Qualifications for Running an Emergency Management Agency, FEMA Response, and Concerns About Depleted Funding and Upcoming Hurricanes

On this edition of Parallax Views, long-time Hawaii-based journalist Albert Lanier makes his return to Parallax Views to discuss the Maui wildfires that have ravaged Lahaina. The death toll is currently at 114 with 800 or more unaccounted for at the time of this episode's release. And that doesn't even get into the financial damages to Maui. Homes have been destroyed and lives displaced.

This raises the question: Could this tragedy have been, if not prevented, handled better? Could lives have been saved? Was the response to the Maui wildfires by the Maui Emergency Management and its then chief (now resigned) Herman Andaya profoundly mismanaged? Why were sirens not put into effect? Why were residents left to looking out there windows to realize the fire was happening and run to the harbor? What to make of the Biden administration's and FEMA's response? Or the frankly bizarre conspiracy theories that have already started trying to claim the natural disaster was actually a DEW (Directed Energy Weapons) attack? All this and much more will be addressed on this edition of Parallax Views.