by Ronny Reyes at New York Post
As the deadliest US wildfires in a century razed Maui, the emergency officials responsible for responding to them were all on another island — learning how to deal with exactly such a disaster, it emerged Wednesday.
The heads of the Maui and Hawaii emergency management agencies were at an annual conference on Oahu on Aug. 8, the day the fires started leveling Lahaina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed to HawaiiNewsNow (HNN).
Key federal officials were also at FEMA’s annual disaster meeting when one of the worst disasters in recent US history started raging on the other island, the outlet said.
The officials gathering in Waikiki became part of a “coordinating call about 11 a.m.,” a state emergency management spokesperson told the local outlet of what would have been nearly five hours after the blazes started.
“There were consultations about the fires among local, state and FEMA participants,” FEMA spokesman John Mills said…
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