The Maui Fire Shows You Can Trust Your iPhone More Than Your Government
Plus: the essential items Maui survivors need.
The Maui Fire broke out early this month. As I write this, 115 are confirmed dead with an estimated 1,000 unaccounted for.
First, a little good news: the iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS feature is saving lives. Michael J. Miraflor reports:
My brother’s girlfriend’s cousin and his family were caught in their vehicle in Maui while the wildfires suddenly erupted around them.
No cell service, so Apple Emergency SOS was the only way they could get in contact with first responders. Literally saved their lives.
If you’re unfamiliar with Emergency SOS, it’s an iPhone feature that lets you contact emergency responders and loved ones via satellite. As long as you have a clear sky, you can make contact with the outside world. Of course, Apple was accused of “fear mongering” when they introduced the feature, but it’s proving itself valuable in the real world.
Apple: The Preparedness Company
I have perhaps the strangest pair of niches of any online writer. On nights and weekends, I write about preparedness here at Unprepared and in outlets like Reviewed. But by day I’m the managing editor of TidBITS—the longest-lived online-only Apple publication in the world— and I’m an author at
Unfortunately, the iPhone in your pocket may be far more reliable than your state, local, or federal government during a crisis. The incompetence displayed at all levels has been so astounding that it’s spawned innumerable conspiracy theories, and despite how outlandish some of them seem, I hold myself back from saying anything to the contrary because it’s just that bad.
Let’s take a quick survey of some key facts:
The emergency sirens did not go off during the fires. The reason may be because that Maui’s emergency operations chief had no background in disaster response.
Honolulu Civil beat reported: “Trained in political science and the law, he has no formal education in disaster preparedness or response. And prior to his current role, he never held a full-time job dedicated to emergency management…Instead, his main qualification was being chief of staff to then-mayor Alan Arakawa.”
He beat 40 other applicants for the job.
Police blocked the roads and trapped residents in the fire zone. As Dr. Benjamin Braddock puts it, “Only those who disobeyed survived.”
“One family swerved around the barricade and was safe in a nearby town 48 minutes later, another drove their 4-wheel-drive car down a dirt road to escape. One man took an dirt road uphill, climbing above the fire and watching as Lahaina burned. He later picked his way through the flames, smoke and rubble to pull survivors to safety.”
“We needed like 10 more minutes, and we could have saved a lot of kids," he said, choking back tears. "If we'd just had like a 10- or 15-minute
warning.”
Another leader of the response was Maui police chief John Pelletier, who was also the incident commander for the Las Vegas shooting, where Stephen Paddock—still for reasons unknown—killed 58 and injured hundreds more.
You can’t make this stuff up. No wonder the conspiracy theories are flying.
It took President Biden nearly two weeks to bother visiting Maui. He was too busy taking two vacations. In fact, he was still technically on vacation when he visited Maui. I guess given the choice between visiting people who lost everything in a fire or staying in a billionaire’s $15-million home, he picked the latter.
When Joe finally showed up, he pissed off the crowd by whining about nearly losing a Corvette in a minor house fire.
When Biden ignored the residents of East Palestine, I figured it was because that was Trump country. As it happens, he just doesn’t give a shit, even about deep blue Hawaii.
Another account of victims being trapped by police:
Finally, this:
After running past the officers, Vargas said a man on a motorbike took her to the front line of the fire where a team of first responders assured her that the area had been cleared. She said she was told no one was there, and to have faith her son got out.
Two days later, when Vargas made it to her devastated home, she discovered Fuentes' lifeless body hugging his dead dog.
This should hammer home the importance of your own personal preparedness. If you haven’t started, do it today. It doesn’t take much time or money to get some basic supplies together. Get some emergency food. Put together a blackout kit.
Maui Supply List
Guys like me who write about prepping like to make long lists of essential goods, but what I find really instructive is examining lists of what people actually need after a disaster, as we did for Hurricane Hilary.
A member of our Unprepared community shared this list of requested donations shortly after the fire. Consider them for your supply list:
Duct Tape (some colored for viability)
Tent Stakes (due to wind)
Mattresses / sleeping pads
Bio Freeze / muscle rub
Canned food (fruit, Spam, vegetables, etc.)
Toys
Art supplies
Tablets (handheld devices)
Laptop/computers