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from my perspective they brought that on themselves
Not quite. This isn't like the current "post-flow Kalapana" where it's fairly obvious that you're on your own. Leilani had streets and grid power and State-sanctioned homeowner's insurance (to make sure you could get a mortgage) and building permits from County and everything.
Were any residents required to sign paperwork (notarized, with witnesses) indicating they fully understood and accepted all risks associated with their choice to live in a high-risk lava zone?
Did County bother to make high-risk areas into a zoning overlay where it would appear on maps and thus become extremely obvious to all current and prospective residents?
I don't have a problem with people making informed choices about where they live their lives, but it's not clear that the information necessary to make those choices is "readily available" (as in: you must acknowledge receipt). I also think the requirements should be commensurate with the response: if there's no disaster recovery, then there shouldn't be building inspections either.
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Were any residents required to sign paperwork (notarized, with witnesses) indicating they fully understood and accepted all risks associated with their choice to live in a high-risk lava zone?
Admittedly I haven't bought land in Puna since 2001, but I did buy my most recent property in Waipio around 2010, and I had to acknowledge, with my initials, at the time of closing, real official like, which lava zone the property is in. As such, I am not so sure about your assumptions. Not that I know the long and the short of the laws themselves. But Title Guarantee sure had that clause built into the contract non-the-less.
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Title Guarantee sure had that clause built into the contract
How lovely that their requirements exceed those of the government -- not exactly where I was going, though.
not so sure about your assumptions
1. There isn't enough mandatory disclosure.
2. Where disclosures are mandatory, they seem to follow land-use rather than physical-location.
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I agree with you completely Kalakoa. I think the USGS Lava Zone Map...
https://pubs.usgs.gov/mf/1992/2193/
Should be officially acknowledged by state and county, and requirements that all our land use policies take them into account be codified into law. Following that our planning department should be required to submit for our consideration changes to all zoning laws that take into account the facts documented in the Lava Zone Map.
Further I believe we, the Island of Hawaii, should be self insured for all disasters not covered by other standard insurance policies. This should be accomplished by a tax levied on all land owners in the potential effected areas at a rate equal to each specific land's exposure to those disasters. In other words.. if you live in LZ1 you should pay a much higher rate than if you live in LZ9.
But, I am sure, my idea is way to complicated for county to figure out. And besides, someone would take the whole thing to the courts bitching about unfair practices that were stifling their rights blah blah blah... so.. we'll keep suckering folks into believing there's cheap land in paradise..
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way to complicated for county to figure out ... keep suckering folks into believing there's cheap land in paradise
Exactly -- State managed to figure out "assigned risk pool" for the homeowners' insurance because having insurance made it eaiser to sucker people.
Even the self-insurance should be opt-in. If you're willing to walk away from your LZ1 life when the lava comes, more power to you.
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self insured for all disasters not covered by other standard insurance policies. This should be accomplished by a tax levied on all land owners
Would this money go into the same account as the half billion dollars the County has for lava recovery, but isn’t spending on Puna? Could we guarantee the County would keep the funds available for future disasters, when instead it could be spent on other emergencies, or additional County employees? It would be an attractive nuisance for government officials, one they doubtfully could resist.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Glinda, if tourists felt the right to walk all over your flood ravaged loi, and to make trails over your flooded out lands, and keep parking all over your farm in Waipio, during & after the floods... even now, parking their cars all over your farm....taking selfies of your huli washed out all over & all, you are ok with all of that...
after all you stated that since your land is in a flood plain & you knew it would be flooded, you should be OK with all of that...
I would like to be able to park & hike all over flood plain farms in Waipio & invite all of my friends & people I do not even know to park all over your lands... ^ you are OK with that, RIGHT???
AFTER ALL, you are OK with that type of aloha Aina happening at the recent lava area... & you know that your land is flood plain, so it should be OK to do that in your lands...
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so it should be OK to do that in your lands...
... and if 5 or 6 of the Waipio Valley hikers come down with leptospirosis from cuts and wounds caused by sharp branches and other objects washed onto your property during the flood, you wouldn’t worry about anyone sueing you, and would welcome the water consultants hired by attorneys who ask you for permission to take samples on your property, which is where the infected, hospitalized hikers cut themselves, and may have come in contact with the bacteria...
because whoever heard of a property owner getting sued by strangers walking across a disaster zone? They’re the trespassers, right? If anyone is guilty of anything it should be the hikers, so sure, go ahead and take those water samples.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Waipio versus the Puna lava flow.
It is true that parts of this giant flow have homes and structures and agriculture in kipukas, where concerns about trespassing on people's activities are valid. Or their properties are on the borders of the flow.
This makes it similar to Waipio, with its patchwork of landowners, most of whom are not near as accommodating as glinda on public access (their prerogative).
But the Puna flow also includes a vast broad area of no human activity--just nature. Fissure 8 is at the top end.
At such time that the landowners move to reclaim their land by putting in roads, engaging in surveying, and marking their property lines on lava that is now 40-plus feet thick, then people can get all huhu about hikers trespassing anywhere on the flow.
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Mark, after the tsunamis, the same devastated views of Waipio could be made, and, to a smaller extent, after each flood, acres of devastated landscape... the big differences is the timing of the devastation... Waipio lands have been hit repeatedly in the historical past, esp near the ocean....devastated repeatedly...
Glinda actually highlighted that flood devastation is quite common for those lots in Waipio.... lava covering the lots now in question actually have had far less natural devastation in the historical past than the lots in Waipio... most of the lots now buried have only had one incidence in historical times....
To anyone that thinks the lava covered lots in Leilani & Kapoho should be now abandoned, Glinda made a very compelling argument to use the same logic to Waipio...
All I am trying to point out is this: Give the landowners time, time to figure out what they may want to do with THE LAND.... They may actually want to rebuild, they may want to farm, with very little vehicle access, as the land owners of Waipio stubbornly continue to do.... they may not, but do not force your desires to hike all over & create tourist trashed trails & social media "must dos" until they have had the time to figure this out...
Heck, this new feature has not even had the time to be named....
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