Old Lahaina Town Utterly Destroyed - Recovery & Relief Efforts

[HiloJulie]

The Hawaii Community Foundation said it has raised $3 million for its Maui Strong Fund in 24 hours and is not collecting any fees on gifts to the fund. Up from $1 million 12 hours ago. 

https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.or...trong-fund

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement pledged to match donations — up to $100,000 initially, now increased to $1 million — for a campaign they began Wednesday, with initial support from the Alakaʻina Foundation Family of Companies. As I post this, the online tracker shows $616,761.13 donated which will be doubled. 

https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/cn.../kakoomaui

"Hawaii is awash with misappropriated funds!"

"There has never been a real accounting of that money and many think that much of it was misappropriated. Millions were donated from around the world..."

Unfortunately, some humans are lower than a snake's belly.

Maui needs all the help they can get.

---

""President Joe Biden issued a federal disaster declaration following “devastating” Hawaii wildfires across several parts of the Big Island and Maui and promised to send whatever is needed to help the recovery.

Along with FEMA, Biden noted he has ordered all available federal assets on the island, including the US Coast Guard, the Navy Third Fleet and the US Army, to “assist local emergency response crews, along with the Hawaii National Guard.”

He recognized the firefighters, first responders, and other emergency personnel “working around the clock there.”

Biden also noted that he held a “long conversation” by phone with Gov. Josh Green Thursday morning.

“Let him know I’m going to make sure the state has everything it needs from the federal government to recover,” Biden said of the call.

Green told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” Thursday that Biden’s declaration has made “a difference in our spirit already,” noting that president approved the state’s request within six hours.

“That’s a big deal. It could be just days before we see some resources come to the many hundreds of families that will need the help,” the governor said. “It will take more time for insurance to kick in, which we will also be advocating for.”

“But, we are standing here also with the leadership of FEMA,” he added. “They’re already on the ground; we’re grateful to them.”"

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/10/politics/...index.html

[dobanion]

I think I found the source of the fire.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/before-and-after-satellite-images-of-maui-wildfire-destruction/ss-AA1f9mII?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d5e3a9f7a5e34821b453bbb43cfc7631&ei=33#image=1

If you look at the before/after photos, you can see the pattern of the burnt grass. The highest up the hill burnt spot looks pretty clear, recall the winds were pushing toward the ocean. Looks like there's a spot on the mauka side of the highway and the flames jumped the highway there, then spread out along the highway in both directions.

If you go to google maps and zoom in on that spot, it looks like this

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lahain...?entry=ttu

I believe the fire that burnt the town of Paradise, CA to the ground was started by a power line sparking in high winds.

[bgiles]

I think you got it. Thank you. Now, electrical malfunction or cigarette, catalytic converter or ? Proximity suggests electrical as you suggest; like Paradise, CA.

[HiloJulie]

If electrical, Hawaiian Electric could have some significant liability here. The Paradise, CA fire resulted in a 100 plus million dollar settlement.

[Chas]

Not like they weren't warned about it.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/mauis-top-emergency-officials-were-off-island-as-wildfires-hit-lahaina/?utm_source=Civil+Beat+Master+List&utm_campaign=5f9d451118-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_08_07_11_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-5f9d451118-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=5f9d451118&mc_eid=bb753109d3

[terracore]

Not like they weren't warned about it.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/mauis-top-emergency-officials-were-off-island-as-wildfires-hit-lahaina/?utm_source=Civil+Beat+Master+List&utm_campaign=5f9d451118-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_08_07_11_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-5f9d451118-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=5f9d451118&mc_eid=bb753109d3

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/experts...ate-change

However, several experts pointed instead to years of poor forest and brush management, in addition to declining agriculture, in Hawaii as the primary cause for the devastating fires this week.

"Blaming this on weather and climate is misleading," said Clay Trauernicht, a University of Hawaii at Manoa professor and environmental management expert. "Hawai'i's fire problem is due to the vast areas of unmanaged, nonnative grasslands from decades of declining agriculture."
"These savannas now cover about a million acres across the main Hawaiian Islands, mostly the legacy of land clearing for plantation agriculture and ranching in the late 1800s/early 1900s," he continued. "The transformation to savanna makes the landscape way more sensitive to bad 'fire weather' — hot, dry, windy conditions. It also means we get huge buildups of fuels during rainy periods."
He added that wildfire risk in Hawaii could be mitigated with "adequate support, planning, and resources for fuel reduction projects, agricultural land use, and restoration and reforestation around communities and the foot of our forests."

In 2019, Trauernicht submitted a letter to a local Maui newspaper, arguing that the island was at serious risk of continued forest fires without proper management. He stated that heavy rainfall causes more vegetation, which is then not tended to and poses fire risk.

"Maui is now firmly in the post-plantation era, and the West Maui fires are only the most recent example of what eventually happens when large, tropical grasslands go untended," he wrote. "But the fuels — all that grass — is the one thing that we can directly change to reduce fire risk."

[Durian Fiend]

"But the fuels — all that grass — is the one thing that we can directly change to reduce fire risk."

By bulldozing out the Guinea grass and planting pineapple?    I suppose they're talking about controlled burns. 

The Maui tourists sure enjoyed it in the past when smoke from the burning sugar cane fields reached their rooms.

[AaronM]

Brushhogs can do the work of fires.  Just gotta pay for the fuel, the operators, etc.  So yeah, controlled burns will probably come back.

[HiloJulie]

"But the fuels — all that grass — is the one thing that we can directly change to reduce fire risk."

By bulldozing out the Guinea grass and planting pineapple?    I suppose they're talking about controlled burns. 

The Maui tourists sure enjoyed it in the past when smoke from the burning sugar cane fields reached their rooms.

So what are the other options?

The status quo of doing what has been done sure doesn’t work. 

So what else can be economically done to prevent any wildfires that doesn’t allow for a repeat of what just happened In a few decades while at the same time not offending any Maui tourists?

Paved parking lots?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

So what are the other options?

How about instead of an ultra low tax rate for unused ag land, former cane growers are charged a Red Flag Tax Rate?  If they cry, let them sell the land to people who might use it for ag, or at least maintain it in a way that won’t create a hazard for their neighbors.  

Or here’s another idea, require the cane growers to return the land to its pre-cane condition.