Hawaii Wildfires Disaster

[MrDawn]

What are your thoughts?

Wind-fueled wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui that drove people to jump into the ocean to escape flames and smoke forced people to evacuate Wednesday, authorities said. The Coast Guard told CBS News it had rescued a dozen people in the town of Lahaina who turned to the water as refuge Tuesday and officials said Wednesday that hospitals on the island were treating burn patients.

Fire was widespread in Lahaina, a tourist town with a population of 12,000 on the northwestern tip of Maui, and Maui County tweeted that multiple roads were closed with a warning: "Do NOT go to Lahaina town."

Traffic has been very heavy as people try to evacuate and officials asked people who weren't in an evacuation area to shelter in place to avoid adding to the traffic, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin told the Associated Press in a phone interview early Wednesday.

Wildfires on Hawaii's Maui island kill at least 6 as blazes force people to flee

The wind-whipped wildfires even led some to jump into a harbor and the Coast Guard said it rescued 14.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[passenger]

What are your thoughts?

That's terrible: no where to run to for some except to the ocean. Hope it doesn't get those docked pleasure boats started. And, no borate bomber help from "the lower 48".
Lotsa trouble in Paradise.

 

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Questions arise over inadequate response
As search and rescue crews continue to uncover the scale of the massive and devastating toll in the historic town of Lahaina, anger is building among residents over various aspects of the government response, from warnings during the inferno to aid distribution afterwards. Residents have asked why emergency sirens didn’t warn Lahaina residents in time to evacuate.

Officials have said there wasn’t time to adequately alert the city before the wind-driven firestorm tore through homes and businesses. Along with the lack of warnings, residents are questioning why plans weren’t in place to ensure a quick and effective response for victims still grappling with the ongoing issues caused by the fire, including contaminated water, widespread power outages, and a lack of response programming and infrastructure that could help streamline aid brought in from the outside.

“I feel like the citizens of this island have been called upon, maybe by a higher power, to actually help because no one else is helping,” Kai Lenny, a professional surfer told the Washington Post. “We are Maui, an island 100 miles from the largest military in the world…72 hours later where is the navy, the hospital ship, helicopters, the military, the natural disaster relief infrastructure that should have been here by now,” local restaurant owner Kaili Scheer wrote on Instagram, in a post pleading for help that’s now been shared by tens of thousands.

While the cause of the brush fire is still being determined, experts are looking into whether active power lines may have ignited the blaze, that spread quickly in the hot, dry, windy weather. Days before the fire erupted, weather forecasts warned of dangerous fire conditions triggered by strong winds and low humidity, but still power sources were left on by the utility that serves roughly 95% of the state. So-called “public safety power shutoffs” help reduce fire risks caused by electric infrastructure, but Hawaiian Electric hadn’t adopted the strategy as part of its mitigation plan.

“That is one of the devastating parts here — we knew this could happen,” Andrea Barretto, the co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to prevention and recovery, noting that the organization released a preparedness plan for west Maui communities roughly a decade ago. But, she said, resources were in short-supply and the community lacked the experience to handle large-scale fires. “You can have a plan on paper but it doesn’t mean it is going to turn into effective implementation unless you have practiced it.”

 

[MrDawn]

I wonder if Biden's most recent "asshole" moment he's having just cost him the presidential election.