Maui fires & cell phone service failed

[cc333]

The most thoughtfully and carefully designed system in the world is only as good as those who build and program it, and a good EAS can only put out information that has been programmed into it, and if that info is nonsensical or nonexistent, the EAS will likewise put out either nonsensical info or remain silent.

In other words, Garbage In ==> Garbage Out.

In this case, as others have said already, the EMS failed spectacularly at their job, thus becoming the weak link that broke, leaving the rest of the chain (EAS and everything that relies on it) useless and half broken.

c

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

There are several threads on this board critical of specific EAS failures.

Someone -- usually @TheBigA -- always jumps in defending the broadcasters by pointing out the responsibility was with the local authorities who failed to activate it. Do a search, you should be able to find them.

I know quite well how to search, and have read this entire thread. Not all situations are the same, and this falls into the bucket of extraordinary. The fire was moving with such speed and intensity that there was no way useful Information was going to be widely disseminated and updated rapidly enough. It is darn near impossible to keep up with that, let alone process how an entire town is going to escape.

And to be clear, the town was never going to be able to fully evacuate. The roads were choked, and no EAS was going to change that.

We love a scapegoat. This ain’t it. Humans and our systems can’t account for everything nature can throw at us.

 

[Kelly A]

We love a scapegoat. This ain’t it. Humans and our systems can’t account for everything nature can throw at us.

All true. And one has to understand the topology around Hawaiian islands before pointing fingers. It's common to find a town right along the water with mountains inland that has only one to three access roads into and out of town. That was the case with Lahaina. In this case, two roads were completely blocked by surrounding grass fires. If you live on the middle to opposite side of town from the remaining road out, it's likely those streets were blocked by burning buildings, palm trees, and burned-up vehicles once trying to escape. I suspect the reason EMS had nothing to say when things got really bad, is there was nothing beneficial to say. Even fire services had to stop and evacuate to save themselves when they ran out of water to fight the fires.
None of this is a cellphone thing a radio thing, sirens, or really an EMS thing. This was an unanticipated chain of events, some natural and some manmade which simply caught an entire community off guard with no available solution at the time.

 

[Kelly A]

This is the weak link in EAS then. How many times have we seen these disaster scenarios where the local authorities with EAS responsibility didn't activate it, think about it, or even know how to use it?

True, but knowing what we know now, what would they have told the public via EAS? "All the roads out of town are blocked, there is no escape." "Your only hope is to jump into the Pacific" "Just make sure you can swim"?

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

And let’s not forget, the ocean was perhaps, for those who could even get there, just the least bad option. In a harbor, you’ve got boats galore with fuel that can, and did, explode, putting more toxins in the air and water, and it’s not a beach entry—you’re jumping into water with hazards on a normal day, let alone under those conditions.