Based on the videos I have watched from that day the power was out in Lahaina. As was the internet. It remained out for all of west Maui for days.
Last Saturday was when a lot of the videos from the previous Tuesday started getting uploaded to the internet.
Also, last Saturday there was a guy in Kannapoli who was letting everyone use his Starlink Internet WIFI hot spot to make calls for the first time since Tuesday. I watched a video from a guy right there saying that they were totally cut off. That they need supplies and nothing was coming through from the other part of the island. That they were basically left on their own.
One of the things we should all learn from this example is that you better be able to survive at your own house for at least 3 weeks without outside help. That ALL the PREPPERS are right. When the SHTF you have to be self sufficient.
You better have a months supply of vitals pharma products.
That you better have few weeks worth of drinking water, etc.
I can imagine much of the available technology went down and I don’t disagree that we should have contingencies in place to avoid requiring the assistance of the government.
That said, it’s hard to believe that there was no way to get the word out. Surely they have police with radios? Surely they could have gotten a slew of boats into the water to pick people up that waded into the ocean? Surely they could have put helicopters into low altitude with speakers to warn people?
Something, something, something...usually all technology going down because of a power outage doesn’t happen. Power redundancies and generators keep things alive to some degree. That said, it does highlight that Bluetooth mesh networks would have been highly valuable here, requiring only cellphones with some battery life.