US Presidents Keep Bungling Disaster Responses
Joe Biden’s mishandling of the Maui wildfire destruction is the second bungled disaster response of his presidency, and follows other, even worse failures from previous presidents. The people of Maui will suffer, but so will public trust in government.
Aerial images east of Lahaina, Maui, where homes and businesses lay in ruins after last week’s devastating wildfire. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
This past week’s devastating wildfires in Maui, which killed more than a hundred people and counting, are a lot of things: the deadliest disaster to hit Hawaii since it achieved statehood; the deadliest US wildfire, period, in more than a century; and another visceral reminder of the disastrous threat of climate change.
It’s also now at least the third high-profile mismanagement of a disaster by a US president in recent years.
On Tuesday, August 8, what started as a small brushfire in the town of Lahaina quickly became explosions and an apocalyptic inferno, swallowing everything in its path and trapping people in place, triggering a state disaster declaration. Residents got no warning about the disaster — the island’s emergency sirens never went off.
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