August 18, 2023
"The head of Maui’s emergency management agency... defended the decision not to activate the sirens, saying the outdoor alarms are used primarily for tsunamis..."
"... and would not have helped because people are trained to seek higher ground when they hear the siren.... None of the 80 warning sirens placed around Maui were activated in last week’s fires.... A county-run website on the siren describes it as an 'all-hazard siren system' to alert residents to natural disasters and other emergency situations, 'including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more.'"
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We've managed to find our most mediocre people and put them in positions of leadership- everywhere.
The Hawaiian government screwed the pooch in a multitude of ways: No sirens, "green" energy instead of line maintenance, allowing buildup of dry native grasses known to be a fire risk, 5 hour delay in diverting water to refill the reservoirs.
But no, let's just blame "climate change", instead of focusing our attention on fixing the actual root causes: poor government practices. We are a world in decline.
Just another rationalization to justify government or big corporate stupidity.
It appears that Hawaii Electric’s mismanagement of its power lines was the thing that started the fire. That and the wrong kind of plants. PG&E also mismanaged its power lines and went bankrupt. Hawaii Electric was spending and concentrating on green energy and only spent $245k on power line management.
It’s a failure. Some empathy since there was pressure on his agency to devote resources to climate change advocacy. It will certainly become a top priority for his successor. Never let a crisis go to waste…
Hawaiian officials are exemplary for their incompetence in ignoring invasive, flammable grass, underestimating the power of a wildfire, not shutting off power lines and for absurdly ineffective alarm systems.
They should all be replaced but won't be because there's a certain laxity of attitude when you're in "paradise". It sure softens the brain.
Oh, and the Democrat governor of Hawaii says there won't be any investigation of the over 1,000 deaths. Can't have Hawaii Electric on the hook for all those payouts to the families of their victims.
Oh, and they dropped tax evasion charges against Hunter Biden. Prosecutors never had any intention of actually taking him to court and seeking justice. They say maybe they'll refile charges in California or DC since this judge was prepared to actually see him go to trial. So they'll try to judge shop elsewhere. Shouldn't be too hard to find an Obama judge to accept the sweetheart plea deal.
Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I'm starting to feel the worm is turning. DEI is being rolled back in some university systems, other universities are losing lawsuits, states are outlawing mutilation of children, businesses are being punished for turning their backs on their customers in the name of woke. Now we have an undeniable example of people dying and communities devastated by "equity."
The world stands on the precipice of becoming a better place.
We never considered there being Actual Emergencies..
Using our Emergency sirens would have created MUCH paperwork.. Not that we Don't LOVE paperwork
Surprised they haven't blamed Trump yet.
"We've managed to find our most mediocre people and put them in positions of leadership- everywhere."
I would argue it's actually worse than that. Mediocrity can still be competent. This is worse. This is raw incompetence. The least capable people have been installed in positions of power everywhere. It's a kakistocracy.
These people are like landmines. They're installed in their particular hole, covered in dirt and collect money as they lie in wait to detonate at some inopportune time when leadership is needed.
We're in a global competency crisis. You see it every week.
From Ace at Ace Or Spades yesteday:
"One of the many, many failings of leftists is that they disdain mundane repair work and upgrades. They only see Grandiose Battles against Existential Threats, because they are narcissists who must always create a narrative around themselves making them fantasy-fiction heroes.
So they ignore the boring work of simply keeping infrastructure in good state of repair, instead crusading to Save the World.
While bridges crumble and roads are worn to patches, the left continues Fighting Infrastructure Racism.
That failing, the refusal to do the little things necessary to sustain civilization itself, just murdered hundreds of people.
And they're not ashamed of it.
They're proud, and calling for new Global Crusades."
What actionable information does the siren convey to its hearers? “Be afraid,” yes. But afraid of what exactly? Primed to do what: run away, stay put, pack a bag, fill the tub with water, dig a trench, gather at a rally point?
Talk about misinforming your public. In an age of instant information-dense communications among hand-held devices, what damn use is a siren system that could mean almost anything? …They apparently didn’t even have a code —like SOS— so that “tsunami” was, say, 3 long blasts and “wildfire” was 3 short ones.
As you say, Temujin, we have selected the morons and raised them to rule over us.
Bad judgement? Can't be! It's either climate change/global warming or else Trump...
That was my thought when I first heard that they didn't activate the sirens.
If people think of them as tsunami warnings they will head inland and up, possibly toward the fire.
Warning sirens are useless or worse if it is not clear WHAT they are warning about.
John Henry
Blogger Temujin said...
We've managed to find our most mediocre people and put them in positions of leadership- everywhere.
---------
If the law prof kids pluck the best law jobs b/c of their parents, then... Hunter Biden for Prez?
Shame on you people who plug your kids, and your special identities over performance. You broke the country, ann.
Ok, I can buy that explanation but then the next question would be, did you already know that sirens wouldn't be an effective tool to warn people in the event of a fast-moving fire and did you look into any alternatives?
If the government has reasonably considered various scenarios and come up with some appropriate solutions to deploy when the event occurs then there isn't much more we should expect. What we don't know is, what was the point of no return for this disaster and could there have been time before that when something could have been done and wasn't because it wasn't ever planned for but should have been.
Hurricane prone states like Florida do a really good job of tracking a hurricane and putting out warninga and evacuating the danger areas based on the tracking. But there comes a point when, if the storm shifts and makes landfall elsewhere, there's nothing anyone can do to get people out in time. Ron DeSantis knows all about this with Hurricane Ian and the sh*t he took over what was planned for and what actually happened.
Why can we get blaring screeching sounds on our cell phones about missing child alerts but there wasn't a cell phone noise system in place to warn of danger and briefly explain its nature.
Yes, Temujin, and the left admires them for it.
The sirens seem to be lose-lose. Blow the sirens, and people run for the hills to escape a tsunami -- because that's what the mind-set for sirens in Hawaii is. Then you have people running to be incinerated. It'd be like blowing the sirens for a tsunami along the Gulf Coast. Everyone is going to think a tornado is coming.
Don't blow the sirens, and people will complain that they had no warning.
back when there was the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert..
an alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio, and cellphones in the U.S. state of Hawaii, instructing citizens to seek out shelter due to an incoming ballistic missile. It concluded: "This is not a drill".
WHY didn't they use these systems to warn about the wildfires? of course, even during WWII, ..
The state had not authorized civil defense outdoor warning sirens.
Tim:
Last night Omaha Public Power District approved a $2b plus capex spending plan on Green Energy. I told them about what happened in Hawaii and I got blank stares. People believe what they want to believe.
Warning sirens are useless or worse if it is not clear WHAT they are warning about.
Actually, a warning siren that you don't understand is a Great Time to
a) call 911 and ask? or,
b) turn on your radio, or,
c) check the tv news
If there's a siren, it's PROBABLY about Something.. (or, if you're in West Union IA, it's Noon or 6pm)
When i heard Our sirens going off at 3:43pm, i wondered What THE? And checked the radio
Turned out a tornado was spotted a few miles to the southeast, and that it was GOOD TIME to check the water heater in the basement
Put the blame where it belongs! “It’s climate change!”, cry the media and these incompetent Democrats who control the state of Hawaii.
Soulless idiots that they are…
michaele said "Why can we get blaring screeching sounds on our cell phones about missing child alerts but there wasn't a cell phone noise system in place to warn of danger and briefly explain its nature."
--------------------------------------
Because that would be effective and progressives are not effective. The end.
Dave Begley said...Last night Omaha Public Power District approved a $2b plus capex spending plan on Green Energy.
Yep, still lots to be done. But for the first time in many years, they are on the back foot.
Asked about Andaya’s resume, David Hafner, a retired telecommunications planner for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, questioned whether his relative inexperience affected his agency’s performance in a crisis.
“It’s a good ol’ boy network,” Hafner said. “This time it cost lives.”
https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/was-mauis-emergency-operations-chief-in-over-his-head/
From Katrina to California to Maui. We continue to find corrupt incompetent democrats at the heart of the disasters. So not only are blue run cities/states unable to protect their citizens from crime, they cannot even use a damn siren when needed.
But hey, you voted for it, pretty much asked for it.
This is the one guy so far who I think had a choice between two shitty decisions, and made the one he considered least shitty. Maybe he was wrong, but...
Yes, it would probably behoove Hawaii to have a simplied Morse-Code-esque way of using the sirens to let you know what sort of disaster was coming in. And distributing the code before and during a disaster.
But given that there wasn't such a system, given that the power lines and the 911 were collapsing, given all that the guy had a choice. And he's not wrong in concluding that a lot of people upon hearing the sirens would 1. head east towards the higher ground (and toward the fire) or shelter in place.
It reminds me alot about how Governor Abbott and the Mayor of Houston argued over whether people should evacuate from Harvey. There is a lot of common sense in evacuating away from a Hurricane, but in Houston's case, a lot of deaths in prior Hurricanes were drowning victims in vehicles seeking to escape. Unlike when the Mayor of N.O. just flailed around, I think this was a case where there are two potentially dangerous options, and you've got to pick one, and you can understand why people disagree on which one is right or wrong.
Now granted, this guy is the head of the emergency management of Hawaii, so he probably is partly to blame for the lack of pre-disaster protocols being in place. But this decision doesn't strike me as being the incompetence of say, the water-management guy (although again, the idea you wouldn't have a pre-disaster approval to divert water, or at least a way of expediting the decision is insane)
My wife’s college roommate is staying with us today. She’s from Hilo and she’s explaining to me about the web of corruption that runs Hawaii. It is exactly what you’d expect- funds and jobs are distributed by your political connections, priorities like infrastructure are neglected and doled out according to politics. Education is horrible. It is a closed system. I told her the power line causation and she is not the least bit surprised.
They don't have an alert system to send notifications to phones? They should have had something in place to warn of fires. This was not the first one.
Read about the lack of preparation, and what they spent the money on instead, in this article by Lee Fang (one of the journalists who worked on the Twitter Files - Hawaii Electric, While Failing to Act on Fire Prevention, Had Cozy Ties to Regulators
Gilbar: When i heard Our sirens going off at 3:43pm, i wondered What THE? And checked the radio
Turned out a tornado was spotted a few miles to the southeast, and that it was GOOD TIME to check the water heater in the basement
I've been in heated discussion on The Site Formerly Known As Twitter about this. I think NOT turning on the sirens was a good call; as G wrote in a previous comment, the mindset of most locals is going to be "Ahh, a tidal wave!" and the ones that run for high ground get to roast together.
Gonna preach a little now:
Situational awareness is a life-saving skill.
Threat assessment is a life-saving skill.
Panic decreases your chance of survival in any situation.
Now, as an aside, do yourself a favor and read Young Men and Fire.
Just wait until we get an EMP attack-we immediately return to 1850 with no horses or coal-powered steam engines. All that money spent on climate change and green energy could have been spent to harden our electric system.
That explanation makes sense to me. If you spend time on Maui, you learn about the warning sirens and that they are a tsunami warning system. Whether sounding them would have helped or worsened things is hard to say, the fire blew up in minutes.
"for his health"
Hard to keep healthy if you are whacked.
If you have spent time in Hawaii, and dealt with any of the local government, this incompetence is no surprise to you.
Yes, everyone would have been confused by the sirens. If only there were some way to communicate a few details about which way to flee. If only we could get some sort of communication device into the hands of a few people to send them a message, an alert of some sort…
So the entire siren/warning system is ONLY for tsunamis?
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?
Sounds like the left thinking in we have a (potential) problem. Leading to the we must "do something" mode. And then in tunnel vision mode.
Look, tsunamis can be horribly destructive. But how many have there been there. I honestly do not know. I DO know they've had a wildfire problem identified.
Maybe these idiots can begin training the populous that when the sirens sound they check one of the multitude of devices that can inform you of the actual emergency.
We have a bunch of alarms in our house that can shout out "Fire!" or "Carbon Monoxide!" Each one cost maybe $50. You might think that the community alarm systems could be a bit more informative than just "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Surprised they haven't blamed Trump yet.
I am pretty sure that the Soviet Democrats will blame climate change that Trump failed to address.
“Just another rationalization to justify government or big corporate stupidity. “
“It appears that Hawaii Electric’s mismanagement of its power lines was the thing that started the fire. That and the wrong kind of plants. PG&E also mismanaged its power lines and went bankrupt. Hawaii Electric was spending and concentrating on green energy and only spent $245k on power line management.”
Just as CA is being quickly destroyed by long term Dem party control, so is HI. Green Energy is stupid, pushed by Dem politicians on the take, and supported by extremely naive Dem voters. It’s never been an existential problem, but rather a way to make money by the elites, while destroying first world economies, starting with CA, but quickly followed by HI, and the rest. That is the existential problem.
I should note that all of my electronics devices lit up three times Sunday for severe weather/potential flash flood warnings last Sunday, as I drove between Las Vegas and Phoenix. Besides being intentionally annoying, the caused me to look at the sky, and keep track of the storm clouds. I could see it, and was passing comfortably around them. The system does work fairly well, when utilized, though on that trip, there are large gaps in cell coverage, esp through NW AZ, that can delay the warnings a bit. Saw similar problems with forest fire warnings in NW MT/N ID. Still, bulk of the country has good cell coverage, esp compared to where the people are located. Though, they could restrict the coverage of Amber alerts to the closest quarter million or so people (in PHX, you get them for disappearances an hour drive and a million or two people away).
I get severe weather and tornado warnings on my phone and I live in suburban Philadelphia.
"Tsunami" warnings only on "emergency sirens' activation. We constantly get emergency warnings around here. Emergencies come in so many forms, who let that "Tsunami" definition stick?
Hawaiian democrats excel at lazy, inept and mini-corruption.
The rotting ugly wind turbines on the islands sit and laugh at everyone.
IRA is a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. They went Green and mismanaged their State.
What does Mazie Hirono have to say about this? "Men need to sit down"?
I lived in Hawaii as an employee for a few months. Regular apartment, grocery shopping, etc., and found it to be the the stupidest, most ignorant place I've seen in America. Softens the mind.
As usual we get terrible coverage from the NYT and the MSM. Where's the article giving us the facts? I've been reading everything available, and I still don't understand where this fire started, how it got out of control, and why the fuck was it allowed to destroy a town and kill 99 people?
And why aren't people mad as hell? This isn't 1903, this is 2023. There's no way a fire should be able to engulf a rich Hawaian town and kill almost 100 people. We have computers, the internet, cell phones, modern fire fighting equipement, etc. etc. etc.
But we've found a fall guy. Some poor shlub who didn't turn on the sirens. Sorry, but who was REALLY responsible? Wild Fires happen. Trees burn. But they shouldn't kill 100 people or burn down millions in property. Was there a plan in case of this sort of fire? When did they know it was out of control? Why wasn't anyone thinking one step a head? Who was running the firefighting effort? Why weren't there firebreaks before the fire?
I could go on and on. The sad thing is the libtards in Hawaii will keep voting the same clowns back in power. And then complain that Blackrock has swopped in and bought all the land and houses.
I see the losertarians are piping up. "that's what you get when you have Government in charge"
Yeah, if only we'd had a Soros/Zuckerberg fire departement this never would've happened.
Sarcasm off
I'm hearing a story about the multi year 24ft bridge project in Hawaii that is supposedly the most expensive stretch of road in the United States.
...saying a lot- I lived through Boston's Big Dig...
Howard (not that Howard) said...
But no, let's just blame "climate change", instead of focusing our attention on fixing the actual root causes: poor government practices.
That (and $$$$) is the primary function of global warming/climate change/climate crisis.
This is just bureaucratic BS. Yes, they are known as the Tsunami warning system. But the reality in Hawaii, a tsunami warning to "run up hill fast" would always be too late. If in Hawaii, especially on the Big Island or Maui and you experience and earthquake, i.e., one in Hawaii, that nearly knocks you off your feet, run uphill fast. Don't get caught watching the sea go out as the wave is coming.
On the other hand, a distant tsunami can take hours to arrive. They sound the alarm and clear the beaches ahead of the quite accurate arrival times.
People should know, no earthquake felt, but alarm sounding, check for emergency announcement. And I get tornado warnings on my cell phone. Did they issue an emergency warning on the cellular system?
Darkisland said...
That was my thought when I first heard that they didn't activate the sirens.
If people think of them as tsunami warnings they will head inland and up, possibly toward the fire.
That’s a point I made when discussing this with my wife. And her immediate response was that at least it would get people out of their houses where they could see the fires and figure it out. Smart woman, my wife. (Okay, she did marry me, but still …)
Some people upthread are asking why they couldn’t have sent alerts to cell phones and TVs. The answer is that that was precisely what Emergency Management did. But cell phones don’t work unless they’re connected to a cell tower, and cell towers don’t work if power to them has been cut by high winds or fire or both, or if the tower has been knocked down by a mix of high winds and cable stays weakened by high heat. Televisions don’t work without power, and if power lines are knocked down by winds and/or fire then they’re nothing but a dead piece of black glass that won’t warn you about anything.
I recall some years back staying in a place where a special radio only came on to broadcast warnings, and we guests were advised to pay heed because if it broadcast a warning message then a life-threatening weather event was on its way. Does anyone in the commentariat know more about this? Of course radios need power, too, but if it came with battery backup then one could ask why these weren’t mandated?
The death toll is up to 111, with roughly 1000 more missing and unaccounted for. It’s bad, and going to get worse.
The water managers took 6+ hours to divert reservoir water to the city water system, which ran out of water just as the original fire was almost controlled. And for some reason, no fireman, chief to truck driver, or policeman or citizen or reservoir technician, ignored that stupidity and let the water flow to the firemen. The second sentence is the more concerning one.
When I was a yoot our town had an alarm system that sounded like an old-fashioned factory whistle, kinda like the noise an old locomotive made when it blew off steam. It could be heard for a mile or two.
It could blow different sounds, for xeample, to indicate a call to volunteer firefighters, or to announce a "No School Day" during stormy winter weather to us gleeful kids.
Imagine: an alarm system conveying different information----why, that's so CRAZY it just might work!
p.s. That Hawaii kid who stared at his navel for five hours deciding equity issues before turning on the water had better hire some security----stat. What a shockingly STUPID person!!
The county website also has these instructions:
“In case of a man-made attack, a wailing three-minute siren tone is the attention alert signal. When the siren is heard, "Get inside, Stay Inside, Stay tuned." As practical as possible enter a structure, be prepared to spend 14 days within that structure, and stay tuned to your radio, television of any local station and listen for emergency information and instructions. Listen to EAS broadcasts for further instructions and the all-clear announcement.“
That tells you a little bit about how old the technology is. My hometown is having a problem with one of its outdoor sirens and this is how the city manager has proposed addressing it:
"You know, outdoor warning systems are really kind of old technology now and a thing of the past -- if it's going to cost a ton of money to fix this do you really want to fix it…. I don't think it's really worth the money anymore because with technology now, everybody knows before the sirens even go off."
Everyone in Hawaii expected the 'government' to protect them... Joke is on them. They voted Democrat and will continue to do so cause the feed in the trough is so good.
And far left 'green' energy is not so 'green'.. while Biden does his 'no comment' routine.
Reap what you sow.
In various cafe threads I asked why firefighters complained of having poor water pressure at the hydrants, and sometimes no water pressure at all. Well, last night I got my answer. The money quote:
But [Hawaii Governor Josh Green] said conflicts over water are being reshaped in an age of climate change and wildfires. Now the conflict includes opponents who do not want water to be used to fight fires, the governor said.
“One thing that people need to understand especially those from far away is that there’s been a great deal of water conflict on Maui for many years,” Green said. “It’s important that we’re honest about this. People have been fighting against the release of water to fight fires. I’ll leave that to you to explore.”
“We have a difficult time on Maui and other rural areas getting enough water for houses, for our people, for any response,” Green added. “But it’s important we start being honest. There are currently people still fighting in our state giving us water access to fight and prepare for fires even as more storms arise.”
An official named M. Kaleo Manuel, Deputy Direction of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, refused to release water to fight fires for a period of five hours, lest a particular traditional Hawaiian farm (kalo) be inconvenienced. When the water was finally released it was too late, and fire prevented officials from reaching the particular siphon that needed to be activated.
Manuel has a degree in Hawaiian Studies and has been videotaped asserting that in Hawaii water should be "revered, not used." I wonder whether being arrested and charged with 111 counts of negligent homicide might change his mind?
Probably not. Environmentalists are not pro-environment; they are generally anti-humans.
Let me add that M. Kaleo Manuel has expressed a need for "equity." Well, thanks to his intransigence native Hawaiians, haoles (white devils), Kepani (ethnic Japanese), and ethnic Chinese all lost their homes -- and sometimes their lives -- thogether. So no doubt he's a success in his own eyes.
I understand that the hospitals on Maui are full to the breaking point with burn victims. I will ask yet again why is the 1000 bed USNS Mercy still at its dock in San Diego? I see that the Air Force has dispatched helicopters, but why am I not reading about a Berlin Airlift style operation to transport urgently-needed supplies?
And it's time to give a shout-out to United Airlines. Per CBS News:
"United Airlines said it's prioritizing the welfare of its employees on Maui and has scrapped commercial flights to the island. It is instead using empty passenger planes to carry Maui residents off the island."
It main competitors in Hawaii, American and Alaska (?!?!?) are apparently still flying their regular routes for now.
"native Hawaiians, haoles (white devils), Kepani (ethnic Japanese), and ethnic Chinese all lost their homes"
My mom's Tongan caregiver lost 5 members of her family, a distant cousin, spouse and 3 children, in the fire. Very equitable.
In one sense, that is probably accurate: the training and habits would have been really bad.
In another, the outcome was really bad.
Conclusion: The trainging and habits were really bad. Only one major threat was accounted for. THIS was the failure of the emergency management team.
Basically, the Hawaiian "authorities" are telling their citizens: "You fucked up---you trusted us."
I've been in heated discussion on The Site Formerly Known As Twitter about this. I think NOT turning on the sirens was a good call; as G wrote in a previous comment, the mindset of most locals is going to be "Ahh, a tidal wave!" and the ones that run for high ground get to roast together.
Versions of this have been posted by several here but the assumption that the sirens are only for tsunamis is incorrect. The web site for the emergency management agency lists many reasons for using the sirens including specifically wildfires. In fact they were used to warn residents of the 2019 wildfire. As they were to warn of Kim's missile threats. And just logically, ANY warning including a "tsunami" siren would have been useful to alert people to danger. Many victims said by the time the saw smoke it was too late to evacuate pets and neighbors. They had to run now! ANY warning is helpful when fire is afoot, as I have personal experience dealing with. It takes precious time to alert neighbors who are old and or feeble in order to get them moving away from danger.
"Yeah they made the right call" is a dumb take. Sorry to be harsh but people died because of many bad decisions and this was a bad one too.
Bad link in my comment at 11:17. Here's the correct one:
https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/08/a-state-official-refused-to-release-water-for-west-maui-fires-until-it-was-too-late/
Also here.
Thanks Big Mike.
It seems that "Josh" the GOvernor is part of the problem. He acts like he's bystander. He won't even name the people who were fighting to release water for fires.
You have to wonder why Hawaii which has a super-majority of Asian-Americans is constantly elected white men as Governor.
You can emit carbon into the atmosphere via a coal-fired power plant, or you can emit carbon into the atmosphere via the burning of an entire town.
Pick one.
Here's what I don't get. Seawater is not potable. Fine, don't drink it. But seawater will put out a fire.
Hawaii is completely surrounded by water. Why not draw hydrant water from the sea?
The other day in Houston, we had a "Blue Alert" when 2 criminals with a long previous history shot a cop. We have "Blue Alert", "Silver Alert" (Joe Biden types wandering off), "Amber Alert" (Joe Biden types nabbing children), and severe weather alerts (Joe Biden types talking to foreign nationals). They come straight to your phones, if you want them. I've opted out, because they have made so many of them that your phone is bound to fire an alert about once a week, and the Blue, Silver, Amber alerts are statewide, so a Joe Biden type does something in Lubbock, and we get warnings in Houston.
-Hawaii is completely surrounded by water. Why not draw hydrant water from the sea?
Ever try growing vegetation after a parcel of ground is heavily laced with salt?
OTOH nothing stops people from building a nuclear-powered desalinization plant on the shore somewhere away from towns and tourist traps. Those radioactive elements will decay, releasing heat energy, whether we use that heat energy or not.
I don’t know who is to blame. Those photos of burnt out boats and cars and just heartbreaking, now that we come to understand that there were families in those boats and cars.
Way too much governmental incompetence on display here.
Not enough infrastructure maintenance, not enough shutting down main electrical lines in red flag wind conditions, not enough urgency to refill reservoirs during wildfires (gotta consider the risks to taro farmers downstream!), not enough warning.
Heads should roll, and be replaced by people with actual knowledge about their field instead of politically connected dithering hacks.
They only see Grandiose Battles against Existential Threats, because they are narcissists who must always create a narrative around themselves making them fantasy-fiction heroes.
Everybody wants to save the world.
Nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes after dinner.
"Ever try growing vegetation after a parcel of ground is heavily laced with salt?"
Better dead plants than scores of dead people.
@Free Manure, go read about M. Kaleo Manuel, Deputy Director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. He refused to release water for fire fighting lest one lone taro farmer be mildly inconvenienced. The Hawaiians don’t se things the way you do.
If there were families in those boats, then they sort of missed the point of having a boat...
“I understand that the hospitals on Maui are full to the breaking point with burn victims. I will ask yet again why is the 1000 bed USNS Mercy still at its dock in San Diego? I see that the Air Force has dispatched helicopters, but why am I not reading about a Berlin Airlift style operation to transport urgently-needed supplies?”
We found with COVID-19 that it takes weeks to activate this hospital ships. The doctors, nurses, and others staffing the ships have real jobs, and have to be called up, etc. Of course, the ships were never used for the COVID-19 pandemic, because the hospitals around the country didn’t fill up, and it turned out that putting patients on ventilators was one of the worst things that you could do for them. But that was back in the “we’re all going to die” days, before we realized that for those without significant comorbidities, the virus wasn’t that deadly (and for the really young was down in the drowning in mop bucket territory as to frequency).
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