Photo: Sad site from Maui fire

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

One of the heartbreaking scenes from the Maui fires is the vast number of people who had no other option but to swim into the ocean and try to stay afloat in the smoke for hours on end.

Their story needs to be shared.

To make sure this doesn’t happen again we need to be honest on our mistakes.

Please read our recent article “No one bothered to turn on any of Maui’s 80 outdoor alarm sirens”

Also The Daily Mail reports the problem of government blocking help to citizens,“Hawaii wildfires: Government is slammed for ‘blocking’ supplies of medication like insulin and leaving residents to communicate by ‘coconut wireless’…Maui residents have criticized the federal response to devastating wildfires which have ruined parts of the Hawaiian island and claim that locals have been left to coordinate parts of the recovery themselves.Deliveries of supplies like medication have been held up by bureaucracy, while authorities have also failed to communicate with residents who have been displaced by the fire, it is claimed.”

NBC News reports a new criticism of the evacuation where utility drivers were blocking people’s ability to exit which resulted in people dying all in teh name of putting up new telephones that would soon be destroyed by the fire, “Three survivors of the deadly wildfires that ravaged Maui said Wednesday that when the inferno erupted, the main escape route out of town was partly blocked by Hawaiian Electric trucks clearing downed lines and replacing busted power poles.The result was “epic bumper-to-bumper traffic while we were trying to escape,” said resident Cole Millington, 26. “There were no police officers in sight. What there was were Hawaiian Electric trucks coming in with new telephone poles.“Instead of waiting for everybody to get out, they were blocking the only way out with their big trucks.” … . “You don’t want to be driving over live wires. But they were also starting to replace the poles while we were all trying to get out. We were like, get the f— off the road and let us get by.”Millington and Carroll, 27, said they and other drivers were yelling at the crews to get out of the way.“It made no sense what they were doing,” Millington said. “They could see the sky was black. They could see the city was on fire. They could see the wind was still whipping everything around. But they were already starting to plant new power poles.”

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