LAHAINA, United States- Embattled officials in Hawaii who have been criticized for the lack of warnings as a deadly wildfire ripped through a town insisted Wednesday that sounding emergency sirens would not have saved lives.
This handout image courtesy of the US Army shows damaged buildings and structures of Lahaina Town destroyed in the Maui wildfires in Lahaina, Maui, August 15, 2023. Members of Combined Joint Task Force-50 from the Hawaii Army and Air National Guard, US Army Active Duty and Reserve are supporting the community of Maui and first responders.
"The sirens are used primarily for tsunamis. The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded," Herman Andaya told a press conference.Criticism has swelled since the disaster, with survivors complaining there were no official warnings, with the mobile phone networks and electricity supply knocked out, limiting the channels by which alerts are usually delivered.
Hawaii's Governor Josh Green last week ordered a probe into the before-during-and-after of the tragedy, to see if lessons can be learned. "You think that people that live here that are helping don't care?" said Maui Mayor Richard Bissen at a sometimes-testy news conference. "The dogs have to navigate the heat. They have to deal with issues with their paws walking through glass and debris and in these conditions. The dogs require frequent rest.Only a handful of bodies recovered from Lahaina have been identified so far, two of whom were named by Maui County officials as Robert Dyckman, 74, and 79-year-old Buddy Jantoc, both from Lahaina.
"We're going to have to establish some kind of system where if you have family who are vacationing on Maui and you haven't been able to contact them, you can go to your local police station" to give a sample, he said.The White House said President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will"meet with first responders, survivors, as well as federal, state, and local officials" in Maui on Monday.
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