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Maui’s mayor ‘not sure’ who was in charge at emergency management center as Lahaina burned
Hawaii News Now ^ | August 29, 2023 | By Allyson Blair

Posted on 08/30/2023 3:54:00 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

HONOLULU - Three weeks after a wall of fire claimed at least 115 lives and turned historic Lahaina to ash, Maui County’s highest-ranking official said he didn’t know who was calling the shots at the county’s Emergency Management Center the day the town burned.

“I’m not sure who was in charge. (Former Maui Emergency Management Administrator) Herman Andaya was still in charge. He just wasn’t present. He was in contact with his team. I guess by phone. I don’t know exactly how,” Bissen said, during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

When questioned about his whereabouts that day, Bissen said he attended a virtual meeting with other state and county leaders that morning to discuss the multiple brush fires that had broken out on Hawaii Island and Maui. But he wouldn’t tell reporters where he was the rest of the day.

“I don’t have that. I don’t have that for you,” he said.

He also couldn’t explain why the head of Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency, Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, wasn’t notified anyone had died until the following day. “I don’t know who spoke to General Hara,” Bissen said. “That’s my answer to your question.”

A reporter then asked Hara: “We don’t know how many people maybe died waiting for a response. You don’t think there was anything your agency could have done?”

Hara responded: “Personally, I don’t think so.”

For weeks Hawaii News Now Now has been asking questions on who was in charge of Maui's Emergency Command Center the night of the deadly fire.

(Excerpt) Read more at hawaiinewsnow.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: bloodytheirhands; duhimthemayorduh; fire; hawaii; hermanandaya; idunno; lahaina; maui; stupidliberals
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To: OttawaFreeper

“George Bush hates black people.”


21 posted on 08/30/2023 4:31:52 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: Recompennation

Benghazi wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t bomb Libya and sent it into an over decade long civil war.
There’s open slave markets in Libya now. Clearly we have the moral high ground.

Why did we bomb Libya?


22 posted on 08/30/2023 4:33:52 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: Liz

23 posted on 08/30/2023 4:36:51 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

A thousand. They are still downplaying the carnage by a factor of at least ten.


24 posted on 08/30/2023 4:39:30 AM PDT by dangus
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The Mayor is the leader 24/7.
Time to defund that gubmint and send everyone home


25 posted on 08/30/2023 4:42:33 AM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

An “accident” is one thing but “criminal negligence” is quite another. If ever a situation called out for “accountability”, 1,000 INCINERATED people including women and children does.

All these clowns who were nowhere to be found when the fire was raging should be prosecuted.


26 posted on 08/30/2023 4:51:15 AM PDT by Cen-Tejas
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

27 posted on 08/30/2023 4:52:20 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Welcome to the island of Uvalde


28 posted on 08/30/2023 4:54:30 AM PDT by Pollard (The US government has US citizens as political prisoners!)
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To: All

Hawaii Governor Josh Green, MD, and Maui Mayor Richard Bissen.

Gov Green said sirens werent activated b/c residents reaction would be to "expect a tsunami" and would have run in the wrong direction into the fire, suggesting Mauians are too stupid to distinguish a fire from a tsunami.

29 posted on 08/30/2023 4:57:45 AM PDT by Liz (More tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered ones. St Teresa of Avila)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Much of Hawaii wants to be its own sovereignty. Let them.

When I lived there, everybody I met SAID they didn’t vote for statehood, yet it’s a state. Ditto for when I live in Alaska.

Seems that nobody voted for statehood. /s


30 posted on 08/30/2023 4:58:05 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: dfwgator

“Sheit, I thought your head would be bigger…”


31 posted on 08/30/2023 4:58:51 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: Liz

I will grant that one point. The population wouldn’t have expected a fire if the sirens had gone off. Still everything else about their responses was simply a show of incompetence!!


32 posted on 08/30/2023 5:03:28 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (A horrible historic indictment: Biden Democrats plunging the world into war to hide their crimes!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“I don’t have that for you.”

So the guy doesn’t know where he was while 1,000 of his citizens were being burned to death by his incompetent underlings?


33 posted on 08/30/2023 5:08:48 AM PDT by dangus
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Tragic, but politically pointless.

All of the survivors will still vote a straight Democratic Party ballot in the next election.

Actually, quite a few of the dead residents will vote a straight Democratic ballot, too.


34 posted on 08/30/2023 5:09:02 AM PDT by zeestephen (Trump "Lost" By 43,000 Votes - Spread Across Three States - GA, WI, AZ)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The citizens involved here are taking the deadly incompetence and flippant answers weirdly calmly.


35 posted on 08/30/2023 5:11:47 AM PDT by TalBlack (We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: OttawaFreeper

That will be a challenge in midnight blue Hawaii. US legislators are Ds, as is the governor. Out of 76 state legislators, there are a total of 8 Republicans. Hawaii is effectively a micro California.

What will it take for the voters to notice how incompetent their public servants are?


36 posted on 08/30/2023 5:11:58 AM PDT by skr (Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: skr

There is an intense need to place blame.

It can be argued there is no one to blame. Shit Happens


37 posted on 08/30/2023 5:13:25 AM PDT by bert ( (KWE. NP. N.C. +12) Joe Biden is a kleptocrat)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Everyone needs to know who is in charge in emergency situations. Hawaii isn’t the only place where this happens.
I’ve known people involved in search and rescue who had to leave because chain of command hadn’t been decided. People die because nobody knows if local fire, police, county or state authority is giving orders.
Thankfully the state of Pennsylvania made chain of command by state law. It seems some other states haven’t done that yet.


38 posted on 08/30/2023 5:14:19 AM PDT by Varda
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To: skr

“What will it take for the voters to notice how incompetent their public servants are?”

They probably already know, but once democrats are in control they use all their power to stay there. There is no lie they won’t tell or law they won’t break to achieve or maintain their grip on power.


39 posted on 08/30/2023 5:18:06 AM PDT by Rlsau1
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To: FlingWingFlyer

This whole “blame it on climate change” isnt holding up very well in Hawaii


40 posted on 08/30/2023 5:22:03 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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