West Maui’s sirens are used primarily for tsunamis, MEMA Administrator Herman Andaya said as questions about warnings before the deadly wildfire are raised.
Asked at a news conference whether he regretted not having sounded the sirens, Maui County Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya replied,"I do not."
Herman Andaya, the administrator of the Maui County Emergency Management Agency, speaks to the media in Maui, Hawaii, on Wednesday.“Had we sounded the siren that night, we were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Andaya said, using a word meaning"to the mountainside." “And if that’s the case, then they would have gone into the fire.
He said the agency’s protocol had been to use two other systems — Wireless Emergency Alert and the Emergency Alert System. They deal with text messages to phones, as well as messages through television and radio.
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