Tipsheet

We Need to Talk About the Hawaiian Official Who Delayed Releasing Water to Maui Victims

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  August 21, 2023 2:30 PM

The Maui wildfires were some of the most destructive in American history, one of the worst in a century, eclipsing the devastating Camp Fire that tore through California in 2018. Over 100 people were killed in the island blaze, with at least 1,000 more still missing. The likely cause of the disaster was damaged power lines caused by high winds from a hurricane off the coast. Yet, the disaster response was also a shambles. 

The alarm system was never triggered. Former Maui disaster chief Herman Andaya tried to explain that such a system might have caused people to flee into the mountains since it’s primarily used for tsunami warnings following earthquakes. Yet, he did Joe Biden a solid, defending his decisions by essentially saying that those who died wouldn’t have been saved anyway. 


Andaya resigned hours later. When Biden was vacationing on the Delaware shore while the blazed torched Maui, he was asked about the rising death toll, and he only said, “No comment,” which drew an intense backlash. The president is visiting the state today. 

Andaya wasn’t the only Hawaiian official who seemed painfully unqualified for his job. Enter Kaleo Manuel, a state water official who appears to be more concerned about water “equity” as the fire raged and people were burning alive (via Newsweek): 

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The August 10 letter to CWRM deputy director M. Kaleo Manuel describes the events and communication problems that resulted in a delay in diverting streams to fill reservoirs being made available to firefighters. The CWRM operates within the state of Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). 

The three-page document calls on Manuel to suspend all standard procedures and regulations in case of similar emergencies so that help can be provided immediately in the event of any further blazes. 

The company said "communications were spotty" and the commission's approval to divert water from the streams came too late, some five hours after their first request. 

"We watched the devastation around us without the ability to help," the company wrote in the letter to the commission. "We anxiously awaited the morning knowing that we could have made more water available to MFD if our request had been immediately approved."

[…] 

West Maui Land Co. said they cannot know "whether filling our reservoirs at 1:00 p.m. (as opposed to not at all) would have changed the headlines when dawn broke on our weary first responders and heartbroken community." 

But they added that what happened called for a quick reaction and the approval of a diversion of water resources during an emergency. 

"We are all devastated. No one is happy there was water in the streams while our homes, our businesses, our lands, and our lives were reduced to ash," the company wrote. 

Manuel has since come under fire on social media, where a resurfaced a clip shows him discussing protecting water resources in the region. 

"My motto has always been: let water connect us, not divide us," he says in the clip, adding that water should be looked at as something to be revered rather than just used. 

"We can share it, but it requires true conversations about equity," he adds. 

It sounds like we have another state official who needs to go. Hawaiian Electric, the state’s main energy provider, is also under fire for not shutting off power to lines subjected to these winds, a protocol proven to be a mitigating factor in preventing wildfires. The company has known this was an effective policy for years, having seen it demonstrated in California but never adopted it. Their utility trucks, which were removing downed power lines during the blaze, also blocked Maui residents' exit routes.