FIVE months after a fake ballistic missile warning sent Hawaii residents into a panic, a trove of emails released about the fiasco show a lack of protocol, a relaxed work environment and even some employees snoozing on the job.

According to the New York Post, the state released more than 300 emails to the media as part of a public records request about the January 13 incident in which a “warning officer” mistakenly sent bogus cellphone and broadcast alerts.

A probe found that the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency worker sent out the warning during a ballistic missile drill under the impression that the state was actually under attack.

It took 38 minutes to send a correction to the errant alert by the worker, who was eventually fired.

In one email sent the day after the fake alert, an agency worker wrote former Administrator Vern Miyagi about repeated requests during planning sessions on the missile-alert system to include a “deactivation section” in case a missile is shot down or misses.

“Thought my request for a protocol was not based on a concern about human error, had the protocol been developed within the last two months, the delay yesterday would not have happened,” the employee wrote, according to Hawaii News Now.

The same worker also expressed serious concerns about state warning-point protocols, saying that those who monitor for disasters and send out alerts should get better training.

“There is resistance to letting SWP do work other than monitoring to ensure they are not distracted. However, I believe this has created an environment without stimulation that leads to other types of distraction,” wrote the employee, whose name was redacted.

“On multiple occasions, I’ve observed them watching movies or TV shows. Usually they are sitting around looking unoccupied,” the worker continued.

“Approximately two weeks ago, it was reported to me by a staff member who came in early that they observed all three SWP staff on shift asleep.”

In another email, an official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency linked to an article in the far-right website Gateway Pundit about an image of a Post-it Note with a password visible in the SWP, under the subject line: “Is this real?”

Miyagi, then the island’s emergency-management boss, replied that “the password was for an application we use here at the office,” according to BuzzFeed.

He added that the Post-it Note “has been taken down” and the “password for the application has been changed”.

Miyagi and the state emergency management agency’s then-executive officer, Toby Clairmont, resigned after the debacle.