The country's top disaster management leaders and Hawaii's senior emergency officials were at a conference on how to handle a crisis when the deadliest American wildfire in a century swept through Maui.

The revelation is the latest twist in the saga that has grief-stricken residents furious over the government's lack of planning and response and has led to questions over whether more aggressive evacuation measures could have saved lives.

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Hawaii News Now, which reported the story, said officials were gathered in Waikiki for an annual Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster meeting. Waikiki is about a half-hour plane ride away from Maui. Those attending the meeting were "quite literally the who's who of disaster response locally and across the Pacific."

Residents have complained there were no organized evacuations and that they had never practiced evacuation plans and procedures in the event of a wildfire. Some said they received texts alerting them to an emergency, but others did not and told news outlets the smoke that filled the air on the tiny island was so thick and consuming that they could not figure out which way was out.

"So many people that I know say we never knew," said Gina Lawless, who lost her home to the flames and is among those demanding answers. "We never knew anything about the fire."

Herman Andaya, the now-former head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, was at the Waikiki conference, along with six state emergency management officials. A state emergency management official told HHN in an email that the officials were part of a "'coordinating call about 11 a.m.' to discuss multiple wildfires that had sparked on Big Island and Maui" and said officials were updated on developments throughout the day.

Andaya faced intense criticism for his decision not to activate the siren warning system and stepped down from his post, citing health reasons. During a press conference, he said the sirens were typically used to warn residents of tsunamis and argued that if the sirens had been used, people might have run toward the mountain, adding, "If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire."

His reasoning didn't sit well with people like Alex Calma, a Lahaina resident who lost his home.

"If I would have heard the siren that morning, I would have at least prepared, you know, packed something in my car, called my parents," he told NPR.

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The Maui wildfires are considered the deadliest in modern U.S. history, burning nearly 3,000 structures with estimated billions of dollars in damage. At least 113 people died, and at least 1,000 are unaccounted for.

President Joe Biden toured the damaged areas on Monday.