Maui to Rebuilt as a Smart Island

[DaSDGuy]

Looks like climate change was involved in the decision process, but not in a good way:


Hawaiian Electric was aware of infrastructure issues that could contribute to a wildfire threat but focused on shifting the company toward renewable energy rather than fixing problems, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The utility company concluded in 2019 that it needed to invest more in preventing its power lines from emitting sparks, among other issues. Consulting California's efforts to reduce wildfires, the company drafted a plan to install more insulated conductors, fire retardant poles and more aggressive monitoring technology.

The company barely pursued those goals over the next two years, however, investing less than $250,000 on wildfire projects, according to the Journal. It did not request state permission to raise rates to pay for wildfire prevention until 2022.

Instead, the company found itself focused on a state-mandated shift toward renewable energy.


So the democraps in power did this to themselves.

Hawaiian Electric knew of wildfire threat, but focused instead on mandated shift to renewable energy

Hawaiian Electric set wildfire safety to the side, in favor of pursuing a state-mandated shift toward renewable energy in recent years.

www.foxnews.com

 

[GURPS]

Not long after Maui’s disaster chief explained why he didn’t trigger the island’s alarm system during the devastating wildfires that killed over 100 people, he resigned. The remarks were brutal, where he explained his decision-making behind the lack of sirens, essentially saying that the people who perished would have died anyway (via NBC News):

Maui's top emergency management official resigned Thursday, one day after he defended his decision not to sound warning sirens as wildfires swept across the island.

The resignation of Herman Andaya, administrator of the county’s emergency management agency, was effective immediately, a county spokesperson said.

A wildfire devastated the historic West Maui town of Lahaina on Aug. 8, killing more than 100 people and destroying thousands of buildings, many of them residential.

Residents have described fleeing the area with little more than what they could grab — and with no way to receive emergency alerts sent to mobile devices since the power had been out for many since early that morning.

As the fire approached, Andaya said he made the decision not to sound the sirens as he feared coastal residents would have fled inland, toward the flames.

[…]

A fire official responded that they were still important during major emergencies, when power and phones might be down.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to diminish the value of sirens,” Andaya said. “I totally agree with you, chief, that the sirens are important.”

So, That’s Why Maui’s Disaster Chief Quit

townhall.com

 

[GURPS]

As have you all, I’ve been thinking about Hawaii. Yesterday, award-winning journalist and Twitter files pioneer Michael Shellenberger weighed in on the Maui disaster, assigning the blame to woke establishmentarians and their bizarre, deadly climate policies:



Michael’s article is a more thoughtful version of the same distrustful theories we’ve seen coming from on-the-ground Hawaiians, who all believe the government is responsible for the fires, not Mother Nature. Theories abound. Space lasers, aluminum nanoparticles, cops stopping people from leaving Lahaina, child traffickers, Hollywood celebrities, military arsonists, and even the mysterious missing trainload of fertilizer have been blamed. Among others.

Meanwhile, clueless corporate media is running with “climate change.” But it’s not working.

‘Climate change’ is the dumbest possible explanation for the Maui disaster. And on the other hand, I’m not ruling out any of the alternative theories. Who knows? But what is getting clearer and clearer is that the deep-blue state of Hawaii is looking pretty anti-establishment at this point, isn’t it?

You could say the island state of Hawaii has swallowed a great big red pill.

And if, as it appears, the Establishment has lost jab-happy Hawaii, I’m ready to believe in Alister Heath’s global counter-revolution. Hope and change, as someone once said.

☕️ ANTI-ESTABLISHMENTARIANISM ☙ Friday, August 17, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Updates from the revolution; Project Veritas meltdown; Maui blames wokeism; new improved modRNA jabs; bad news for the Proxy War; Fetterman vacation; North Carolina's counter-revolution; and more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[BOP]

As have you all, I’ve been thinking about Hawaii. Yesterday, award-winning journalist and Twitter files pioneer Michael Shellenberger weighed in on the Maui disaster, assigning the blame to woke establishmentarians and their bizarre, deadly climate policies:


Michael’s article is a more thoughtful version of the same distrustful theories we’ve seen coming from on-the-ground Hawaiians, who all believe the government is responsible for the fires, not Mother Nature. Theories abound. Space lasers, aluminum nanoparticles, cops stopping people from leaving Lahaina, child traffickers, Hollywood celebrities, military arsonists, and even the mysterious missing trainload of fertilizer have been blamed. Among others.

Meanwhile, clueless corporate media is running with “climate change.” But it’s not working.

‘Climate change’ is the dumbest possible explanation for the Maui disaster. And on the other hand, I’m not ruling out any of the alternative theories. Who knows? But what is getting clearer and clearer is that the deep-blue state of Hawaii is looking pretty anti-establishment at this point, isn’t it?

You could say the island state of Hawaii has swallowed a great big red pill.

And if, as it appears, the Establishment has lost jab-happy Hawaii, I’m ready to believe in Alister Heath’s global counter-revolution. Hope and change, as someone once said.

☕️ ANTI-ESTABLISHMENTARIANISM ☙ Friday, August 17, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Updates from the revolution; Project Veritas meltdown; Maui blames wokeism; new improved modRNA jabs; bad news for the Proxy War; Fetterman vacation; North Carolina's counter-revolution; and more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

Hawaii has been screwed over in every possible way since before its statehood, and yet, they're loyal to the Demonrats.

 

[GURPS]

Which is kind of mysterious. What kind of bureaucrat has "supporters"? Politicians have supporters, but bureaucrats? And why are they stepping up to the plate now, particularly with news coming out that he delayed the release of water to save Lahaina. Are they happy he apparently stuck it to Lahaina? This doesn't seem to be the time to applaud this guy, let alone shower him with leis and dance the hula in his honor. But they are.

And that suggests that reforming the system in Hawaii that created the conditions for the incineration of Lahaina, is going to very tough job to uproot. Politics is at work here.

After all, here's what he did to get himself "redeployed" as deputy director of his agency, the Hawaiian Commission on Water Resources Management, according to Honolulu Civil Beat, which broke the story:

With wildfires ravaging West Maui on Aug. 8, a state water official delayed the release of water that landowners wanted to help protect their property from fires. The water standoff played out over much of the day and the water didn’t come until too late.
The dispute involved the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ water resource management division and West Maui Land Co., which manages agricultural and residential subdivisions in West Maui as well as Launiupoko Irrigation Co., Launiupoko Water Co., Olowalu Water Co. and Ha’iku Town Water Association.
DLNR delayed releasing water requested by West Maui Land Co. to help prevent the spread of fire, sources familiar with the situation said.
Specifically, according to accounts of four people with knowledge of the situation, M. Kaleo Manuel, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and DLNR’s deputy director for water resource management, initially balked at West Maui Land Co.’s requests for additional water to help prevent the fire from spreading to properties managed by the company.
According to the sources, Manuel wanted West Maui Land to get permission from a taro, or kalo, farm located downstream from the company’s property. Manuel eventually released water but not until after the fire had spread. It was not clear on Monday how much damage the fire did in the interim or whether homes were damaged.

Seems the taro farmer (or farm collective) he had to get permission from first needed five hours to make up his mind about whether to save Lahaina.

And based on what's known about Manuel, given his youthful age of 39, his involvement with Native Hawaiian "collectives," as well as his statements about water "equity," he seems to have thought he only represented Native Hawaiian activist groups in his state job, and not the county of Maui or the entire state of Hawaii.

Buried News: What was with that Hawaii water official getting showered with leis from 'supporters'?

Kaleo Manuel, the now-

www.americanthinker.com

 

[Hijinx]

From the way that the real estate people jumped in to buy the land I am convinced that this whole thing is a land grab by the big hotels and resort people. They knew from the way things were being set up that sooner or later a big fire was coming and they laid in wait to steal the property from rightful owner and commercialize it./

 

[GURPS]

I saw a news report ' The Gov ' will step in to buy up property to save the locals from predatory businesses and I am, sure other people ' not approved ' by progressives

 

[Kyle]

Biden Awards Hawaii Official Medal Of Honor For Saving Water During Fire


WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a heartwarming ceremony, President Joe Biden awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor to Kaleo Manuel for his work conserving water during the deadly Hawaii wildfires.

"When people begged for water to save their homes, their very lives - Mr. Manuel had the courage to stand firm and say 'No'," said President Biden. "That's the kind of climate change warrior this administration wants to honor."

Biden Awards Hawaii Official Medal Of Honor For Saving Water During Fire

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a heartwarming ceremony, President Joe Biden awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor to Kaleo Manuel for his work conserving water during the deadly Hawaii wildfires.

babylonbee.com

 

[Hijinx]

IMO the people who got burned out are phucked.

Screwed by their Governor, their Government The United States of America and the throngs of real estate agents looking to make a killing.

 

[GURPS]

More evidence appeared over the weekend that the nation’s diversity-hire infrastructure is crumbling under its own massive incompetence. The only question is, how many people will be killed in the collapse? The New York Post ran a story Saturday headlined, “Hawaii official concerned with ‘equity’ delayed releasing water for more than 5 hours as wildfires raged: report.”

FYI, Lahaina’s death toll is up to 111 Americans, with no sign of slowing down.



Dangerous moron Kaleo Manuel, deputy director of Hawaii’s Commission on Water Resource Management


Former Obama Foundation Leader and Hawaiian water official Kaleo Manuel, pictured above, refused to authorized Lahaina firefighters’ request for water for over five hours while the town was burning. Instead, Kaleo asked them to submit a report about the “impact of water diversion” before he would agree to approve it. I am not making that up.

This news has only added more fuel to residents’ raging convictions that the government wanted to burn them out, and who can blame them?

One clue was that last year, Kaleo exhorted a University of Hawaii audience of compliant, grant-hungry academics that, “Let water connect us and not divide us. We can share it, but it requires true conversations about equity … How do we coexist with the resources we have?” In the talk, Kaleo referred to “water” as “a sacred god.”

Sharing, equity, coexistence, Neo-paganism, nature over human life. Wokeness.

Speaking of which, Hawaii’s woke Governor, Josh Green, described the water-denial mishap as a reasonable “debate” over whether “agricultural water supplies should be used for battling wildfires.” He actually said that.

But don’t worry! On Wednesday, the government evacuated Kaleo to a brand new federal job in the Department of Land and Natural Resources where he can continue his important work on nature’s equity rights. So he won’t be available to testify.

The government’s brain-damaged drive for diversity may have finally reached maximum incompetence. Hopefully. We’ll see.

☕️ WATER GODS ☙ Monday, August 21, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

CNN shatters the Matrix; trouble in Hunterland; media hypocrisy; crumbling diversity infrastructure; controlled demolition of blue cities accelerates; Moderna aid package; leprosy and jabs; and more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[Sneakers]

The government’s brain-damaged drive for diversity may have finally reached maximum incompetence.

Yeah..... I don't think we've peaked yet.

 

[GURPS]

Yeah..... I don't think we've peaked yet.

The Biden Administration ...... the cross dressing nuclear waste expert

 

[GURPS]

FEMA Officials Enjoy Luxury Hotels as Displaced Maui Residents Need Aid​

”Bungling U.S. government bureaucrats dispatched to the Maui disaster zone are shacked up in $1,000-a-night luxury hotels,” the UK outlet remarked snidely. FEMA officials have been critiqued for their slow response, The Daily Mail noted, but this new revelation shows just how out-of-touch the officials are.

The outlet asserted FEMA officials are living in three five-star establishments: Four Seasons, Fairmont Kea Lani, and the Grand Wailea Astoria. Other FEMA officials are reportedly staying at the four-star Marriott Wailea Beach Resort, which is open to the public starting at $749 per night, though the government is reportedly getting a discounted rate of $531. The Daily Mail even provided pictures of officials at the hotels.

MauiNow announced Aug. 20 that the American Red Cross and their partners had gotten 1,800 survivors into hotels, and that only a handful of people remained in the temporary shelters. Still, many residents who lost everything, including loved ones, have lacked sufficient aid and any prospect of rebuilding. The state government is reportedly planning to buy the land, and it is unclear what would happen to it, though locals fear they will never be able to return and rebuild. Residents organized their own relief efforts in the face of government incompetence.

Tragically, at least 114 people are dead from the fire and 1,000 more are still unaccounted for. Thousands are homeless. As The Daily Mail wryly remarked, “But that has not stopped the under-fire agency [FEMA] from splashing taxpayer cash to put up more than 1,000 of its personnel at four bank-breaking resorts in Wailea after the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. for more than a century that caused an estimated $5billion in damage.”

A local government employee identified only by his first name, Kaleo, told The Daily Mail the FEMA officials were “selfish.” In light of the resorts’ 45-minute drive from Lahaina, Kaleo questioned, “Shouldn’t they stay closer to the site, instead of staying across on the other side of the island?” Locals have furiously slammed the government for $700 “one-time” payments to survivors and reports that FEMA has blocked volunteers from bringing in aid, since only FEMA-approved aid is allowed.

 

[GURPS]

More bad news for Maui’s fire response emerged yesterday in the form of a Hill story headlined, “Maui residents who disobeyed barricade survived fires: AP.”

The Hill reported on an AP story, which had reported that the smart people who disobeyed the barricaded road closures during the Maui fires survived, while many, if not most, of those who followed orders and turned around wound up dying horribly in their cars and homes, with no way out.

As of the time of publication yesterday, the official Maui death count is least 114 people killed. But the Hill added that the FBI is estimating that up to 1,100 more people remain “unaccounted for.”

Wait. What is the FBI doing there? Investigating crimes? What crimes? The Hill didn’t say.

Moving on, the AP interviewed residents who disobeyed the barricades, and who provided these harrowing accounts of lifesaving civil disobedience:

Nate Baird and Courtney Stapleton recounted their experience to the outlet, saying they loaded the car up with their two sons, Baird’s mother and one dog to escape the flames. When they turned south to escape Lahaina, they were met with cones and were told to turn back around to Lahaina, which was already burning.
But instead of turning around, they swerved past the cones and escaped to a neighboring town.
Kim Cuevas-Reyes said she survived with her two sons by ignoring orders to turn right onto Front Street, which has now been devastated by the fires. Instead, she turned left and drove in the wrong lane to escape the town.
“The gridlock would have left us there when the firestorm came,” Cuevas-Reyes, 38, told the AP. “I would have had to tell my children to jump into the ocean as well and be boiled alive by the flames or we would have just died from smoke inhalation and roasted in the car.”

As Reagan said, government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.

☕️ CRUEL AND UNUSUAL☙ Thursday, August 24, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Multiplier; thoughts about the debates/interview; goodbye Prighozin, or is it?; BRICS balloons; media rescues Big Pharma, again; Hawaii killed people with roadblocks; SBF suffers; Big Law woes; more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

Only Paved Road Out of Maui’s Devastated Town of Lahaina Was Barricaded During Wildfire Evacuation​

Error compounded upon error has compounded the disaster in Maui. I noted that a water board official did not release resources for 5 hours in homage and reverence to equity. Another official failed to sound the alarms, saying Maui residents would have run for the hills, thinking it was a tsunami warning.

It turns out the Maui emergency officials had recently been reminded that sires were also for wildfires.

Before flames tore through Lahaina, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their path, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency had a discussion with counterparts on Maui about the use of sirens to let residents know they should flee.
HNN Investigates confirmed an assistant telcom officer working at the state emergency management office “reminded” his counterpart at the Maui Emergency Management Agency that sirens could be used to alert residents of wildfires.
The state says this happened prior to the catastrophic blaze that swept through Lahaina town.
Despite that discussion, sirens remained silent — and Maui’s emergency management office defended that decision by saying that activating the alarms could have confused people.
The director of the office has since resigned.

Officials also appear to be slow-walking the count of casualties, as the number of declared dead remains under 120….yet 1100 is now the tally of those officially missing.

The unconfirmed list of missing people has risen to 1,100 names, two weeks after a deadly blaze ripped through the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina.
Authorities have confirmed 115 deaths following the deadliest wildfire in more than a century in the United States. They also pleaded with relatives of those missing to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the ashes.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Maui County Files Lawsuit for Negligence in Deadly Fire​

There has been a lot of speculation about the cause of the Maui fire, which has been called the worst wildfire in a century, with at least 115 dead and more than 1,000 still missing, including many children.

Democratic Gov. Josh Green immediately blamed global warming and then subsequently said climate change played a role.

However, there were witness accounts and videos that show the likely cause was fallen electrical lines and poles that ignited dry grass. Multiple lawsuits have already been filed against Hawaiian Electric. The company allegedly knew that there was a risk from fires for years but then didn't remediate the issues while they were undertaking a "state-mandated shift to renewable energy."

Other things allegedly contributed to making things worse, including not providing water in a timely matter and Hawaiian Electric trucks impeding people trying to escape out of the area by partially blocking the road.

Now Maui County has filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric. They are claiming that the company was negligent in failing to shut off the power when faced with the wind, dry conditions, and the power lines/poles being blown down. They claim the company disregarded weather warnings.

The lawsuit said the utility had a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.”

The utility knew that high winds “would topple power poles, knock down power lines, and ignite vegetation,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants also knew that if their overhead electrical equipment ignited a fire, it would spread at a critically rapid rate.”

The suit pointed to the fact that it had been the practice of other companies in similar conditions to cut the power. The early estimates were that it might cost more than $5 billion to rebuild Lahaina.

 

[GURPS]

The democrat government in Maui set a land speed record yesterday, as reported by the Wall Street Journal in an article headlined, “Maui Alleges Hawaiian Electric Caused Lahaina Wildfire.” The sub-headline added, “County files lawsuit against the utility claiming negligence.”

In what must be a record for local government to move fast at doing anything, Maui County, which has not even finished locating all the bodies, and hasn’t even really gotten started cleaning up the disaster, has already filed a lawsuit seeking to pin the blame for the fires on the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO).

The blame-shifting lawsuit alleges that HECO was negligent by not pre-emptively cutting power despite the previous day’s National Weather Service warning of high winds and temperatures, along with low humidity—prime conditions for a wildfire, according to the county’s complaint. It also claims HECO failed to maintain the electrical system, leading to energized, downed power lines, which in turn caused the fires.

The lawsuit doesn’t claim any particular amount of damages, since nobody knows yet how much the damages will be. Why wait to find out?

A HECO statement about the suit said, “We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.” Good thing the County doesn’t need HECO’s help with anything at this point. Oh, wait.

There are several important things the lawsuit doesn’t say. If HECO had cut the power, then people would have been unable to charge their electric cars. What about them? And without power, hospitals and first responders would have been plunged into fiery darkness.

That’s not all. At this point, various major news sources have reported these additional inconvenient facts, all omitted from the county’s lawsuit:

• Firefighters abandoned a still-burning bush fire while hurricane force winds were blowing over it. The wildfire started shortly thereafter.

• An emergency management official failed to sound the sirens that would have warned people of the fire and need to evacuate.

• Another official refused to allow firefighters access to water to put out the fire for five hours, demanding submission of an “environmental impact statement.”

• Police literally blocked off the only exit out of Lahiana was literally and turned cars back toward the flames.

• Officials ordered kids to leave school and go back home where they were left alone.

• Hawaiian officials still refuse to definitively say how many children have been reported missing.

One supposes that HECO will probably mention all those things in its response to the County’s warp-speed lawsuit, and then prove them in court. I doubt this poorly-considered, hyper-speed blame-shifting tactic is going to work out very well for Maui’s criminals in command, I mean officials.

It’s still too early to say, but the Maui disaster is shaping up to be as perfectly horrible an example of woke incompetence as you could possibly ask for.

Wokecompetence.

☕️ WOKECOMPETENCE ☙ Friday, August 25, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

The mugshot heard 'round the world; Grandma Garland sues SpaceX for hiring American citizens; incompetent Maui officials are great at blame-shifting; Putin on Prigozhin; wins in Illinois; more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[Sneakers]

What a complete fuster cluck on every level.

There are several important things the lawsuit doesn’t say. If HECO had cut the power, then people would have been unable to charge their electric cars. What about them? And without power, hospitals and first responders would have been plunged into fiery darkness.

Hospitals have backup generators. First responders are moving and don't really require grid power. Good odds that the fire would take out the wires anyway.

Not agreeing or disagreeing with cutting power, just the dramatics of the accusations.

California cuts power during a fire, how are they coping?

 

[Hijinx]

Living here in Maryland as far as I know there is no plan to cut off the power for any reason.
If cutting off the power is a plan maybe they should think really hard about burying the power cables.
Blocking the exit: What fool thought that up, and for what reason?
Sounding the alarm would have sent people to high ground. Was that bad? Did the higher ground burn?

The state is talking about buying the property, the real estate agents hit before the fires were out. Does that sound suspicious to anyone else?
What kind of moronic mother trucker would refuse water to the Fire Department?
Is it polite to ask how many fire trucks were burned when they were caught in front of the fire? and if they weren't in front of it where were they?