Maui County names interim emergency management leader | News, Sports, Jobs

DARRYL OLIVEIRA

A former Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator and fire chief was named interim director of the Maui Emergency Management Agency on Friday.

Darryl Oliveira, who will officially begin his job on Monday, is filling a vacancy left by former MEMA Administrator Herman Andaya, who resigned on Aug. 17, citing health reasons, Mayor Richard Bissen said at the time. Andaya’s departure came a day after he defended the decision to not sound the all-hazard outdoor warning system as the fast-moving Lahaina fire spread across the town.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, Oliveira offered his sympathy to the Maui community.

“I am here to support the mayor and his team, all the agencies, the community, and to help things move forward, progress, so that Maui can recover as quickly and effectively as possible,” Oliveira said.

He said he has been on Maui since Wednesday.

“I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of the tremendous work that has already been done with the community and all the agencies here,” he said. “I look forward to continue to support the mayor in all the operations as the administrator as well of what we do in the EOC supporting operations.”

As Hawaii County’s Civil Defense Agency administrator, Oliveira directly oversaw the county’s mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts for a range of emergencies and disasters, including tropical storms and the 2014 Pahoa lava flow, according to a Maui County news release.

“We are honored to have Darryl Oliveira step forward to serve Maui County’s community in this unprecedented disaster,” Bissen said in the news release Friday. “His locally-led response amid storms, fires, flooding and lava events, along with his pulse on the Neighbor Island community, demonstrate invaluable experience and skill during challenging times.”

Oliveira said his goals include rebuilding the emergency management system and regaining public trust.

“In the long term, one of my roles or goals here is to continue to help Maui County rebuild its emergency management system to continue to gain the trust and confidence of you, for many of you in the community that don’t know me, I have to earn your trust, I have to earn your confidence, with what we can do. That’s my goal, just to instill the trust and confidence in the system because it will need to work for the future. As you know we are in hurricane season now so although we are dealing with this crisis, we are still mindful that we are still vulnerable to other events, and the systems need to be in place to take care of the community, which we will do.”

Prior to serving as civil defense administrator, Oliveira spent 31 years in the Hawaii Fire Department, including the last nine years as chief. He has extensive experience in structural fire protection, wildland fire protection and suppression and search-and-rescue operations, the county said.

First responders are continuing to search through the ruins of the town to find victims. Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said earlier this week that the search is moving to multilevel buildings.

On Thursday, Maui County released a list of 388 validated unaccounted-for individuals — based on whether officials had a first and last name and contact information for the person who reported them missing. Since then, they have had “hundreds of contacts come in,” Pelletier said. “That’s good news for those that come off the list, and it’s heartbreaking for those that don’t.”

He said he death toll remains at 115. Three more victims were publicly identified by police on Friday: 68-year-old Roxanne Ibara-Hinau of Lahaina, 68-year-old Rogelio Mabalot of Lahaina and 67-year-old George Hall III of Kahului.

Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura said Friday marked the sixth day of diving operations, which include 40 to 50 personnel from the department’s Ocean Safety division and other agencies who are searching the waters off Lahaina for any sign of victims.

“Thus far we have not recovered any bodies. However we have accounted for a number of personal effects that have been shared and passed along to the police department,” he said.

The diving operations started Aug. 19 and 20 in the Lahaina Harbor area, which divers cleared before heading out to the open ocean and shorelines. Ventura explained that the start of diving operations had to wait until they got clearance that the water was safe, as a lot of fuel had been in the water after the fire.

Mapping areas of concern along the shoreline was done on Monday and Tuesday, he said. They searched the shoreline on Wednesday and Thursday in waters that went up to 30 feet deep and were able to clear about 50 percent of the coastline between Puamana and the north end of the “concerned area.” On Friday, they were searching the area from the harbor south to the Puamana area.

He said the area of concern involves the part of the ocean where many people may have gone to escape the fire. Search teams “saturated” that area. Ocean operations could possibly roll into Saturday, Ventura said.

Bissen said the recovery process will continue until “experts tell us there is no more they can recover.”

From there the efforts will turn to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup of the hazards from the fire. There will also be air quality and building inspections to ensure it is safe for people to go back to homes to retrieve personal items. Then debris cleanup will follow.

Maui County filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric over the fires, alleging that the company had been negligent in failing to shut off power despite the risks for fire. Corporation Counsel Victoria Takayesu said at the news conference Friday that “the mayor actually did not make that decision” due to a conflict of interest.

“We received an outpouring of support from many municipalities on the Mainland that have experienced disasters as well and through many conversations with them, discussions within our own department and discussions with what we know of what happened, we believe we have probable cause to go ahead to have initiated that lawsuit,” she said. “And our recommendation, we discussed it with the managing director, we presented him our information and he decided that we can go ahead and file a lawsuit.”

Hawaiian Electric said in a statement Friday in response to the lawsuit that it was “disappointed” with the county’s decision.

“Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County,” the company said. “We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.”

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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