Resignation of Hawaii Disaster Official Amidst Sirens Controversy

Hawaii County Official Steps Down After Controversial Siren Decision during Wildfires

In a swift move, the head of Maui County's Emergency Management Agency (EMA), Herman Andaya, has resigned a day after justifying the decision not to sound alarm sirens during the Hawaii wildfires, citing concerns over causing unexpected panic among residents.

The resignation comes in the wake of mounting criticism after Andaya's statement that the sirens weren't activated due to the fear of causing undue confusion among residents when the Lahaina area was engulfed by wildfires on the 16th.

Hawaii County Mayor Richard Vincent promptly accepted the resignation, stating, "Given the gravity of the crisis we're facing, we will move quickly to fill this crucial position."

Andaya's explanation that emergency sirens were withheld to prevent unnecessary panic clashed with the information available on Maui's emergency alert system website, where it's explicitly mentioned that these sirens are meant to be utilized even during fires, further fueling the controversy.

Senator Angus McKelvey criticized Andaya's reasoning, calling it "offensive" to assume that people wouldn't recognize that the siren activation was due to the fire. He emphasized that these are "disaster sirens," not just tsunami alarms.

Meanwhile, the responsibility of power companies is under scrutiny as the cause of the fires. CNN reported that a sensor network company, Whisker Labs, stated that there were faults in the power grid right before the fire. CEO Bob Marshall revealed that from the late night of the 7th to the next morning, the power grid in Maui experienced increasing pressure. He added that during the night of the fire, they recorded 122 individual faults in the power system, suggesting that crossed circuits or partial circuit failures might have deviated current from its intended path, potentially sparking the blaze.

Hawaiian Electric, the company responsible for operating and maintaining Hawaii's power grid, is facing lawsuits from residents for not shutting down power even after knowing that some transmission lines had fallen and disconnected. Reports from four years ago also indicated that the company had knowledge of sparks from power lines but failed to take substantial action, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The death toll from the Maui Island wildfires has reached 111 as of last night. The fires have been raging for 11 days on Maui, with the containment rate in the heavily affected Lahaina area at 90% and approximately 80-85% in other regions.