Summary:
LAHAINA, Hawaii — Three survivors of the deadly wildfires that ravaged Maui said Wednesday that when the inferno erupted, the main escape route out of town was partly blocked by Hawaiian Electric trucks clearing downed lines and replacing busted power poles.
“When you have thousands of people in vehicles trying to flee, you have to figure something else out,” Cassidy said of the utility. “That is our lifeline, our escape route, and you cut us off from it? There was no other way out.”
Millington, who said he lost his home and his business to the fires, warned his roommates, and 15 minutes later they were all “peeling” out of the parking lot in their cars.
But the main highway out of Lahaina, which is on Maui’s west side, was already jammed, and it took “three-plus hours” to get to the middle of the island. He said he could see the blaze chewing through Lahaina “in my rearview mirror.”
Analysis:
The Maui fires are a recent example of natural disaster that has left a community in shambles, physically and economically. From this tragedy, we are able to witness the way that first responders reacted to such a casualty, and the issues that were presented as a result of their faulty response.
It seems as though the efforts of the citizens, first responders, and electrical workers were poorly directed and mismanaged, with each group effectively slowing eachother down. The citizens tried their best to flee the area via automobile, while the police blocked off roads for the electrical workers to maintain the power lines in the area. It seems that the police, in this situation, deemed the maintenance of power lines to be more important than the lives of those in the community.
If something like this were to happen again, I would hope that these individuals put a better plan in place to work together more effectively and to prioritize the lives of innocent civilians over the functioning of power lines.
