MAUI Emergency Management Agency administrator Herman Andaya filed an immediate resignation due to “health reasons”, nine days after the deadliest wildfire in modern US history burned Maui.
His resignation comes a day after defending the agency’s failure to activate its alarm system during the devastating wildfires that started last week.
Amid fierce criticisms and questions as to why the emergency sirens were not activated, Andaya said the sirens are mainly used to warn people about tsunamis which automatically means residents should seek for higher ground.
In this case, the embattled administrator said the agency was afraid the people would have gone “Mauka,” a Hawaiian word for mountainside, which meant residents could have panicked and moved to areas where fires were burning.
When asked whether he regretted not activating the emergency sirens as the wildfires spread across West Maui, Andaya said he does not.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said they will find a replacement as soon as possible due to the gravity of the crisis.
Hawaii owns the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world which was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 people.
Its website says they may be used to alert for fires.
Hawaii’s official government website however said the sirens may be used to alert for fires.
President Joe Biden vowed to visit Maui next week after receiving massive backlash over his controversial “no comment” response regarding the rising death toll on the Hawaiian island.
A Whitehouse correspondent asked the question a few hours after he spent relaxing at a popular beach resort destination in Delaware.
