EMS & Injury Prevention System Branch

Dangerous paradise 

Rising flash-flooding incidents, ocean deaths point to need for better visitor safety education

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Flash floods stranded 20 hikers last month on the Commando and Bamboo trails in East Maui, including one man who was caught on camera being swept 30 feet down the side of a waterfall.

The video went viral on YouTube (https://youtu.be/1Csgc6adNaE) and had more than 300,000 viewings as of last week.

Maui firefighters maintain the video dramatically illustrates the dangers of flash floods in Hawaii, and one official hopes safety videos could be incorporated into every incoming airline flight to the islands…

“I think a lot of them (tourists) are just unaware of the power of the local ocean conditions and dangers, and I think that extends pretty clearly to these flash-flooding incidents,” Health Department epidemiologist Daniel Galanis said. “Even my co-worker who’s from Maui said, ‘Everybody knows you don’t go Commandos when it’s raining.”

By CHRIS SUGIDONO – Staff Writer ([email protected]), The Maui News

Source: Dangerous paradise by The Maui News