We Have Another Damning Update About the Maui Wildfires (VIDEO)

By Townhall. It seems as if everything that could go wrong happened during the Maui wildfires. The island’s disaster relief chief never triggered the alarm system. He bluntly said it wouldn’t have saved the people in the mountainside region when pressed why it was never activated. Suppose you thought Joe Biden’s bedside manner regarding the rising death toll from this disaster was cold-hearted. Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya might have made a worse comment.

Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya today defended the decision not to activate emergency sirens warning #Maui residents and visitors about the wildfires. Here's a clip from the press conference.

Details: https://t.co/0m3zSd9QmD #HInews #StarAdvertiser pic.twitter.com/lSe3iM6flj

— Star-Advertiser (@StarAdvertiser) August 17, 2023

Hawaii has sustained $6 billion in damages so far from this brushfire, which has killed over 100 people, with at least another 1,000 still missing. It’s one of the deadliest wildfires in American history.

On top of the disaster chief being grossly unqualified, Hawaiian Electric supposedly knew that cutting off power to lines subjected to strong winds was an effective protocol for mitigating wildfires. The island got hammered by such gusts due to a hurricane off the coast. This policy, however, was never made official, and this fire likely began due to damaged power wires. To make matters worse for the state’s main electrical company, their utility trucks reportedly blocked escape routes for those fleeing the flames[.] (Read more from “We Have Another Damning Update About the Maui Wildfires” HERE)

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Maui Emergency Management Head Resigns After Questions of Not Sounding Alarm During Wildfires

By Breitbart. Herman Andaya, the head administrator for the Maui Emergency Management Agency, has resigned from his position just shortly after questions erupted about his handling of the wildfire disaster.

Hawaii News Now reported Andaya’s departure Thursday when Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen announced that Andaya resigned for “health reasons.”

“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.

The resignation came after a disastrous news conference on Wednesday wherein Andaya defended his decision to not activate sirens in Lahaina, arguing that it would have sent people fleeing into the fires.

“The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the sirens are sounded,” he said. “Had we sounded the sirens that night, we were afraid that people would have gone [mountainside], and if that was the case, they would have gone into the fire.”

CBS News has learned Maui’s emergency operations chief had no background in disaster response. It’s his department that is responsible for setting off warning sirens, which rang silent during the fires. #maui #wildfires #Lahaina #MauiFire

— Norah O'Donnell 🇺🇸 (@NorahODonnell) August 16, 2023