Maui suing cellphone carriers over alerts it says people never got about deadly wildfires

  • 📰 CBSNews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 19 sec. here
  • 4 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 18%
  • Publisher: 68%

Hawaii Wildfires News

Maui,Wildfires

A lawsuit says if emergency responders had known about widespread cellphone outages during the deadly Maui wildfires, they would've used other methods to warn about the disaster.

Honolulu — Had emergency responders known about widespread cellphone outages during the height of last summer's deadly Maui wildfires, they would've used other methods to warn about the disaster, county officials said in a lawsuit.Alerts the county sent to cellphones warning people to immediately evacuate were never received, unbeknownst to the county, the lawsuit said. Maui officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames.

wildfire in more than a century ripped through the historic town of Lahaina and killed 101 people. Maui County is a defendant in multiple lawsuits over its emergency response during the fires. The county is also suing the Hawaiian Electric Company, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.

Maui Wildfires

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 87. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without alerts amid Maui fireA report from the Hawaii Attorney General describes a breakdown in communication between police responders, firefighters and emergency officials after cellular networks went down.
Source: adndotcom - 🏆 293. / 63 Read more »

Report: Communications breakdown exacerbated Maui fire’s impactMany of the factors that contributed to the disaster are already known: A windstorm battering the island had downed power lines and blown off parts of rooftops, and debris blocked roads throughout …
Source: mercnews - 🏆 88. / 68 Read more »

A new report on the Maui wildfires cites communications breakdownsAs wildfires ripped across Maui last August, a broad communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without emergency alerts, according to a report released Wednesday.
Source: NPR - 🏆 96. / 63 Read more »

Poor communication stymied Maui's response to deadly wildfires, mayor says in state attorney general reportLewis Kamb is a national FOIA reporter for NBC News, based in Seattle.
Source: NBCNewsHealth - 🏆 707. / 51 Read more »

Communications breakdown left authorities in dark, residents without alerts amid Maui fireA communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without emergency alerts during the Maui wildfires, according to a report.
Source: wsyx6 - 🏆 444. / 53 Read more »

Hawaii officials release probe results on deadly Maui wildfiresThe report lays out the timeline of the fire that started on Aug. 8, 2023, and the factors that made it so deadly.
Source: 10News - 🏆 732. / 50 Read more »