HONOLULU– Had emergency responders been aware of widespread cellphone outages during the height of Maui’s deadly wildfires last summer, they would have used other methods to warn of the disaster, county officials said in a lawsuit.
Alerts the county sent to cellphones warning people to evacuate immediately 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. That has raised questions about whether everything has been done to warn the public in a state that has an extensive emergency warning system for a variety of hazards, including wars, volcanoes, hurricanes and forest fires.
Major wireless carriers were negligent in failing to properly notify Maui police of widespread service outages, county officials said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court against Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Spectrum Mobile and AT&T.
A representative for Spectrum declined to comment Thursday, and the other carriers did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
A flood of lawsuits has emerged since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century destroyed the historic town of Lahaina, killing 101 people.
Maui County is a defendant in several lawsuits over emergency response during the fires. The county is also suing the Hawaiian Electric Company, alleging the utility negligently failed to turn off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.
In Maui’s latest legal action, attorneys for the county say if the county is found liable for damages, the wireless carriers’ conduct “substantially contributed to the damages” against the county.
“On August 8 and 9, 2023, as the province’s courageous first responders battled fires across the island and worked to provide first aid and get individuals to safety, the province alerted those in the area of danger by through numerous alerts and alerts, including via direct text messages to individual cell phones,” the lawsuit states.
The county sent at least 14 warning messages to cellphones warning residents to evacuate, the lawsuit said. The county later discovered that all 21 cell towers serving West Maui, including the one in Lahaina, were total failures.
“As of the date of this filing, the wireless carriers have still not reported to the province the true size and scope of the disruptions to mobile service on August 8 and 9, 2023, as they are required to do under federal law” , the spokesperson said. lawsuit said. “Had cell carriers accurately reported the complete and widespread failure of dozens of cell sites across the island to the province, as they were legally required to do, the province would have used different methods in its disaster response and alerts.”