Crews are continuing to battle blazes in several places on the island while authorities are urging visitors to stay away. Video / NZ Herald / AP / Reuters
The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency has resigned abruptly, a day after saying he had no regret about not using sirens to warn residents of wildfires that devastated the seaside community of Lahaina and killed at least 111 people.
The decision not to sound the sirens, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route that became clogged with vehicles, brought intense criticism from many residents.
Mayor Richard Bissen accepted the immediate resignation of agency administrator Herman Andaya, the County of Maui announced on Facebook. Andaya cited unspecified health reasons for leaving his post, with no further details provided.
“Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said in the statement.
A day earlier, Andaya defended the decision not to sound sirens as the flames raged. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world.
“We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Andaya said, using a Hawaiian term that can mean toward the mountains or inland. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.”
Herman Andaya has abruptly quit as head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency. Photo / AP
The siren system was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island, and its website says they may be used to alert for fires.
Andaya was to take part in a meeting of the island’s fire and public safety commission on Thursday, but it was abruptly cancelled. He vigorously defended his qualifications for the job, which he had held since 2017. He said he was not appointed but earned the position after taking a test and being vetted.
Before that he was chief of staff to former mayor Alan Arakawa, who said today that he was disappointed by the resignation “because now we’re out one person who is really qualified”. Arakawa said Andaya was scrutinised for the job by the county’s personnel service.
“He was trying to be strong and trying to do the job,” Arakawa said about the wildfire response. “He was very, very heartbroken about all the things that happened.”
Hawaii Attorney-General Anne Lopez said an outside organisation would conduct “an impartial, independent” review into the state government’s response to the fires.
“We intend to look at this critical incident to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness,” she said in a statement. The investigation is likely to take months.
Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, is among many residents who say they weren’t given enough warning to get out.
The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the US in more than a century, is under investigation. Photo / AP
He pointed to an announcement by Bissen on August 8 that the fire had been contained. That lulled people into a sense of safety and left him distrusting officials, Dagupion said.
Governor Josh Green and Bissen bristled when asked yesterday about such criticism.
“I can’t answer why people don’t trust people,” Bissen said. “The people who were trying to put out these fires lived in those homes – 25 of our firefighters lost their homes. You think they were doing a halfway job?”
Maui residents whose homes burned during the wildfire are steadily filling hotels that are prepared to house them and provide services until at least next spring.
Authorities hope to empty crowded, uncomfortable group shelters by early next week and move displaced people into hotel rooms, said Brad Kieserman, vice-president for disaster operations with the American Red Cross. Hotels were also available for eligible evacuees who had spent the past eight days sleeping in cars or camping in parking lots, he said.
Governor of Hawaii Josh Green (left) and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen during a tour of wildfire damage in Lahaina. Photo / AP
“We will be able to keep folks in hotels for as long as it takes to find housing for them,” Kieserman said at a media briefing. “I am confident we’ll have plenty of rooms.”
Contracts with the hotels would last for at least seven months but could easily be extended, he said. The properties would be staffed by service providers who would offer meals, counselling, financial assistance and other disaster aid.
Green has said at least 1000 hotel rooms will be set aside for those who lost their homes. In addition, Airbnb said its nonprofit wing would provide properties for 1000 people.
Green has vowed to protect landowners from being “victimised” by opportunistic buyers when Maui rebuilds. He said that he instructed the attorney-general to work towards a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina, even as he acknowledged that would likely face legal challenges.
Since the flames consumed much of Lahaina just over a week ago, locals have feared that a rebuilt town could become even more oriented toward wealthy visitors.
The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the US in more than a century, is under investigation. But Hawaii is increasingly at risk from disasters, with wildfire rising fastest, according to an Associated Press analysis of FEMA records.
The local power utility faced criticism for leaving power on as strong winds from a passing hurricane buffeted a parched area last week, and one video shows a cable dangling in a charred patch of grass, surrounded by flames, in the early moments of the wildfire.
A wildfire burns in Kihei, Hawaii. Photo / AP
“Facts about this event will continue to evolve,” Hawaiian Electric chief executive Shelee Kimura wrote in an email to utility customers today. “And while we may not have answers for some time, we are committed, working with many others, to find out what happened as we continue to urgently focus on Maui’s restoration and rebuilding efforts.”
Meanwhile, signs of recovery emerged as public schools across Maui reopened, welcoming displaced students from Lahaina, and traffic resumed on a major road.
The search for the missing moved beyond Lahaina to other oceanside communities that were destroyed. Searchers had covered about 45 per cent of the burned territory, the governor said.
Corrine Hussey Nobriga, whose home was spared, watched crews sifting through ash and debris looking for human remains. While some of her neighbours raised questions about the absence of sirens and inadequate evacuation routes, Nobriga said it was hard to lay blame for a tragedy that took everyone by surprise.
“One minute we saw the fire over there,” she said, pointing towards faraway hills, “and the next minute it’s consuming all these houses.”
The search was marred by intermittent cellphone service and misleading information on social media. There were also challenges finding people who might have been in hospitals, hunkered down at friends’ houses or in unofficial shelters. Many people made flyers and were going door to door in search of loved ones.
Judy Riley, who has been working with families seeking relatives, said false leads and a sense that “no one is in charge of the missing” had contributed to a sense of despair.
“If you are looking for the missing, it’s easy for people to slip through the cracks,” she said.
