HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Maui Emergency Management Agency lamented its understaffed yet cramped emergency operations center, but didn’t tackle alert or evacuation issues, after a 2018 fire threatened Lahaina.
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That’s according to an “after action report and improvement plan” following the fires driven by Hurricane Lane that took a formal public information act filing to get the county to share.
It acknowledged that as the storm “neared the county, a large brush fire ignited and threatened Lahaina town,” but its review narrowed to the strengths and weaknesses of emergency operations response.
The report said more Emergency Operations Center staff is needed when disaster strikes. It also said MEMA needed a bigger EOC space with more plugs, speakers, printers, phones, wi-fi and better air conditioning.
It didn’t address using sirens, nor did it tackle the warning and evacuation logistics for Lahaina in case of a future fire.
As for issues outside the EOC, the report suggested lining up more shelters especially in West Maui and East Molokai. It said damage assessments were not coordinated between agencies, and also suggested creating a county position just for disaster recovery.
