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"Usually they put on the hurricane sirens or they do something to like warn us. Nothing. Everyone was just word of mouth evacuating. And that's why so many people were just on Front Street, just hanging out. Like they they were helpless. Like the smoke just got them."
That's Sydney Carney, a resident of the devastated community of Lahaina, levelled by bushfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Like many, she's critical of the lack of warning that locals got as the fast moving bushfires swept towards the township.
Professor Chris Hilson, Director of the Centre for Climate and Justice at the University of Reading [[Redding]] in England says authorities need to have systems in place to warn communities of impending disasters.
“Part of adaptation planning on the part of the public authorities is about not only trying to make communities more resilient to these kind of threats physically - whether if you are thinking about a fire, it might be creating firebreaks or whatever - but it's also about having these appropriate early warning systems in place. And it is very much the public authorities that are responsible for maintaining those and putting them in place. So yeah, I think where there is a failure in those early warning systems, people do naturally, and quite rightly, blame the authorities."
Here in Australia, the Warning System and Fire Danger Ratings system was updated in September last year [[2022]].
Fiona Dunstan, the National Community Engagement Manager for the Bureau of Meteorology, told the SBS 'Australia Explained' podcast that the Australian Fire Danger Rating System is used to alert communities when to start preparing in case of fire.
"If we were to say tomorrow is going to be pretty hot and windy and we haven't had rain for a while, and the grass and vegetation or the trees are quite dry, from there we determine a fire danger rating and it's there that we then say that we need to take action in order to prepare in case a fire starts."
Ms Dunstan says on the other hand, the Australian Warning System is used for advising the threat level of different natural hazards already unfolding.
"The Australian warning system is designed to incorporate many different types of hazard warnings. So flood, fire, cyclones, heat, so those different types of systems. And then there's a tiered system there that provides a level of warning depending on the threat to people's lives or their homes or businesses. So one is before an event and one is sort of during an event."
These warning systems are now consistent across the whole country.
Professor Hilson says a simple siren warning would not be enough.
"It's thinking about exactly how to reach everybody - and variety is obviously going to be really important there. But I think the other thing - and this is where sometimes systems fall down - is you really need to make it very clear to people what they're expected to do. Because a siren, for example, I mean what does that actually tell people? So even if the siren had gone off, would it have encouraged everyone to jump into their car, for example? And in a wildfire situation, that may be not the best idea, actually."
The Philippines is a country that is particularly prone to weather-driven disaster.
Around 74 percent of the country's population are exposed to hazards such as floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides, according to the World Bank.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is responsible for ensuring the protection and welfare of the people during disasters or emergencies.
Spokesman Edgar Posadas says the council takes advantage of the fact that mobile phone usage is widespread in the Philippines.
"We have the early alert warning messaging during disasters - typhoons, flooding or even earthquakes - and this is a partnership between government, OCD (Office of Civil Defense) and NDRRMC, our emergency operation centre. Of course, we have DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) and our telco partners that we collaborate to send out early alert warning messaging for the most vulnerable in a particular hazard, and this is also being reiterated through a redundant means through our social media accounts. And we capture all possible means to communicate the threats of the hazards and keep people safe and prepared."
Professor Hilson says regardless of the technology that's used, the secret to keeping people safe in an emergency is making sure that people know what to do when they get a warning.
"There's is a risk that actually we can assume that technology will solve everything and that it's all about technology, but in fact, it's often about psychology as well, and about how people react to the technologies in place and whether they're using them appropriately."
Elizabeth Goh is a long-term volunteer for the NSW Rural Fire Service.
She agrees that understanding the danger ratings is vital, as emergency personnel have to care for those who don’t evacuate on time.
"One of the things that we always see is that people who don’t leave, don't understand or leave too late, we're often having to work with them during very intense fires. And what that's actually doing is it’s actually drawing away resources from firefighting because we need to then look after people, supporting people to get out of those dangerous situations."
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