Good morning, kids. The Maui wildfires remain the top story as the scale of the disaster in terms of human life and of course to a lesser extent property is horrific. In my post last week referring to the fact that many ultra wealthy, primarily well-known lefties being in the line of fire did not necessarily make me lose much sleep, a commenter pointed out that many ordinary folk also make their home on the island. No doubt they probably comprise the vast majority of the victims, and I truly do feel for them.
A spokesman for Hawaii’s emergency management agency says that none of the 80 warning sirens placed around the island were activated at any time during the wildfire that has caused massive damage and taken at least 93 lives. The historic city of Lahaina has been all but destroyed, as has much of the western part of the island.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green says it isn’t known whether infrastructure damage prevented the sirens from going off. But the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s spokesman, Adam Weintraub, confirmed on Saturday that the sirens alone would not have been a sign to evacuate, but for residents to seek more information.
He said other alert systems were activated, including emergency alerts that were sent to cellphones and to radio and TV stations, but there were power outages in Lahaina on Tuesday, and many residents said they never got any warnings.
“The emergency sirens are tested once a month, but they weren’t sounded for some unknown reason to announce these fires,” Robin Ritchie, a long-time Lahaina resident said. “That makes me feel very angry because the lack of warning has definitely caused death.” Ritchie says that two of her friends were saved from the approaching fire only when the smoke alarms in their homes went off. . .
. . . There was a report from a company that monitors power grid activity that a “large fault” was detected on a power line 20 minutes before the wildfire started. It may very well have been a coincidence since residents were reporting power outages all throughout Tuesday. . .
. . . Considering that Maui had a top-of-the-line warning system, the state was ill-prepared for the disaster."
"Top-of-the-line." As in "TOP men." Faults and power outages minutes before the fires started? That definitely doesn't sound kosher, does it? Or if it wasn't the prelude to a mass act of terrorism perhaps it was some freak anomaly that happened almost at the same time by pure coincidence. Either way, the fact that something as basic as warning sirens not going off is completely inexcusable. Ultimately, we'll see who or what is to blame for this disaster turning into a human catastrophe. Of course, if it is shown that government's incompetence and/or lack of preparedness in, if not preventing at least mitigating the loss of life is at the heart of this, what real consequences will those officials and politicians charged with preventing this face? History teaches us that you don't have to be Jeanne Dixon to prognosticate the future.
Last full day in NYC for me. Thoughts on that coming up a bit later.
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