Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, United States
#00262
FailedCity
Case study of
#00319 Use redundant wildfire alerts across multiple channels
Implementer
Maui County and Hawaii emergency-management agencies
Timeline
Since Aug 8, 2023
Location
Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, United States20.8783, -156.6825
Description
During the 2023 Lahaina fire, the emergency alert system failed to deliver timely, redundant warnings under extreme wind-driven conditions. Outdoor warning sirens were not activated; power and telecommunications outages disabled mobile-based alerts; and there was no fallback channel that could operate independently of grid infrastructure. The failure was systemic: alert, evacuation, water, and incident-command functions collapsed together rather than failing gracefully.
Lessons learned
- Outdoor sirens and any broadcast fallback must be operable on battery or generator backup, because the Lahaina event showed that grid and cellular failure simultaneously silenced all primary alert channels.
- Alert, evacuation, water supply, and incident-command systems must be stress-tested as one interacting system, not independently — cascading failure across all four channels was the proximate cause of inadequate warning.
Sources
2Documented Jul 30, 2026