HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The whereabouts of the Maui County Emergency Manager are still unknown on the night of the Lahaina wildfires.
Maui County Emergency Management Director Herman Andaya addressed the media for the first time on Tuesday after significantly missing all press conferences for a week.
During the Q&A session, he admitted he wasn’t in Maui last Tuesday.
“I was at a conference on Oahu,” he said.
According to the documents, Andaya was attending a scheduled three-day FEMA disaster preparedness seminar, the Pacific Partnership Meeting, at the Alohilani Resort in Waikiki. Receipts from the hotel show Andaya checked in last Monday, the day before the fire broke out. The same receipt lists a departure date of August 9, the day after the Lahaina fires.
Special Section: maui wildfires
What is unclear are the details of exactly when Andaya left Oahu and returned to Maui, and how much administrators knew in the early stages of the disaster response.
Each media outlet is limited to one question at a press conference, so it was not possible to get an answer on Wednesday.
The FEMA meeting began at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday after fires broke out in Kula and Lahaina, according to the Pacific Partnership Agenda.
Other county officials also confirmed that the seminar went ahead as planned that day.
Scheduled for Tuesday, the day ended with a networking reception at the hotel’s Longboard Club from 5pm to 7pm.
It was the same time Lahaina was engulfed in flames.
HNN investigators are still trying to ascertain whether Andaya attended the press conference alone or was accompanied by other emergency personnel from the firm.
HNN is also trying to trace who was at the scene from the state emergency management agency.
On Monday night, HNN Investigates submitted a public information request to FEMA for a complete list of participants. We have also sent similar requests to Maui County and the State Emergency Management Agency. I haven’t received a reply from anyone yet.
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