Only Paved Road Out of Maui’s Devastated Town of Lahaina Was Barricaded During Wildfire Evacuation
Officials also appear to be slow-walking the count of casualties, as the number of declared dead remains under 120….yet 1100 is now the tally of those officially missing.
As the town of Lahaina and the region of West Maui dig through the remains of the wildfire disaster, more disturbing information about the fire response is being uncovered.
Reports now indicated that the only paved road was barricaded as people evacuated.
And car after car was turned back toward the rapidly spreading wildfire by a barricade blocking access to Highway 30.
One family swerved around the barricade and was safe in a nearby town 48 minutes later, another drove their four-wheel-drive car down a dirt road to escape. One man took a dirt road uphill, climbing above the fire and watching as Lahaina burned. He later picked his way through the flames, smoke and rubble to pull survivors to safety.
But dozens of others found themselves caught in a hellscape, their cars jammed together on a narrow road, surrounded by flames on three sides and the rocky ocean waves on the fourth. Some died in their cars, while others tried to run for safety.
“I could see from the bypass that people were stuck on the balconies, so I went down and checked it out,” said Kekoa Lansford, who made several trips into town to look for survivors. What he found was horrible, Lansford said, with dead bodies and flames like a hellish movie scene. “And I could see that people were on fire, that the fire was just being stoked by the wind, and being pushed toward the homes.”
The road closures — some because of the fire, some because of downed power lines — contributed to making historic Lahaina the site of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
According to a report by AP, the only road out of Lahaina was barricaded.
Only those who disobeyed survived. pic.twitter.com/uQNNZ806RZ
— Dr. Benjamin Braddock (@GraduatedBen) August 23, 2023
During the wildfire that swept through San Diego in 2003, which nearly incinerated my home, the police were driving around until the very last moment announcing mandatory evacuations using loud horns. The efforts kept the loss of life to under 20 people despite the widespread devastation.
Error compounded upon error has compounded the disaster in Maui. I noted that a water board official did not release resources for 5 hours in homage and reverence to equity. Another official failed to sound the alarms, saying Maui residents would have run for the hills, thinking it was a tsunami warning.
It turns out the Maui emergency officials had recently been reminded that sires were also for wildfires.
Before flames tore through Lahaina, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their path, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency had a discussion with counterparts on Maui about the use of sirens to let residents know they should flee.
HNN Investigates confirmed an assistant telcom officer working at the state emergency management office “reminded” his counterpart at the Maui Emergency Management Agency that sirens could be used to alert residents of wildfires.
The state says this happened prior to the catastrophic blaze that swept through Lahaina town.
Despite that discussion, sirens remained silent — and Maui’s emergency management office defended that decision by saying that activating the alarms could have confused people.
The director of the office has since resigned.
Officials also appear to be slow-walking the count of casualties, as the number of declared dead remains under 120….yet 1100 is now the tally of those officially missing.
The unconfirmed list of missing people has risen to 1,100 names, two weeks after a deadly blaze ripped through the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina.
Authorities have confirmed 115 deaths following the deadliest wildfire in more than a century in the United States. They also pleaded with relatives of those missing to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the ashes.
Families of the missing are now being asked to provide DNA samples for the identification of remains. Officials are troubled by the lack of cooperation on this matter.
Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin, who is running the center, said that the number of family members coming in to provide DNA samples is “a lot lower” than in other major disasters around the country, though it wasn’t immediately clear why.
“That’s our concern, that’s why I’m here today, that’s why I’m asking for this help,” he said.
Martin and French sought to reassure people that any samples would be used only to help identify fire victims and would not be entered into any law enforcement databases or used for any other purpose. People will not be not asked about their immigration status or citizenship, they said.
“What we want to do — all we want to do — is help people locate and identify their unaccounted-for loved ones,” Martin said.
Perhaps the sad explanation is that there is nobody left in those families to donate.
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“Error [by a government official] compounded upon error [by another government official/s] has compounded the disaster in Maui. I noted that a water board official did not release resources for 5 hours in homage and reverence to equity.”
And the good news for ALL of these government officials – they all have personal immunity, with paychecks and pensions all remaining in tip-top status.
Understand that Hawaii is Blue as they come. A study of intelligence by state ranked Hawaii dead last. I be they are hiring Affirmative, Peter Principle from the start.
Some absolute piece of shit downvoted you. As if your statement wasn’t 100% correct.
1) Nobody will kill ya quite like the government will kill ya. It’ll be interesting to see who ends up owning that land.
2) Why do people obey? If you stay, you’ll die. Just run them over, or destroy the barricades, or commit violence on those that would kill you so that you might survive.
3) People who obey stupid stuff are just as guilty as the evil ones demanding obedience. You can’t have a long line of burned people in cars if the cars in the front don’t obey.
Those people were in a panic. I will not judge them..
TY Leslie..
I would like to believe that people in charge will learn from this, and make changes.. but I am not holding my breath.
There is a lot more to this tragedy.. We are just scratching the surface.
The people in charge will learn nothing. They have been told and shown for years that the land management practices they embrace of never cutting anything ever because it’s natural will inevitable lead to devastating fires. They do not care about people. They worship nature and all bad outcomes are because of Climate Change which is the fault of people. They are out talking about climate change when there was nothing exceptional about the current weather conditions. It was the massive pile of fuel and poor maintenance of power lines.
The people there may have actively fought the tree trimming around the powerlines. The management of the power company may not push back because not trimming saves money. Have to keep your O&M low. Both of those are common things that happen. They do it everywhere.
The management of the power company may not push back because not trimming saves money.
The management of the power company may have had their hands tied. They have finite resources and manpower, and much of it was going to further “green” energy initiatives, per a government mandate.
The company had seen the reports on the forests and certainly knew of the danger. I would venture they had a lot of workers (some of whom likely lived in or near Lahaina) willing and able to do the maintenance on and around the lines, and a lot of managers willing to send them out. But a government mandate takes priority, every time.
The mandate says “You must”, which relegates maintenance to “You should … when you have time.” The company ran out of time.
The people in charge will build stronger barricades so that NO ONE escapes.
It’s an interesting point on land ownership. While there is fee simple ownership (fee hold) just like we have in the continental US there is also a large amount of leasehold property. There are (were?) multiple properties with condominium complex sitting on them which are leasehold.
Prior to his passing last year my Brother lived in Lahaina for over 25 years working as a real estate agent and commercial property manager. He had pointed out to me that several of the leasehold were coming to the end of their term. The families that actually own the land these condominiums sit on had seen their grandparents/great grandparents grant the lease hold for peanuts many decades ago.
These condo complexes are worth tens of $ millions but don’t own the land they are built on and the families that own it, who had been rebuffed at every request to renegotiate the leasehold terms, were in essence going to build the ‘back payments’ they felt due into any new lease hold agreement. The condo complexes have little choice but to pay; the alternative is to either walk away or tear down the complex and return the property to the
condition prior to the leasehold being granted.
I have no idea how the fires and the property loss would impact insurance payments under those circumstances; some of the lease holds expire next year and more to follow within five years.
Good to know.
Could be coincidence, or could be something else. Either way, very interesting information.
Thank you for that.
When do we start passing out charges for criminally negligent and depraved indifference homicide?
In fact, if you told me that they intentionally conspired to kill the townsfolk, I’m give you an honest hearing at this point.
We don’t. The ones responsible for the barricade and the deaths will simply state that they were acting under the “authority of the state” in and “emergency situation” and as such they cannot be held individually responsible for the deaths that occurred from barricading the road. And that will be that.
Having said that please understand that I’d string up those responsible for barricading the only road out of town to safety. But that just ain’t gonna happen. Guaranteed.
Had I lost a loved one the thugs enforcing the barricade would have accidents in the future.
Ashli Babbitt deserves justice, so does Pelosi.
I have been reading about this, but one thing I have not seen (and maybe I missed it) us WHY the road was barricaded. For example, if there were live downed power lines that couldn’t be removed, that seems like a good reason to send people another direction. Any idea?
Yes. There were downed lines beyond it, so the barricades were put up. Then there was a holocaust behind it, but the barricades were not taken down. Downed lines might get a few careless people, but the fire would get them all.
What Lucifer said. None of the officials in charge will be prosecuted, for depraved indifference or anything else.
And even if they were, “qualified immunity” and “absolute immunity” (and DEI policies) will reign.
It appears 1 out of 8 may have died in the fire, and the number would have been much higher except many leave the town for work during the day.
Global Warming killed all those people on Maui!
Global Warming blocked the roads.
Global Warming turned off the water.
Global Warming silenced the sirens.
Damn that Global Warming!
Regarding the downvote, was that a sarcasm detection fail, or a tree hugger who actually believes?
Nope. Probably just the Down Vote Trolls that will down vote everything or anything they see as a matter of course. And if you don’t believe me take note, you got a down vote for your benign comment.
What we need around here is a way to see who Up Votes and who Down Votes comments by user name to eliminate the anonymous up/down vote system that is in place here. Would certainly help with the down vote trolls.
Amen to that. I’m thinking F*cebook- or Disqus-style, where if you hover your mouse over the thumbs-up or thumbs-down count it pops up who voted that way.
We know it can be done (obviously, since other sites and comment systems do it). I’d just like to see it here, too.
And you DO already have to be logged in to click the upvote/downvote buttons.
So, here’s a question (riffing off the information about kids being sent home):
Why would a public school, given state and national level building codes specifically concerning schools, send the children from what should be a relatively safe location out into an area being swept by fire?
I’m not an architect, but I am a little familiar with some building code for schools that seems prevalent across the country. Generally they’re very fire resistant, designed to prevent the spread of fire within the building and built with heavily fire resistant materials. There’s fire extinguishers everywhere (I know, not much good against a conflagration).
And, somehow, if those schools were built more than 50 years ago, they have civil defense shelters built into them, don’t they? I mean Hawaii is a major target for attack, given the military presence there. Wouldn’t those shelters protect against a forest fire? They were supposed to protect against a nuclear firestorm.
So, another angle that needs to be investigated: WHY were children sent out into a danger area instead of being kept safe in a secure location? Were those people idiots or were those locations unsafe?
A yes answer to either question means people need to be sent away for a long time and rules changed.
That should have been standalone…….
They have edit buttons too, and we won’t be getting those, either.
When DEI nonsense is elevated above all other criteria in the hiring process, the results can be deadly and will be more often in the future. To those asking about consequences, there won’t be any.
I was on a flight recently and the preflight video bragged about DEI. I did not get the warm and fuzzies.
Whatever do you mean? DEI is how we got Kamala Harris, the Best Vice President of the United States EVAR!!!
[/sarcasm] (since for some reason, even obvious sarcasm is missed in comments today)
I have an idea. Lets divide the country in half…give the bad half to conservatives and the cherry portion to liberals.
Revisit the segregated areas in 50 years and compare notes.
Why not? It worked in the past.
Do we get to choose where we live or like the North Koreans and East Germans do we get trapped when the wall goes up?
Could work. Set a target date then folks ‘behind the lines’ could go online, search for a destination and someone to swap homes with who was going in the other direction. Or they could stay put as many expats living overseas do now.
That crap never works with locusts. You have no way to make them stay put.
Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin, who is running the center, said that the number of family members coming in to provide DNA samples is “a lot lower” than in other major disasters around the country, though it wasn’t immediately clear why.
Maybe because they don’t trust the government?
Don’t trust the government to not misuse the DNA samples to fingerprint as many of the citizens of Hawaii as possible. Because any DNA fingerprints generated from family members providing DNA samples will inevitably end up in some online law enforcement DNA fingerprint database to be accessed by any U.S. law enforcement agency without the person’s knowledge or permission.
Lots of people who used “23-and-me” type services got a rude awakening when their DNA profile was scraped by the government and used to convict family members of unsolved crimes.
Kind of hard to get DNA samples when the entire family perished.
When they do get to a final count of 1100+, I expect that at least 900+ will be covid positive as the true cause of death, and their pulmonary condition impeded their ability to escape, yeah, that’s the ticket.
The 1,000 missing are mostly children, sent home from school
No way out, no warning sounds, parents at work
Fried to a crisp, never to be found
Think about that.
Have a friend from Hawaii that told me this on day 2
Yet Biden, sat on a beach and did nothing and said nothing
Then when he made his 6 hour trip he spoke about himself and his loses and fell asleep
Is there any reporting of that, gonzo? Anything at all?
There is lots of reporting about the kids being sent home because of the fire.
The stories conclude that many victims were those children and elderly relatives who were watching them. Many probably were just home alone as the parents mostly both have to work (cleaning hotels and condos, food servers, hospitality workers in hourly wage jobs).
Yeah unfortunately there is. Well over a thousand people still missing and that figure almost certainly is limited to residents and known guests of hotels.
It wouldn’t necessarily include tourists or others who had the misfortune to get stuck in Lahaina. Nor would it likely include most or maybe any ‘off the books’ short term rentals being conducted without a permit/business licence and on the down low to hide it from an HoA or the local tax/regulatory body.
The barricade bit needs to be investigated. Why did that barricade receive priority over the evacuation?
It’s just all so senseless. Go read Ace’s post yesterday on rules-following bureaucracy (and he links and embeds another blogger writing about it).
Second-stage failure. That’s where most processes that look good on the surface break down.
First stage: High winds knocked down power lines. Police block off area due to obvious danger.
Second stage: Fires caused by the power lines begin to spread. Idiot in charge of water cuts off the fire fighters. Fire goes out of control and the police were *not* told to move the barricade to allow trapped citizens in greater danger from the fire to go into the lesser danger of downed lines.
So the cops and firefighters were doing their jobs well, right up to the point where idiots above their heads failed.
This fustercluck of malfeasance is nothing short of manslaughter at scale or outright mass murder. In a just world, those politicos who failed spectacularly at public safety should go to prison or be executed.*
But since this is the age of no one will held responsible EVUH for anything in politics, a sternly worded letter from some alphabet agency will be forthcoming.
Hey, howboutdat Trump on X ladt night. Football season, too! Go Ukraine.
*after a fair trial, of course.
Justice must be done, and it must be seen to be done. We have gone without too long. Almost to the point of no return: either start very soon or it’s gone forever. See the tens of millions starved to death by Stalin and Mao. Justice was long gone from their world too.
The state of Hawaii blocked the fire exits it seems. (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, anyone? Look it up).
But what are the odds that the incident commander of the Las Vegas PD during the 2017 shooting was in charge of blocking the exits in Maui?
Tin Foil Hat has been batting 1.000 over the past three years.
“But what are the odds that the incident commander of the Las Vegas PD.”
The Vegas massacre was a James Ellroy book made real.. … the chief of police literally disappearing for a period of 12-20 hours? So many weird things.
It doesn’t require a tin foil hat.
https://twitter.com/HarrisonKrank/status/1691133866570928136
This video shows wind-driven embers setting fire to roadside scrub grass.
It also show the homeowner with garden hose- watch closely 17 seconds to 19 seconds lower left edge of video. (splashing water)
This is Deep State ineptitude at its worst
Common, Dumb-o-crat apparatchiks’ ineptitude. This applies to municipal, state and federal apparatchiks.
So, here’s a question (riffing off the information about kids being sent home):
Why would a public school, given state and national level building codes specifically concerning schools, send the children from what should be a relatively safe location out into an area being swept by fire?
I’m not an architect, but I am a little familiar with some building code for schools that seems prevalent across the country. Generally they’re very fire resistant, designed to prevent the spread of fire within the building and built with heavily fire resistant materials. There’s fire extinguishers everywhere (I know, not much good against a conflagration).
And, somehow, if those schools were built more than 50 years ago, they have civil defense shelters built into them, don’t they? I mean Hawaii is a major target for attack, given the military presence there. Wouldn’t those shelters protect against a forest fire? They were supposed to protect against a nuclear firestorm.
So, another angle that needs to be investigated: WHY were children sent out into a danger area instead of being kept safe in a secure location? Were those people idiots or were those locations unsafe?
A yes answer to either question means people need to be sent away for a long time and rules changed.
I don’t know about Hawaii. The default position for my school during almost any serious issue is to get the kids home while ensuring they have an adult care giver for the little ones.
Of course, we don’t have wildfires.
The little ones are “our charges to shelter from their evil unwoke parents” until real shit hits the fan, and then it’s “get them back home fast and make them not our problem.”
Maui to Biden: “Hey, Joe. How would you like a nice Hawaiian Punch?”
A wild fire behind me and a barricade. Hope your bulletproof because I am leaving
Gross negligence, incompetence and stupidity are the vile Dumb-o-crats’ perennial and predictable calling cards.
Dumb-o-crat officials in Hawaii should be prosecuted and jailed over this.
And, while I sympathize with the victims in Hawaii, one can fairly presume that all of them, or, 99.99% of them, enthusiastically voted for the very Dumb-o-crats whose incompetence, stupidity and callousness led to their demise.
Let’s see if anything changes politically in Hawaii, after this appalling display of criminal negligence by Dumb-0-crat officials. I doubt it.
“Only those who disobeyed survived.”
We’re reading America’s epitaph, unless enough people take it to heart.
Maui Police Blocked Escape Routed as told by FISH from Front Street Found ALIVE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jVDTfp7gFc
So this guy told people to get out of their cars and walk past the barricade or they would die, and they told him no, we were told to evacuate by car.
Democrat Darwin Awards all.
Why blocked? That’s sick!