Old Lahaina Town Utterly Destroyed - Recovery & Relief Efforts

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

As most of us already recognize, the potential, and actual dangers of living in a place where there’s only one way in, and one way out:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/us/camp-f...index.html

[oink]

In some places if land has been cleared of natural vegetation the land owner is required to maintain the property, essentially by regular mowing, although I don't know if that applies to ag land. It should.

It seems if they aren't going to restore the former cane and pineapple lands to their natural condition they should put it into pasture. Or put it back into cane or pineapples. But then they would have to bring in guest workers as no locals would work cheap enough to make it pay. Of course all of S. Florida that's still in cane wouldn't be if it wasn't for Fed sugar subsidies. Big Sugar still has a lot of power in Florida. I still get cane ash on my cars every year. Otherwise I think most sugar would be coming from Brazil. I wonder, wasn't Hawaii Sugar getting Fed subsidies also?

As an aside, I used to live smack behind the Lahaina mill. It wasn't the Ritz.

[ChunksterK]

"I wonder, wasn't Hawaii Sugar getting Fed subsidies also?" - Oink

Yes, but unionization raised wages to mddle class levels, which was good in the short run, but eventually led to the demise of the industry. Florida and Louisiana still produce millions of tons of sugar annually from cane using low wage workers.

So don't expect the firetrap vacant agricultural lands to go back to sugar or pineapple production. Best case scenario would be developing diverse agriculture and/or planting fire resistant native species . . . if any such exist. We don't have the political leadership, however, for anything like that to happen. Just look at the idiot trying to explain why the sirens weren't sounded at Lahaina, and you'll know what I mean.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Just look at the idiot trying to explain why the sirens weren't sounded at Lahaina

Exactly.
If the sirens had sounded, residents would have thought it was a tsunami and run for high ground directly into the blazing inferno?

[ironyak]

Following up on what homeowners can do, and Obie's mention of Hardiplank (cement board siding), lots of news focus on one home that survived the fires. Build using cement in the 1950s by Kazuichi Tamura who worked at Pioneer Mill & Lahaina Electric. He gave an interview for an oral history project in the 1970s about what it was like living and working in Lahaina from the early 1900s.

Fascinating bit of site appropriate foresight in materials - hopefully others will learn from this going forward on all islands.

[dobanion]

Ready to build more of these (see attached).

#1 vector for fire to start on a home in a wildfire, dry vegetation in the gutters.
#2 is the exposed rafters under the eaves of the roof. Even if you have fireproof walls (concrete or hardiplank), and fireproof roof surface (metal or tile), you can still get those rafters going and it spreads to the attic and then the house is toast. You can treat that zone with fire retardant, will buy you some time.

The most fire resistant structure I can imagine, without going to the extremes of a dome like I did, would be cinderblock with a metal roof AND metal roof trusses.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

dobanion,
The photo of the structure you posted would put insurance companies out of business:

1) Fire insurance would be unnecessary
2) Round walls would allow hurricane winds to curve around it, and there's no roof to blow off
3) With a wire cage reinforcement in the cement, fero, etc, it should hold together during an earthquake

---

From The NY Times:

Ms. Rapkoch, the state spokeswoman, did not directly discuss why state land has remained untended. “Wildfire risks awareness and reduction projects are implemented in Hawaii,” she said, including projects funded by U.S. Forest Service grants.

At the same time, owners of the former plantations have little financial incentive to touch the land, which is zoned primarily for agriculture. As Hawaii’s economy has become dominated by tourism, the most lucrative use of that land is to build luxury homes or hotels, according to Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau.
“What’s the most profitable thing to grow on agricultural land? Homes,” Mr. Miyamoto said.
Many landowners have been trying to get their land rezoned for development, a glacially slow process. In the meantime, they are reluctant to lease the land to farmers, according to Mr. Scheuer, the water policy expert.


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/clima...ntion.html

[sistersue]

Just look at the idiot trying to explain why the sirens weren't sounded at Lahaina

Exactly.
If the sirens had sounded, residents would have thought it was a tsunami and run for high ground directly into the blazing inferno.

The stupidest excuse I've ever heard of.  It took him a whole week to come up with that one.  These deaths wouldn't have happened if the power had been shut down in the early afternoon and the sirens had gone off at the same time. Just plain COMMON SENSE.  It's like the "disaster prevention" people responsible for Lahaina didn't even exist.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Maui County officials said in a news release that MEMA Administrator Herman Andaya had resigned "effective immediately" due to "health reasons."

Not to spend more time with his family?

[My 2 cents]

It’s good that he resigned since he wasn’t qualified for the position in the first place.  But the people I want to see suffer some appropriate consequences (use your imagination) are the people who appointed him to that position ahead of other more qualified applicants.