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Maui fires

Here's an excellent report on what went wrong with the siren system:


Officials have offered up some excuses. Let's go through them:

Hawaii EMS spokesman Adam Weintraub claimed, “It was largely a function of how fast the flames were moving,”
But isn't this a system specifically built to provide life-saving alerts during fast-moving emergencies? A tsunami or volcano eruption would require a similarly urgent, rapid response, right? So the system is no good for those events either?

“They were trying to coordinate response on the ground, and they had already issued these other alert systems.”
This sounds like a failure of prioritization, lack of situational awareness and a terrible judgment call.

“On my cell phone, we had warnings of strong winds and possible fires,” said a Lahaina resident
Language matters when you are trying to get a meaningful message to people via EAS.

“We don’t see any indications that Maui did anything wrong,” Weintraub said.
This guy needs to be fired.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
This is not a good look for the radio industry which continuously chest-thumps about how vital it is in case of emergency. Cast the blame where you want, but the bottom line is that radio is not living up to its own promises during exactly the kind of scenario they always use as a hypothetical example, where it's supposed to be the last service standing and will be there for you when all else fails.
Click to expand...

It's supposed to be a partnership. Radio CAN'T make up emergency information. They need to get it from an authorized source. It's obvious that HEMA screwed this up completely. It's their fault people died. There will be a major investigation, and HEMA will take the blame.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
The takeaway from this is that while terrestrial radio staffers are trying their best, they have not been getting any official updates from government authorities to pass along -- and this is several days after the initial disaster with cell service in the area already coming back online.
Click to expand...
And there have been multiple areas where the local government authorities have been accused of incompetence, failure and lack of planning. A non-radio example is the failure to use alert sirens when the fire began to threaten populated areas.

If radio station are not getting official information to pass along, they certainly have been getting reports from residents and other organizations and are using that to inform listeners.
Theater of My Mind said:
This is not a good look for the radio industry which continuously chest-thumps about how vital it is in case of emergency. Cast the blame where you want, but the bottom line is that radio is not living up to its own promises during exactly the kind of scenario they always use as a hypothetical example, where it's supposed to be the last service standing and will be there for you when all else fails.
Click to expand...
If the government fails to communicate with the only viable medium during and after the crisis, that is a government problem. The stations are on the air and reports have them running coverage consisting of reports from lots of other sources, from the Red Cross to community leaders to the general public.

The total failure of phones, cellular and Internet services, electrical power and even water services means radio is the only service available and stations are using sources other than the government to provide information.

As things develop, we will see how much the lack of planning and inadequate local government response affected the broadcast of information during and after the fire.
 
There are legitimate questions and issues with the sirens. One is they are typically associated with tsunamis. So without context, you’re awakened in the middle of the night by what you think is a tsunami warning. Where do you go? Away from the water? That’s precisely the worst thing in the circumstances that happened. That can’t be ignored in the totality of the after-issue assessment.

And when a tsunami warning is issued, it often provides more—still limited, but more—warning than anyone was going to get in/around Lahaina. The fire spread at a mile a minute at times. People understandably want to place blame for the unimaginable losses. But a firestorm like that…the sirens with no context aren’t going to help.

There were two basic options—try to flee town, on roads that became impassible quickly, or the ocean if you could make it. Many were never going to make it. That’s horrifying and heartbreaking, but reality. The town was for all practical purposes consumed in moments.
 
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