Safety and Security: The Responders and the Rule of Law
THE LIFELINES SERIES · PART 6 OF 10
The Hook
On the afternoon of August 8, 2023, a wildland fire pushed by 60-mile-per-hour winds ran through the historic town of Lahaina, Maui. By the time the last ember cooled, 102 people were dead, thousands of structures were gone, and one of the most-studied disasters in modern American emergency management was beginning.
The after-action work is where this gets difficult. The Maui Police Department’s preliminary after-action report identified 32 actionable recommendations — later expanded to 35. The Maui Emergency Management Agency’s own report acknowledged that EOC staff had “little training” and “no prior experience” with activations, and a “limited understanding” of EOC functions. Sirens were not activated. Cellular alerts did not reach all residents. Responders were running into communication failures in exactly the wind conditions where radios most need to work. Public-facing decision authority was unclear at critical moments.
None of those findings is a Maui problem. They are a national problem. Lahaina is the case study that should force every jurisdiction in America to look honestly at the state of its own Safety and Security lifeline before the next bad day arrives.
