The chief of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, Herman Andaya, tendered his resignation in the wake of intensifying criticism over his qualifications and handling of the recent devastating fire that swept through Lahaina, killing at least 111 people. The resignation was confirmed by Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, who stated that Andaya cited health reasons for his departure.
The move follows a public outcry over the lack of emergency alerts and sirens during the Lahaina fire, which claimed several lives and caused extensive property damage. Survivors voiced their frustrations about not receiving any warning as the fast-spreading blaze caught them off guard. The fire’s rapid escalation was exacerbated by strong winds that propelled the flames through the area and fire hydrants that were without water.
A day prior to his resignation, Andaya had publicly defended his decision not to activate emergency alert sirens. Many believed that these sirens could have played a crucial role in alerting residents about the imminent danger posed by the fire. Andaya maintained that using the sirens would have driven people inland toward the fire, since they have been accustomed to hearing the sirens as warnings of an impending tsunami. The decision has sparked controversy and intensified the scrutiny on Andaya’s leadership.
Herman Andaya Jr. was named the administrator for the Maui Emergency Management Agency in 2017 after serving as interim administrator for six months. He was selected by a committee that reviewed the qualifications of 40 app.icants.
Andaya’s served as the deputy director of the Department of Housing and Human Concerns, assistant administrator of the housing division and the mayor’s chief of staff.
The number of confirmed fatalities is 111, the Maui Police Department reported on Wednesday. Police reported that 40 percent of the area has been searched.
The road to Lahaina reopened to all motorists from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., on Wednesday. Late-night access from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. is limited to West Maui residents, first responders and West Maui employees. FEMA has opened an office and is registering people for disaster assistance in Kahului.
Understatement.
To the north of Lahaina are undeveloped and open lands that used to be leased by Dole to grow pineapples. But that was well over 20 years ago. Since then, the land has become overgrown with thick, dry brush. This was the source of fuel that allowed the fire to spread rapidly. With the high winds coming off the slopes of Mt. Haleakala, the fire moved rapidly. The ignition point remains uncertain, but most likely it was due to the upmountain winds knocking down power lines and causing them to arc, thereby igniting the dry fields and the fire moving rapidly south driven by the 75 mph winds.
You given another example Maui community local leaders should had addressed that problem and resolved it. What were they doing? So the threat didn’t go on for twenty years. Adults of boomers, gen x, and millennials don’t take leadership seriously enough which reflects these three generations didn’t take Fatherhood seriously. Leadership its a 24 hr seven day week job, the one promoted into leadership must be alert all times to everything around him with the abilities and skills managing a team cause team members or constituents all too busy with everyday life duties to be concerned over from homeless to old fields to dead trees in parklands. Leadership is a stressful position which only is complicated when the individuals we elect have personal and family problems cause then he’d be distracted.
Good observation Kimo. It certainly isnt rocket science.
The National Weather Service had early warning of the potential for extreme high winds which obviously werent taken serious enough to have linemen crews standby to cut the power supply to in critical areas.
Another very crucial factor was the fuel source that was totally overlooked.
Brush could have been cleared or at least clearing zones to keep flames from sweeping entire hillsides as is a common practice used in forest management nationwide except in California where wild fires devastate entire communities on a regular basis usually at ten year intervals which is the growth cycle of brush.
President Trump warned California governor Nusonce of the brush fire mitigation process but He was obviously too busy with his homeless project or was planning to use the brush as cover to “hide” the homeless population center.
Others speculate the regular reoccurring brush fires in California are a huge revenue source of FEMA funds which can be used for enormous “other” pork projects due to lack of oversight by the feds.
Hmm now lets think a moment…What does California and Hawaii have in common???
For the naive readers those in charge have a D following their name.
One Hundred and Eleven victims have suffered a horrible death as a result.
My daughters babysitter was crying uncontrollably as she had lost her only grandson his mother and two grandparents who were burned alive in their vehicle while trying to escape.
There was early warning that went unheeded!
That is a lot of bodies to have on ones soul.
He isn’t the only one responsible. The entire State of Hawaii must question whom they elected to serve their safety and financial security. Including is the Democratic Party leadership really serving its constituents well to their best interests. Cause its not the leadership hurt and hurting by their actions, they still have their comfortable lifestyle. its the democrat’s constituents hurting whom died too short before ever getting a chance to repent and receive Christ which Hawaii is largely “unchurched” as well those needing to start-over from losing everything which starting over isn’t necessarily a bad result but still a headache. If Anchorage voters continue being hard-headed and continue supporting such leaderships as Tuck and Lafrance while the better thinking conservatives and miderates leave anchorage governance and business Lahaina is where we are headed when we have a future catastrophe or Portland by thugs burning down businesses and homeless and drugs on every street.
If I were him, I wouldn’t be too hard on himself. These kind of catastrophes isn’t just one community leader making a bad decision, it takes a team effort of too comfortable leaders who grew too cozy, too lazy, and too arrogant. He would have advisors anc other community leaders he would had talked to and worked around and partied with whom never questioned nor disagreed with each other. Leaders shouldn’t be so arrogant they have No intellectual accountability partner or friend whom isn’t intimidated or kiss-up not to be honest with them through-out that leader’s professional and personal life. See! It’s why guys need small groups like the Bible studies or recovery meetings, places where a man may find a trustworthy accountability friend.
Sam Kinison started out as an obnoxious street preacher. But at least he was funny.
Presuming the people you work for are ” ignorant ” is not a good career decision ! Good to see him do the right thing, if you can’t handle the heat get out fast! Sorry he didn’t think people could do this, even with his appropriate action. It should have caused a health issue. Guilt is hard to escape.
Hawaii is run by Democrats 2:1. If it was the other way around you would hear about the incompetent Republicans. Instead this guy – I assume its a guy – is allowed to slip away. Nothing to see here.
People keep asked about the tsunami sirens and early warning etc in the press conferences. What people may or may not realize, Tsunami sirens are built by Federal Signal a private company out of Chicago area. When you order them they are built either as just tsunami (sound only or “dumb” without the capacity for voice over), or a multi hazard system where you can program messages etc into it also (Think the base sirens where someone turns on a mic and speaks). You have to purchase the system and they are about 32K a piece for a non smart siren tower and assembly. I’ve been through the process and the class at Federal Signal back in 2018.
The issue with any community is twofold 1.)practicing for the hazard at hand and honestly people’s mentality of “it wont happen here” or “I don’t believe …”. Don’t believe me look at the people in Anchorage before and after the earthquake. Look at areas with high wildfire risk that never cut back and remove deadfall. Look at Juneau, or most places where people have tsunami sirens, they largely ignore them. and 2.) Accurately addressing your risks, hazards and vulnerabilities and addressing those issues, but that costs money. Money elected officials don’t want to spend because the rate of return isn’t easy to calculate until something happens
If you review history, the cause of all of the most destructive fires to occur in a city are directly related to the high density of wooden structures, put together with just the right natural conditions at the time. Certainly a structure fire on a normal sized lot poses little danger to neighbors. But when you stack houses and structures in like cordwood there should be some concrete involved at some point if nothing else than to serve as a fire break. City planning should be done by professionals with no skin in the game other than public safety. Redundancies should be in place and emergency planning done before the emergency. There’s no such thing as inexpensive high density housing if there is concern for public safety. A bbq gone bad should not be capable of taking out a neighborhood or a whole city. One person or cause is never the real problem, but the finger pointing seems to always occur. It’s never that simple. We need to start learning from history instead of trying to rewrite it to suit.
Glad you mentioned this. Right now in so many states, led by California, there is a push for high density housing. Codes, covenants, and restrictions are being dropped so SFDs can be converted in to duplexes and triplexes. Small, single level apartments are being razed for multistory. During the pandemic we saw how rapidly the virus spread through these communities. The same for fire and other natural disasters.
Yes, and our assembly is following California on this which will only benefit a few assembly members that stand to profit, using a dreamed-up housing shortage to legitimatize it.
My good friends who owned a local Inn in Lahaina always warned me of the lack of leadership and uncoordinated efforts of the entire county when community oversight was needed.
Planning and structure regulations were never taken seriously.
Under the table deals were common for local building codes to be bent to facilitate certain business plans by “certain” investment groups. A handful of cash went a long way to get a business plan up and running.
The amount of money the state and county collected from tourism is staggering but it just wasnt enough to hire the right people to keep citizens safe from hazards.
Definitely a DEI hire, just look at him. This is what you get when you put leftists in charge. People who don’t know how to do their jobs, but get them because we need “representation”. When will leftists learn. How many have to die for their agenda?
So according to Herman the horns go off in the middle of the night and wake you up like sheep you would run to the glow in the sky or smoke. Not the smartest Democrat they had working for the state.
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