The people of Maui have been through a disaster of biblical proportions as wildfires swept the area earlier this month, leaving a path of destruction so vast that it left hundreds of people dead, thousands missing, and even more without homes. To make matters worse, it appears that an incompetent government may have actually added to the misery they have experienced. Somehow, that always seems to be the case, doesn’t it?
Both PJ Media’s Lincoln Brown and The Blaze reported that left-wing politics may have played a part in setting Maui up to burn to ashes, along with the delayed distribution of water the area needed badly. Guys, this is going to make you absolutely livid, so, if you have high blood pressure, you might want to do a little deep breathing and meditation before continuing on because this is horrendous.
The reports state that Herman Andaya, the administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency — who has since stepped down from his post — did not trust the public to react in a civilized, orderly manner, so he opted to not sound the alarm as the wildfires began to decimate the city of Lahaina. It doesn’t matter how you might think people will react; sound the alarm. That was literally his main job. His failure to execute his job duties is responsible for some of the loss of life that occurred during this tragedy.
It actually gets worse from here. Other officials for the city had been warned for years now that Lahaina is a high risk for wildfires, but they did nothing to work on implementing some sort of system that would help prevent such a disaster, including a lack of practiced escape plans and no early evacuations.
The Blaze goes on to point out that a large portion of the survivors were individuals who ignored orders issued by the government and state authorities. One mother who put her trust in those authorities to help the citizens of Lahaina has learned the hard way that her belief in the rightness of the government’s orders was misplaced.
Here’s more from a CBS report:
Luz Vargas ran a cleaning service in Lahaina and was working the day her town was reduced to ash and ruin. Her adopted son, Keyiro Fuentes, who would have turned 15 on Sunday, was five miles away at home, enjoying the last day of his summer vacation.
CBS News reported that when Vargas and her husband, Andres, learned about the threat of the fires, they jumped in the car and desperately tried to race home to their son.
Vargas told the media that she was told not to go and responded by only uttering two words: “My son.” She was in a race against time to reach her boy but encountered severe gridlock. They decided to leave the vehicle and try to get there on foot. Unfortunately, they were stopped by yet another obstacle in the form of a police barricade.
Related: State-Level Incompetence Made the Maui Fires Possible
National Public Radio reported that local law enforcement officers were preventing people from going back toward where the fires were raging.
“I told them my son is still in our house. I said he’s at this house on this street,” Vargas recounted in the conversation she had with CBS News, pointing out there was a language barrier making things even more difficult.
Vargas then revealed she managed to get by police, her flip-flops melting from the intensity of the heat, where a man on a motorcycle took her toward the fires where her son was located. However, when she attempted to enter the fire zone, she was stopped by first responders who told her they had already cleared the area and there was no one left, encouraging her to “have faith” that her son had escaped the blaze.
She and her husband, having been assured that the boy had escaped from the area, waited for him to show up at Honokowai Beach, regularly checking with authorities to see if he had arrived while also calling around the area. Two days later, Vargas made her way home, where she found out the area had, in fact, not been cleared, and one person remained.
Vargas found her son’s body in his bedroom, his arms wrapped around his dog. It just does not get more tragic than this. What’s to blame for her loss? Government ineptness. It’s infuriating.
“He was not as I expected, in ashes. God maintained him like this. So we knew it was him,” Vargas stated, revealing she prayed over her dead son’s body, “Please God, hold him for me.”
The child’s body was wrapped up in a blanket and carried half a mile to a police station. The victim’s brother, Josue, who also spoke with CBS News, said, “He was too young. If we still had time, I know he would have been a very, very, very good man.”
A report by the Associated Press revealed that the same barricades that slowed down Vargas also caused other residents of the area to actually lose their lives in the fires that tore their community apart.
West Maui residents attempting to flee the fires attempted to exit via the only paved road out of town, but authorities had reportedly set up a barricade, barring access to Highway 30. As a result, numerous cars were sent back into the flames, resulting in a number of people perishing in their vehicles.
Those who disregarded the barricade managed to survive, including one family who ignored the barricade and drove around it. Having ignored the instruction of authorities, the family ended up safe and secure in a nearby town 48 minutes later, reported the Associated Press.
Much of the loss of life could have been prevented had the alarm been sounded and proper precautions taken long before the wildfires broke out. Authorities knew it was a big risk for their town, yet they did nothing to ensure the safety of residents. There needs to be consequences for this level of incompetence.
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