Saturday, December 14, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Thursday, May 2, 2024
Maui County files complaint seeking to hold cell carriers responsible for failure to report outages during fires
By News Release @ 3:19 AM :: 1415 Views :: Maui County, Police

County files complaint seeking to hold cell carriers responsible for failure to report outages during fires

News release from County of Maui, May 1, 2024 

The County of Maui filed a third-party complaint today in the Circuit Court of the Second Circuit, State of Hawaiʻi, against Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Spectrum Mobile, and AT&T (collectively, the “Cell Carriers”) related to the August 2023 Maui Fires. The complaint seeks to hold the Cell Carriers responsible for their failure to properly inform the Maui Police Department in a timely manner of widespread cellular service outages on August 8 to 9, 2023, during the height of the County’s emergency response to the fires. Federal law requires the Cell Carriers to immediately report service outages to the County’s 911-service operators, including the nature and geographic extent of the outage and the approximate length of the outage. 

“A timely and complete report is critical to the County’s ability to mitigate the impacts of a service outage during emergencies,” said County of Maui Corporation Counsel Victoria Takayesu.

As part of its emergency response on August 8 to 9, 2023, the County utilized direct text messaging to disseminate important evacuation information. At least 14 such alerts were sent. However, the County later discovered that many of these alerts were not received by citizens, residents and visitors because cell towers across the island -- including all 21 cell towers servicing Lahaina -- were experiencing widespread cellular service outages. The complaint states that despite their federally-mandated duty to do so, the Cell Carriers failed to report service outages to the County, and this failure impacted the County’s emergency response on August 8-9, 2024. 

The County is currently defending multiple lawsuits criticizing its emergency response during the August 2023 Maui Fires. 

# # #

AP: Maui sues cell carriers over text message alerts that were never received during Lahaina wildfires

SA: Maui County sues wireless service providers in Lahaina fire | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

CB: Maui County Sues Cell Phone Carriers For Lahaina Fire Outages - Honolulu Civil Beat  

HPR: Cell carriers failed to report outages during the wildfires, Maui County says | Hawai'i Public Radio 

MN: County files lawsuit against major cell carriers alleging they didn’t report outages during wildfires

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii