The media outside Hawaii really brushed it under the rug very quickly, which I've seen a lot of people claim was suspicious.
Think about it from a psy-op perspective. If you're trying to wake-up a nation and trigger a 'great awakening' and you are going to do something as radical as to create a movie where there is a literal the-ski-is-falling/'precepice' moment being shown to the public, one where the EBS plays a DEFCON1 scenario, you're not just going to do that without conducting a localized simulation (like a localized ebs defcon moment in Hawaii) to gauge the public's reaction, see what sort of chaos arises so they can better plan for the real thing.
Just a theory that popped-into my head :)
My son’s best friend (16) was living in Hawaii when the missile scare happened. He was home with his mom, dad, brothers and sister. They were huddled together crying believing it was the end. Shocking but no lasting harm.