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Wildfires wiped out the entire town of Lahaina on Maui last week. I'm over on the Big Island and we had some large fires but nothing that threatened a large community like there.
This is the fire that was 20 minutes from my house earlier in the day:
As we are starting to learn, the emergency response was essentially zero in Lahaina. We have the USA's most sophisticated (on paper) emergency warning system for tsunamis and other emergencies but it was no even turned on. Power and cell towers went down and evacuation notices were too late and too little. They even announced the fire was 100% contained before the town was hit and only announced evacuations after the whole town was burned.
Take a look at this fly over video from 2 days after the fire. What do you notice? or perhaps not see?
That's right, a complete lack of emergency services. I see one fire truck in that entire video. No search and rescue, no FEMA, no national guard.
They are finding people who were trapped in homes 4 days later because they were too elderly or disabled to get out. Here is what one of my fellow physicians who works over there said today:
The day of the fire we had a car fire on my street. The hurricane winds were not as bad as maui (probably 30 mph in my area) but if that car fire caught my neighborhood would have went up because Im mostly in an ironwood forest.
I had emergency bags, 3 days emergency food, water, carry on sized suitcase, dog food, chainsaw in the truck in 5 minutes and ready to go when our main fire was still 20 min away.
I expect most here have the same mentality. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, the government isnt going to come save you what-so-ever. we just had our reminder that nothing has changed.
This is the fire that was 20 minutes from my house earlier in the day:
As we are starting to learn, the emergency response was essentially zero in Lahaina. We have the USA's most sophisticated (on paper) emergency warning system for tsunamis and other emergencies but it was no even turned on. Power and cell towers went down and evacuation notices were too late and too little. They even announced the fire was 100% contained before the town was hit and only announced evacuations after the whole town was burned.
Take a look at this fly over video from 2 days after the fire. What do you notice? or perhaps not see?
That's right, a complete lack of emergency services. I see one fire truck in that entire video. No search and rescue, no FEMA, no national guard.
They are finding people who were trapped in homes 4 days later because they were too elderly or disabled to get out. Here is what one of my fellow physicians who works over there said today:
]There are five key elements to surviving the first few days of a disaster. These include communication, which is the most vital to acquiring the other: food, water, shelter, and medical care. The local state government have failed on all fronts. Verizon and AT&T failed to provide emergency communication despite making millions from our population. Star link was limited. FEMA and the red cross are MIA. The homeless were eating candy bars in the first two days to feed themselves.
The lesson learned by this disaster, which really no one could have prepared for, is that in the first several days: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN !. You're at the mercy of your resources and your community to help you. The good news is that we on Maui as a community are incredibly resourceful, caring, loving and supportive even when our government is anything but.
The day of the fire we had a car fire on my street. The hurricane winds were not as bad as maui (probably 30 mph in my area) but if that car fire caught my neighborhood would have went up because Im mostly in an ironwood forest.
I had emergency bags, 3 days emergency food, water, carry on sized suitcase, dog food, chainsaw in the truck in 5 minutes and ready to go when our main fire was still 20 min away.
I expect most here have the same mentality. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, the government isnt going to come save you what-so-ever. we just had our reminder that nothing has changed.