{"id":588497,"date":"2023-08-25T16:06:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T13:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/maui-county-sues-power-company-over-actions-during-wildfires\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T16:06:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T13:06:27","slug":"maui-county-sues-power-company-over-actions-during-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/maui-county-sues-power-company-over-actions-during-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"#Maui County sues power company over actions during wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/08\/AP23229060315083-e1692409189800.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Maui County is suing its local power utility, alleging the company negligently failed to turn off its power lines, exacerbating the deadly wildfires that ravaged the island and killed at least 100 people.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit filed on Thursday claims that the Hawaiian Electric Company should have known \u201cto properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Failures to maintain equipment or turn off power during high winds caused by a passing hurricane, combined with drought conditions on the island, made fires from downed lines more likely, the suit claims. Turning off power, a procedure that other utilities perform during high fire and wind risk, could have \u201ceasily\u201d prevented \u201csevere and catastrophic losses,\u201d county officials added.<\/p>\n<p>The utility company said in a statement it is \u201cvery dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur 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,\u201d the company said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Witness accounts claim that sparks came off power lines downed in extremely high winds, causing fires. At least 115 people died in the ensuing fires with over an approximately 400 people <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mauicounty.gov\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=12759\">still missing<\/a>, making it the country\u2019s deadliest fire in the last century.<\/p>\n<p>The utility has also been sued by a group of Maui residents making the same allegations. A  suit from its investors alleges that the company failed to disclose that its wildfire protections were inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s stock has dropped by about 18 percent since the wildfires began early this month.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Nearly the entire town of Lahaina was destroyed in the blaze. Federal disaster aid has flowed onto the island to assist those displaced by the wildfire. Total damage was estimated to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mauicounty.gov\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=12683\">exceed $5.5 billion<\/a> by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/state-watch\/4170942-maui-county-sues-power-company-over-actions-during-wildfires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maui County is suing its local power utility, alleging the company negligently failed to turn off its power lines, exacerbating the deadly wildfires that ravaged the island and killed at least 100 people. The lawsuit filed on Thursday claims that the Hawaiian Electric Company should have known \u201cto properly maintain and repair the electric transmission&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":588498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/08\/AP23229060315083-e1692409189800.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134343,134353,134447,4255,145261,124783,139635,130162,145262,115,70754],"class_list":["post-588497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-campaign","tag-court-battles","tag-energy-and-environment","tag-hawaii","tag-hawaiian-electric-company","tag-international","tag-lobbying","tag-maui","tag-maui-wildfire","tag-news","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}