Like many who escaped bare-clothed from the raging inferno that swept through the resort town of Lahaina, Maui, Reed received no notice, no evacuation order, no warning sirens.
“Do you know when we found out there was a fire? When it was across our street,” Reed said in the parking lot of the Maui War Memorial Complex, converted into a shelter for victims of the tragedy that has already claimed 93 deaths.
“The mountain behind us caught fire and no one warned us!” Reed claimed.
The 63-year-old woman, who walks with the help of a cane, dragged her daughter, grandson and two cats into her car and fled out of town. “I sped through a line of fire to get my family out,” she recounted.
The cause of the terrible fire is under investigation, but experts affirm that its rapid spread was favored by circumstances such as the abundance of non-native plants, the volcanic topography that favored dry winds down the slope, an unusually dry winter and a hurricane a few kilometers to the southwest. .
But for a state that is no stranger to natural catastrophes – Hawaii has earthquakes, active volcanoes, a history of tsunamis, and is regularly hit by powerful tropical storms – the lack of warning from authorities causes bewilderment and leads many to the wrath.
“We underestimated the danger and the speed of the fire,” Jill Tokuda, a Democratic Party lawmaker from Hawaii, admitted Saturday.
“It’s not that hurricane force winds are unheard of in Hawaii, or dry brush, or red alert conditions. We saw this before with (Hurricane) Lane. We didn’t learn our lesson from Lane (in 2018) – that brush fires can blow up as a result of hurricane force winds,” Tokuda said.
The fire knocked out power to Lahaina residents, who have told the media they had no signal on their cell phones, a channel authorities use when they want to alert citizens of danger.
The same power outage could, no doubt, have limited the ability of residents to watch television or listen to the radio, two other channels where these types of official warnings are issued.
But louder outdoor warning sirens meant to alert islanders to the danger did not sound, the Hawaii Emergency Services Administration (HI-EMA) said on Friday.
“Neither Maui nor HI-EMA activated warning sirens on Maui during the wildfire,” the agency said, according to NBC News.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green said it was still “too early” to say that the silence of the sirens was a technical glitch or a deliberate decision by the operators.
“We still don’t know what really happened (with the sirens),” Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura acknowledged Saturday.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez announced Friday the opening of an investigation into the fire, including making “critical decisions” as the fire spread.
“Could have been done more”
For Kamuela Kawaakoa, it is as if the city has been left to fend for itself in the face of disaster.
“There were no emergency alerts. The emergency systems didn’t work. Nothing worked. Some people didn’t even know until it was too late,” the 34-year-old recounted.
Kawaakoa, who now lives in a camp he set up outside a shelter thanks to the kindness of strangers, said that even without power or cell service, there must have been a way to tell people what was going on.
“You can still call 911 without cell service, you still need to be able to get emergency alerts on your phone,” he said.
“And there are those huge sirens on the poles… I’m sure they have some way to make them work, even without electricity.”
“You know, they have to be prepared for this kind of thing,” he added.
Kawaakoa, who worked at the now-burnt Captain Jack restaurant on Lahaina’s touristy Front Street that drew millions of visitors each year, said residents are discussing the possibility that downed power lines caused the fire. by gusts of wind.
The young man questions whether power should not have been shut off when it became apparent that hurricane force winds were raging in the region.
“People start to wonder if they could have done that, shut off the power before the winds got worse. I don’t know if they could have done that,” he said. “But I feel like more could have been done to save more people who died in this fire.”
FOUNTAIN: AFP
