“I received information tonight from a highly reliable source who is on Maui and is involved with the emergency response. The source is a person of high integrity and shared this information with a mutual friend, who passed it on to me. The source says the situation on Maui is far worse than what is being reported.
Our mutual friend checked on the source last week and the source said the Maui government is covering up the deaths.
The source had just returned from a big meeting on Oahu convened to coordinate the response to the disaster. The source said that there are 2000 people missing and that FEMA estimates at least 1-2000 dead on Maui, especially Lahaina. It was essentially burned to the ground and the residents were told to shelter in place. Many are probably dead.”
Residents on the ground are stating that FEMA and other agencies are providing no assistance to survivors. Instead private citizens are bringing water and supplies to help survivors of the wildfire.
Hawaiian emergency management failed to activate its Tsunami alarm system which could have warned residents to evacuate the area. Instead residents were told to shelter in place, leading to mass deaths as the fire swept through their neighborhoods. Alerts were sent out through text messages, but power outages and cell tower failures means most residents didn’t get those alerts.
The cause of the wildfire is believed to be from power-lines downed in high winds: “Hawaii state government officials and Hawaii Electric Co. were both acutely aware of the wildfire threat in Maui…
After a series of Mauii wildfires in 2019, Hawaii Electric, state records show, spent only $245,000 on wildfire-specific upgrades and mitigation efforts on the island through 2022…
Put another way, ethics records show Hawaii Electric spent $437,252 on lobbying state officials, including utility regulators, since 2019, far more than it spent addressing the Maui wildfire threat…
Hawaii Electric also failed to turn off sections of its power grid during the wind storms last week, a precautionary measure adopted by other utilities in states with high fire risks, such as California.”