Maui fire survivors describe nighttime looting as local leadership botches emergency response
- Displaced residents said they are increasingly desperate for first aid, food, and water with diverted supply drops, looting, and near riot-level confrontations with police
- ‘There’s some police presence. There’s some small military presence, but at night people are being robbed at gunpoint,’ said a Maui bar owner
Maui residents are becoming increasingly desperate for local leadership to take control of the emergency response to the catastrophic fires that levelled parts of the Hawaiian island and left at least 93 dead.
While rescue crews make their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops are being diverted and anguished residents are taking matters into their own hands.
“There’s some police presence. There’s some small military presence, but at night people are being robbed at gunpoint,” Matt Robb, co-owner of a Lahaina bar called The Dirty Monkey, said.
“People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they’re going through houses – and then by day it’s hunky dory. So where is the support? I don’t think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do.”
The Honolulu Star Register newspaper reported a near riot broke out between police and about 100 residents after officers closed off access to a motorway leading to Lahaina, one of the most impacted areas on the island, preventing people from returning home to gather items that could be salvaged.