?鈥� .
And shortly after the initial alert -- through from , including -- people learned the warning had been sent by mistake.
"There is NO active nuclear situation taking place at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The previous alert was issued in error. There is no danger to the public or environment. No further action is required," the follow-up emergency alert read.
And this only spurred dozens of other joking tweets from people.
One 鈥渆asy mistake guys....someone was reaching for the 鈥榙on鈥檛 incite panic button鈥� but accidentally hit the 鈥榠ncite province-wide panic鈥� button instead.鈥�
Many people online questioned how an emergency notification had been sent in error, with more than , 鈥渟omebody is getting fired today.鈥�
Even Newstalk 1010 reporter Lucas Meyer , 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a prettyyy prettyyyy big oops there.鈥�
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