Maui mayor continues to face questions on emergency response

LAHAINA >> Maui Mayor Richard Bissen ended his visit Friday to the various relief hubs in West Maui that are assisting those affected by last week’s deadly Lahaina wildfire by once again facing questions about the county’s handling of the disaster as it unfolded.

Bissen’s visit to express gratitude to the hundreds of volunteers who have been helping out since the Aug. 8 tragedy followed a week that witnessed the sudden resignation of embattled Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya on Thursday and increasing pressure from the public and news media to provide more details on the wind-whipped inferno that laid waste to Lahaina, destroying at least 2,200 structures and claiming 114 lives so far, with many more fatalities expected.

Much of the scrutiny has centered on whether those in Lahaina neighborhoods received adequate official notification to evacuate — or any notice at all. Surrounded by a scrum of reporters and photographers during a press conference at the county distribution site at Lahaina Gateway, Bissen said there’s always second-guessing in any situation, and that “the right thing to do is for us to cooperate” with any investigation and review of the events that transpired.

“I think that’s the right time and place to get to that answer. I’m not the expert on emergency management. I’m not the person who knows every single thing. That’s what we’re evaluating now,” he said. “But I think what’s most important is that we take care of the folks that are suffering and that we provide them with healing and care and hope.”

Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez on Thursday announced that an “impartial, independent” third-party review would be conducted to assess the performance of state and county agencies in preparing and responding to the Maui wildfires in Lahaina, Kula and Kihei.

The lack of information released by county officials since Aug. 8, including a timeline of public safety actions and emergency notifications to the public, also has led to confusion about whether those trapped in Lahaina faced police roadblocks while attempting to flee from the ferocious flames, as some witnesses have reported.

Bissen said some of the roads were blocked by downed utility poles and electrical lines and vehicles that were abandoned as the wildfire engulfed the town.

“I don’t know what caused every street to be blocked in. Some of it was caused by the fire,” he said. “Our own Fire Department lost a fire truck in the fire. They were fighting it and they got surrounded by it and made it out, and other vehicles that caught on fire or if there were no drivers blocked the road. People left their cars and ran, I’m sure, for a very good reason. So I don’t think there was any one thing that led to the roads being blocked.”

As far as replacing Andaya, Bissen said he’s already been talking to “a couple people” and hopes to install someone on a temporary basis by Monday. In the meantime, second-in-command Rocky Keohuhu-Bolor is leading the agency. The mayor noted that the MEMA administrator is a civil service position requiring that certain procedures including testing be followed before a more permanent leader can be hired.

With power and phone service down for days after the fires, it’s been difficult for authorities to get a handle on the number of people unaccounted for. Various crowd-sourced lists contain the names of hundreds of the missing, and county officials have given rough estimates of anywhere between 1,000 and 1,300.

An official said Thursday the Victim Witness Assistance Division under the county Department of the Prosecuting Attorney is in the process of merging the unofficial lists into a single, centralized source.

In the meantime, the county moved its Family Assistance Center, where relatives can provide information on missing loved ones and DNA samples for identification, from Kahului to the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa’s Monarch Ballroom in Kaanapali, open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“I wish I knew the answer to that,” Bissen said when asked how many children are among the missing and dead, and whether the county had been hesitant to release such sensitive information.

The parking lot press conference then quickly broke down and was brought to a halt as two men who were in the crowd of journalists began shouting at Bissen, demanding to know how many children had died in the wildfire. They were asked to step back and threatened with removal but continued their harangue, raising the ire of some of the reporters who were waiting to ask questions of their own.

It was not clear if the two men were from the news media, and one of them refused to give his name afterward.

Gov. Josh Green has acknowledged that children are indeed among the victims of the Lahaina wildfire. As of Friday, authorities had released the names of only seven of the dead, all adults.