Just checking in to say I’m ok. Lahaina fire is largely contained at this point, as is the one near me in Kihei that’s cost me sleep the last couple night but shifted inland before getting to where I needed to bail. You can probably imagine the devastation to the areas hit. Death toll is 53 so far and that will probably go up. Fire and Police have been working nonstop. Without their effort things would be a lot worse and we’re extremely grateful for their efforts.

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Originally posted by P210:
Just checking in to say I’m ok. Lahaina fire is largely contained at this point, as is the one near me in Kihei that’s cost me sleep the last couple night but shifted inland before getting to where I needed to bail. You can probably imagine the devastation to the areas hit. Death toll is 53 so far and that will probably go up. Fire and Police have been working nonstop. Without their effort things would be a lot worse and we’re extremely grateful for their efforts.

Figured you were safe as Greg is right next to you. Glad to hear it however. I can’t get a hold of my friend in Lahaina but his name isn’t on the google doc (missing/found) list. I cannot locate a list of the deceased. Very worried. My home away from home

This is very reminiscent of what happened to the town of Paradise, CA in 2019. The town today is still in recovery mode, a majority of the residents were retirees, fixed-income, had bought property to get away from the spiraling prices and craziness of the SF Bay Area. The impact of seeing an entire community, the entire town reduced to cinder & ash is a real gut-punch. In 2017 seeing the fire storm that ripped through Santa Rosa took my breath away, the distance and path of destruction was breathtaking.

Fortunately, Lahaina has a lot going for it, the main obstacle will be Hawaiian politics.

This world is silly.
They have an ocean full of water and no way to use it.

We have 260 wind mill generators less than 25 miles away and we still get power outages.

California and Arizona will be going dry again soon , they would rather waste it on golf courses than drink it.

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Originally posted by kkina:

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Originally posted by snwghst:

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Originally posted by PR64:
Is that the banyon tree in the last pic above?

NYT article says it’s standing and could be ok.

Yes, I'm now seeing reports that it, although scorched, may still be alive and can recover.

That thing is huge, btw, with 16 major trunks.

The court house adjacent to the tree is gone however the tree while still upright with leaves on it, is roasted pretty badly. A tree expert will need to determine the extent of damage, some trees are pretty good at healing itself back others need to lop-off the damaged limbs.

The news has zero clue of the “island time mentality”

Talking about days and weeks for telecom and power to be restored

One of my best friends works for the company who owns Hawaii telecom. He’s been trying for 3 years to get people to go to work and update that aspect of infrastructure. He was pulled off the project and left it with basic network maintenance. Something to do with a certain percentage of local workers required to be on the crews.

This channel came about several years ago when CA was going through several years of bad fires, good mapping and progression updates. In this case, a different state but, the street mapping can give you can idea of the scale and what parts are devastated.

corsair, thanks for posting that YT video.

I'm convinced that there are many more deaths than we know about so far.

^^^^^^^^^^

Yesterday, I read a news blurb that over a thousand people are still unaccounted for in Maui.

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Yesterday, I read a news blurb that over a thousand people are still unaccounted for in Maui.

True, but remember there was no power, no cell phone service, a lot of people just left and are now in shelters somewhere.
I think most of those 1000 will turn up, but I wouldn't be surprised at several hundred dead when on-the-ground search is completed.

I’m talking to my guy in Kihei every day. They keep closing the road in because people are corresponding to the rules they have put in place. Millions of dollars being lost per day. The place will not be rebuilt for many many years.

What a tragedy! But a cautionary tale on wildland and forest management. I saw a report yesterday that former plantations there have grown over with non-native invasive species grasses. I wonder if it is Cogongrass? That stuff burns like coal oil.

Thank God almighty. My fam in Lahaina is safe. His house is safe. His neighborhood is up the hill/mountain from Lahaina. Unbelievable. So happy he and his family are safe.

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Thank God almighty. My fam in Lahaina is safe. His house is safe. His neighborhood is up the hill/mountain from Lahaina. Unbelievable. So happy he and his family are safe.

wonderful news!!

Spotted a headline on ABC News; only 3% of the effected areas have been searched. Ninety-three fatalities thus far.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weat...searched/ar-AA1f1MWQ

I don't think anyone is going to like the final number. It's going to be ugly.

I'm hoping that this wasn't man-caused.

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Originally posted by snwghst:

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Thank God almighty. My fam in Lahaina is safe. His house is safe. His neighborhood is up the hill/mountain from Lahaina. Unbelievable. So happy he and his family are safe.

wonderful news!!

Thank you. It was an awful week. I had something spectacular happen for me on Friday, I mean the best news for me in years, and it was nil because of this. I would take a bullet for this guy. He’s Filipino, but American as it gets. And one of his sons has had 4 open heart surgeries. He was 4 when I was last there visiting last year. My friend had his son lift up his shirt to show me and he had a cross on his chest, like Christ’s from being split open so many times. I mean his family is the last people that deserve to have their shit burnt down.

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Originally posted by Gustofer:
I don't think anyone is going to like the final number. It's going to be ugly.

I'm hoping that this wasn't man-caused.

It wasn’t. Word from my people there is that the 60 mph winds knocked down electrical poles, sparks, fire, and go from there. Maui, is like a 3rd world country in reality. Tourists visit there and they are too busy festering, drinking, sight seeing, etc, to view it through the lens of someone who lives and works there. Can’t blame them. If you get a break from work the last thing you probably want to think about is such things. You want to have fun. But the electrical, think of something like Puerto Rico photos you’ve seen. When I’m there I’m not in the tourist areas during the day. I’m always with locals and in their neighborhoods, etc if we aren’t in the water. In the local neighborhoods, the electrical is on poles, with wire strung out everywhere Puerto Rico or third world style. Most don’t understand how natives or locals live there. Affordable housing is almost nonexistent so locals live tough, too many people in one apartment or house, and the infrastructure is shit. And they work 2-3 different jobs, sell shit on Craig’s list or EBay on the side. Whole different story to the place that only locals know.

The Tongan volcano erupting might have had something to do with it. It sure as shit is why we have these..I don’t know what we’re at in TX now, 60-75 straight days of 100+ every day. 104-106 every day right now, it’s fucking terrible. But that Volcano that erupted put so much shit into the atmosphere it’s affecting world wide climate. This is the worst fire in 10 years in the USA. The way it works in Maui (I don’t mean to sound like some expert, not, I just go there a lot as it’s a home away from home due to my people there) is like most mountains. One side is wet, the other side is dry as fuck. You have Haleakala, dormant volcano, but treat it as a mountain, with a leeward side, and a windward side. I’d say the windward/wet side is Hana, and North side, like Haiku. For Haleakala those get the precipitation. West side of Haleakala is like a big valley in between the volcano and the West Maui mountains. That’s all dry as fuck. With Kihei, where I have people, being the Southern tip of that valley. Then you have Iao Valley in the West mountains which is the East side of the Maui mountains which is wet. You can drive by it from Wailuku to Kihei and on most days you can see Iao valley, easily, and rain falling in the valleys to the point you’ll see rainbows. That side of the West Maui mountains is always wet. I have hiked in there, flown in there in a helo, etc. Then the West side of the West Maui mountains is leeward. That’s Lahaina, Kaanapali, Kapalua etc. Up some elevation from Lahaina going up the West side of the West Maui mountains is dry as fuck. This was bound to happen at some point. It’s so dry there. The devastation is Lahaina but there were fires North of Kihei also in the middle of the dry valley in between both elevations. Just north of where P210 lives.

The worst part is the roads. I mean getting the West side of Maui there is only one legitimate way in. You can take the North route but it’s sketch, goes to 1 lane, and just not usable for normal transport. They keep shutting down the Honoapiʻilani Highway which is the only way in or out. I’ve stayed on the West side so many times if that highway is shutdown, that whole side of the island is proper fucked. I hate driving it during off peak and at night in normal times. Multiple beaches through there with multiple surf breaks with limited parking and people are always pulling out, way too fast, causing a total stoppage. You have to drive real slow through those areas and travel by car on the island in general just sucks as is. Limited infrastructure. So this fire makes it Pete Tong.

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
The worst part is the roads. I mean getting the West side of Maui there is only one legitimate way in. You can take the North route but it’s sketch, goes to 1 lane, and just not usable for normal transport. They keep shutting down the Honoapiʻilani Highway which is the only way in or out. I’ve stayed on the West side so many times if that highway is shutdown, that whole side of the island is proper fucked. I hate driving it during off peak and at night in normal times. Multiple beaches through there with multiple surf breaks with limited parking and people are always pulling out, way too fast, causing a total stoppage. You have to drive real slow through those areas and travel by car on the island in general just sucks as is. Limited infrastructure. So this fire makes it Pete Tong.

My daughter and her husband live in Makawao and used to work in Lahaina and Napili. It took nothing to close the highway you're talking about. Occasionally the wife and I would stay on the west side. On the day our flight home we left very early for the airport. Is what was ridiculous was the fact the Facebook had more reliable road reports than the Maui govt. I am going to wait to comment to get the full story of the the local .gov is handling this tragedy. Let's say I think I know what will be reported in the future.

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Originally posted by Bytes:
It took nothing to close the highway you're talking about.

Yep. Even normal times, if there is a wreck there, you could be sitting there stuck for 2 hours.

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
It wasn’t. Word from my people there is that the 60 mph winds knocked down electrical poles, sparks, fire, and go from there. Maui, is like a 3rd world country in reality. Tourists visit there and they are too busy festering, drinking, sight seeing, etc, to view it through the lens of someone who lives and works there. Can’t blame them. If you get a break from work the last thing you probably want to think about is such things. You want to have fun. But the electrical, think of something like Puerto Rico photos you’ve seen. When I’m there I’m not in the tourist areas during the day. I’m always with locals and in their neighborhoods, etc if we aren’t in the water. In the local neighborhoods, the electrical is on poles, with wire strung out everywhere Puerto Rico or third world style. Most don’t understand how natives or locals live there. Affordable housing is almost nonexistent so locals live tough, too many people in one apartment or house, and the infrastructure is shit. And they work 2-3 different jobs, sell shit on Craig’s list or EBay on the side. Whole different story to the place that only locals know.

Island life, whether its PR, Hawaii, Guam or USVI is a double-edged sword or, has two-sides. All those locations have established tourism industries but, they're barely held together by the local community which is entirely dependent on the outside world. Not unusual to see abject poverty at the swap meets or, in the tree-line at some of the lesser known beaches where entire families are living under a pop-up tent with various tarps strung about. I've got family on Oahu and they all talk about retiring to the mainland once they're of age; while island life for them is enjoyable, the common complaint is shit just doesn't get done and I'm over it. Island time is a no-shit, barrier excuse that everyone uses for their lack completing tasks. Its not a secret that in hot/humid areas of the world, the tempo of life is much slower than other latitudes, however the 'island time' excuse has been bent to fit a general malaise, poor work ethic, willful ignorance and largely an excuse for the unskilled.