Had we sounded the siren that night, we were afraid people would have gone into the fire. now the mayor of maui put out a statement saying, given the gravity of the crisis, my team and i will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and i look forward to that announcement soon. people did, they wanted answers as to why there was no response during the fire, why the sirens did not go off, why alerts did not happen. this being loos like this is the beginning of what may occur and may be more fallout soon. president biden was asked about his trip to hawaii and here is what he said to a reporter yesterday. tell us about your hawaii trip, sir? no issue not now, i will be
The sirens? i do not. reporter: sirens are typically associated with tsunamis, though one has not severely damage, white and 63 years and they have been on average every 12. wildfires, storms, volcanoes and mudslides according to he fema pose a bigger threat. we are performing a comprehensive review to find out what the safest and most effective way is to protect people. reporter: that man who said he had no regrets about not wanting people, well, he resigned. the point is it is clear the siren is a 23 people are not going to run uphill into a raging fire. the other thing, you know, lahaina on tuesday at 3:00 p.m., half the people are tourists. they don t know the escape routes. many of them are unaccounted for and some are presumed dead.
Week and a half ago as the fires raged on lahaina, the historic town. let s listen to what the chief said just two days ago defending the fact that he did not have those sirens put into place. the sirens i mentioned earlier is used primarily for sue nam east. i had sounded the siren that night we were afraid people would have gone to the mountain. if that was the case they would have gone into the fire. you look at some of this drone video from lahaina, the historic town used to be 12,000 people. you see the cars that are burned out and the sea wall there. many of the people that escaped got out of those vehicles, jumped the sea wall and ended up in the pacific ocean waiting upwards for 6 and 7 hours inhaling the smoke. others unfortunately died right
Maui's disaster alert sirens did not sound during the recent wildfire criticism from citizens about the decision prompted a statement from Maui authorities.
it s our practice to use the most effective means of conveying, an emerging message to the public. and while that may have worked in some cases, the wildfire move so swiftly, it knocked out power and cell service. so, how are residents supposed to receive those warnings? there was no warning at all. there s not a, not a siren, not a alert, nothing. not a call. and anderson, hawaii has had issues with its warning system before. in 2018 actually, a cell phone alert mistakenly went out, warning of an incoming missile attack. of course, you can imagine that caused widespread panic among residents across the hawaiian islands. and then in 1960, this has been going on for decades. in 1960, there was actually a tsunami that hit an area known as hilo, hawaii. and, people there didn t know what the warning siren meant. they didn t know what to do, so instead of running up into the
Knocked out power and cell service, so how were residents supposed to receive those warnings? there s no warning at all. there s not a siren, a phone alert, nothing, not a call. reporter: randi kaye, cnn. critically important reporting and so many unanswered questions this morning. and recognition this is going to take so much time in the recovery for the families themselves but also trying to figure out what went wrong and why. so it doesn t happen like this again. randi, thank you for that. special counsel jack smith wants trump s trial to start next years. trump s lawyers want it to start in 2026. trump suddenly canceled a news conference where he claimed he was going to produce evidence of nonexistent fraud. new reporting behind that change of plans is coming up. , news si. then i went to experian. now i can see them in one place.
Lot of people were indoors, air conditioning on, they re not going to hear a siren. plus, the winds were very gusty and everything. i heard it was very loud. and so they wouldn t have heard the sirens. reporter: the same story with hawaii s governor. first this sirens were typically used for tsunamis or hurricanes. to my knowledge, at least i never experienced them in use for fires. reporter: minutes later, another explanation. this time the governor suggested at least some of the sirens were broken. the sirens were essentially immobilized, we believe we believe by the extreme heat that came through. some were broken and we re investigating that. reporter: yet that doesn t all track with the county s own webpage, mauisirens.com which clearly states how the siren system is capable of alerting residents to multiple disasters including wildfires. emergency alert.
That s going to help weaken it as it approaches southern california if it stays offshore, more coastal impacts. it moves inland, it gets shredded apart and we focus on the flash flooding for the interior southwest. so so many components here. we will keep on track of it. thank you. also this breaking overnight. the administrator of maui s emergency management agency has resigned a day after defending his decision not to sound the island s siren system as the fast moving wildfires fred through maui. do you regret not sounding the sirens. i do not. the sirens, as you mentioned earlier, is used primarily for tsunamis. had we sounded the siren that night, we are afraid people would have gone they would have gone into the fire. that was herman andaya. he cited health reasons for his departure. he has come under a lot of scrutiny after last week s
Because, according to mauisirens. com, part of that is wildfires. and of course everyone is going to know that an emergency is happening if that siren is was sounded. i know you have been affected by this firsthand. right now, it looks quiet at your house, but you have 23 family members staying with you. that means there are 32 total people in your house right now. can you just what is your day today even like at the moment? right now, it still feels like it still feels surreal that i can t imagine that this has happened. my house is full. and my heart is full. all the community is coming together, helping each other out. and i am just happy that we have each other, and we are safe, unharmed, and reunited. one of my cousins after we finally seen her in
There s not a siren, not a phone alert, nothing, not a call. reporter: and hawaii has had problems in the past with its alert system. in fact, in 2018 a cell phone alert mistaken lly alerted residents of a missile attack. that was a false alarm. in 1960, this has been going on for quite some time, after a tsunami hit the area of hilo, residents didn t even know what the alarm meant. they didn t know what to do. instead of going up into the mountainside for safety, they ran toward the ocean and 61 people died. poppy, phil? randi kaye, great reporting. thanks so much. we also have new exclusive cnn reporting about pro-trump lawyer kenneth chesebro and his whereabouts on january 6 during the insurrection. he was the alleged architect behind the plan to submit a