Maui Emergency Chief Defends Decision Not To Activate Warning Sirens

[libertybele]

Maui Emergency Chief Defends Decision Not To Activate Warning Sirens

The leader of the Maui Emergency Management Agency is defending his department’s decision not to activate a siren network to warn people last week that a fast-moving fire was descending upon Lahaina.

Called an “all-hazard” system, the sirens are intended to be used for a variety of natural and human-caused events, including fires, Maui’s own website states. The four sirens in the Lahaina area are part of what Hawaii calls the “largest single integrated outdoor siren warning system for public safety in the world.”

But in practice, the system is used mainly for tsunami warnings, MEMA Administrator Herman Andaya said, and the Maui Emergency Management Agency didn’t consider them, as Civil Beat reported.

Andaya elaborated on that decision in a Tuesday interview. “We would not use sirens in a case like this,” he said. “That’s not what we normally would do. We just don’t use sirens for fires.”

Officials instead opted to activate warnings through people’s cell phones, Andaya said. At least some residents received cellphone notifications to evacuate after 4 p.m., according to the New York Times, but many did not. Electrical power and cell service was down in much of the area last Tuesday when the fires sparked and spread.

The sirens are solar-powered and can sound even when electricity is down through a satellite data signal.

In the end, many residents and visitors said they fled Lahaina after seeing or smelling smoke coming their way. But with traffic backups and multiple road closures caused by downed power lines, some died in their cars as they tried to escape. Others pushed through smoke and flames to jump over a sea wall and into the ocean. There, they endured hours of punishing winds and smoke and watched the town burn until the Coast Guard came to rescue them. ...................

https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/maui-emergency-chief-defends-decision-not-to-activate-warning-sirens/

[mystery-ak]

I wonder how many people died because of this...

[Smokin Joe]

I wonder how many people died because of this...

We won't know for a while, if ever. No telling how many were swept out to sea while seeking salvation from the flames. Less than a third of the ruins have been checked.

[libertybele]

I wonder how many people died because of this...

It seems likely to me that if people heard the sirens go off they would at least have been curious as to why they were going off; and maybe popping their heads out the window, trying to tune into the weather station, etc.  Even IF the sires went off and people thought a tsunami was coming it would be reasonable to assume that they would flee or take some sort of action.

The excuse that the sirens weren't used because they are normally used for tsunamis and not fires is very weak and to me makes little sense.

[Kamaji]

Maui chief doesn’t regret not activating sirens during wildfire:  ‘We would not have saved those people’

By Katherine Donlevy
August 16, 2023

The head of Maui’s Emergency Management Agency asserted on Wednesday that he has no regrets about failing to activate warning sirens as the apocalyptic wildfires swept through the island — despite claims the system could have saved hundreds of lives.

Chief Herman Andaya defended his decision to only send out alerts via mobile devices, radio and television, and the county’s opt-in resident alert system after his experience and qualifications for the lofty position were called into question during a press conference held by the governor.

Andaya said that the blaring sirens are typically reserved for tsunami warnings and that Hawaiians are trained to seek higher ground when they are set off, which would have been toward the fast-moving inferno that killed 110 people.

“Had we sounded the siren that night, we’re afraid that people would have gotten mauka [toward the mountains] and if that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire,” Andaya said.

“I should also note that there are no sirens mauka, or on the mountainside, where the fire was spreading down. So even if we sounded the siren, we would not have saved those people out there on the mountainside.”

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/08/16/maui-chief-doesnt-regret-not-activating-sirens-during-wildfire/

[mystery-ak]

Maui's Emergency Operation Chief, Whose Agency Failed To Sound Wildfire Sirens, Had No Relevant Experience


Nick Pope
Contributor
August 16, 2023 11:01 PM ET
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Herman Andaya, the administrator of Maui’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA), had no prior experience in disaster response before taking on his role in the county government’s crisis response agency, according to CBS News.

The EMA is reportedly the agency responsible for setting off emergency sirens which did not blare as devastating wildfires engulfed huge swaths of Maui and killed at least 110 people, CBS News reported. Andaya was reportedly hired for the job in 2017, beating out 40 other qualified candidates for the role, according to local outlet Maui Now.

Andaya’s prior experience indicates that he worked for six years as  the mayor of Maui’s chief of staff, from 2011-2017, and as a bureaucrat in Maui’s housing administration for four years between 2003 and 2007, according to his LinkedIn profile. None of the other roles listed in his career history pertain to emergency operations or other related fields.

more
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/16/hawaii-fires-maui-emergency-operation-herman-andaya-no-experience-disaster-response/

[mountaineer]

no prior experience in disaster response before taking on his role in the county government’s crisis response agency

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Andaya said that the blaring sirens are typically reserved for tsunami warnings and that Hawaiians are trained to seek higher ground when they are set off, which would have been toward the fast-moving inferno that killed 110 people.

“Had we sounded the siren that night, we’re afraid that people would have gotten mauka [toward the mountains] and if that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire,” Andaya said.

That's a really weak excuse.  It would have been obvious to anyone who went outside and even thought of heading uphill to escape a tsunami that there was a fire.  The goal was just to alert people that something bad was happening.  They would have quickly figured out what it was, but they needed to know to be paying attention in the first place.

[mountaineer]

Charlie Kirk
@charliekirk11
The left wants to blame "climate change" for this disaster. It's a lie.

Maui's chief emergency management officer, Herman Andaya, had no expertise in disaster management. Instead, he was a lawyer whose only qualifications were previously working for Maui's mayor and watching "online FEMA trainings and workshops."

Water official M. Kaleo Manuel refused to release water resources so that landowners could protect their homes. Manuel, whose college degree is in "Hawaiian Studies," has said that water should be "revered" rather than "used," and should only be shared after "true conversations about equity."

Hawaiian Electric knew that its power lines posed a fire hazard, but spent almost nothing on wildfire prevention while spending enormously on "renewable" energy to comply with state mandates.

106 people (and counting) are dead and hundreds more are missing because the left put ideology, diversity, and mumbo-jumbo ahead of the competence needed to save people's lives.
12:04 PM · Aug 17, 2023

[Fishrrman]

Considering the behavior and competence of "officials" in this disaster...
...all you have to do is take a look at Hawaii's "Senator" Mazie Hirono.

Then all the rest of 'em fall into place.

[libertybele]

That's a really weak excuse.  It would have been obvious to anyone who went outside and even thought of heading in that direction that there was a fire.  The goal was just to alert people that something bad was happening.  They would have quickly figured out what it was, but they needed to know to be paying attention in the first place.

Exactly.  Seeing a ball of fire or smoke coming at you, most people aren't going to run to it.  Sounding those sirens would have alerted people that something was happening at least encouraging them to take a look outside. I think many would have taken one look grabbed their loved ones and headed out.