Maui officials' responses to deadly wildfires are under scrutiny, with the Hawaiian island's top emergency official quitting this week after defending his decision not to use sirens.
Herman Andaya resigned citing health reasons, it was announced on Thursday, less than 24 hours after he defended not sounding warning sirens as fires hit the town of Lahaina. At least 115 people died and more than 800 are missing, according to The Associated Press.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Andaya, the then-administrator of Maui Emergency Management Agency, denied a reporter's suggestion that sirens could have saved lives.
Andaya said: "Had we sounded the siren that night, we're afraid that people would have gone mauka [to the mountainside] and if that was the case then they would have gone into the fire."
Maui instead sent text messages to phones and broadcast emergency messages on television and radio, Andaya added.
"It's an outside siren, so a lot of people who were in air conditioning or whatever the case may be there—plus the winds were very gusty; I heard it was very loud—wouldn't have heard the sirens," Andaya said later.
At the conference, Andaya was backed by Hawaii Governor Josh Green, who said he would have thought of a tsunami on hearing sirens.
Is Maui's Siren System for Wildfires?
Online resources and statements by local leaders—this week and in previous years—suggest the advice was not clear. The system was available to use for wildfires, but it was also "primarily" for events when residents had little time to prepare.
Much of Maui County's warning system information is based on tsunami preparedness; however, that does not mean the siren system is for tsunamis alone.
For example, the County of Maui Outdoor Warning Siren Testing website states that the siren system can be used for events including wildfires.
It reads: "The all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more."
The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency website has also published a video in which Ryan Hirae, a telecom branch chief, explains: "We also use sirens for hurricanes, brush fires, flooding, lava, HAZMAT conditions or even a terrorist event."
Andaya discussed siren use at a Fire and Public Safety Commission meeting in Maui in December 2019.
Minutes from the meeting show that retired Maui Fire Department Battalion Chief Travis Tancayo said he felt sirens were important when multiple issues occur concurrently, such as "we [lose] power, there's a big fire, and then all and then all of our communication is [gone] anyway except for maybe the final line, the sirens.
"So I would hate to discredit—you know, I know we use our phones and stuff, but I still think there's an importance for—you know, personally I feel it's important."
Andaya replied, stating "we need every mode of communication possible" although only for "no notice" events where little time is available for residents to respond. Wildfires were not among the hazards Maui County classified as "no notice" in a 2018 mitigation plan.
"No, I'm not trying to discount the sirens, I mean, we definitely need sirens. What I'm trying to say is, you know, there's a redundancy," Andaya said. "So like for people who don't have cellphones on them, especially on the beach, you know, so that's where that's where we have these sirens.
"The other thing too is, you know, the sirens is for like no-notice events, primarily for no-notice-type events, so in case of like a tsunami, that's where you want to get people off the beach, right, and so that's where the sirens will come in handy, that's the reason why you have—most of our sirens are on the coastline. That's the value, the coastline, that does—so, you know.
"But, yeah, I just wanted to clarify that I'm not trying to discount—I'm not trying to say that, 'Oh, we don't need sirens.' I mean, I think we need every mode of communication possible if you want to communicate or alert people about no notices."
Tancayo has said in interviews since the wildfires that sirens should have been activated.
"I think it would have helped more than not helped," he said, according to NBC News. "I think it would have maybe brought people out of their homes. There's a lot of the old folks that are hard of hearing or don't use cellphones. Maybe the sirens would have made them at least try to turn on the radio or try to just come out and see what was going on."
Other officials have also faced scrutiny.
A letter sent on August 10 by the West Maui Land Company to an official at the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM) highlighted a delay in releasing water that may have hampered firefighters' efforts to tame a raging blaze in west Maui.
The letter to CWRM deputy director M. Kaleo Manuel describes the events and communication problems that resulted in a delay in diverting streams to fill reservoirs being made available to firefighters.
An investigation and review of the state's response to the emergency is ongoing.
Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Maui County via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
