The island of Maui, especially urbanized areas, should have had sirens going at the top of their volume range when the red-flag alerts were raised several days ago.

This would have allowed residents and visitors to assess what steps needed to be taken immediately, instead of waiting for the actual fire and smoke to take over.

Also, any time there is a hurricane visible on the weather radar for Hawaii, the governor’s office should be open to enable or trigger a siren warning for all affected areas immediately.

Jay Pineda

Waikiki

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