Hawaii Gov. in Aftermath of Deadly Maui Wildfires: “I’m Already Thinking of Ways for State to Acquire That Land”

Submitted by Dirtperson Steve

Guest post by Kyle Becker

The Hawaiian governor Josh Green revealed plans for the state to potentially purchase properties in the seaside town of Lahaina, which was devastated by the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green… “I’m already thinking about ways for the state to acquire that land”…🚨 pic.twitter.com/pN78wPcNy6

— Pelham (@Resist_05) August 15, 2023

“I’m already thinking of ways for the state to acquire that land so that we can put it into workforce housing, to put it back into families, or make it open spaces in perpetuity as a memorial to the people who were lost,” Green commented amid the ruins.

“We want this to be something we remember after the pain passes as a magic place. Lahaina will rebuild. The tragedy right now is the loss of life. The buildings can be rebuilt over time, even the banyan tree may survive, but we don’t want this to become a clear space where then people from overseas just come and decide they’re gonna take it. The state will take it and preserve it first.”

Green expressed concerns over foreign investors exploiting the disaster. In another briefing, Green reinforced his dedication to safeguarding the land for locals. He shared that he discussed with the Hawaiian attorney general about “options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed.”

“It’s going to be a very long time before any growth or housing can be built, so you will be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here,” he remarked, emphasizing, “I will try to allow no one from outside our state to buy any land until we get through this crisis and decide what Lahaina should be in the future.”

As reported by the Honolulu Civil Beat, the fire razed over 2,000 structures, with three-fourths being residential. The death toll is around 100, but this number is likely to increase as search operations proceed.

The deadly wildfire that raged under control is believed by attorneys seeking litigation over the blaze to have started due to electricity failures.

“All evidence — videos, witness accounts, burn progression, and utility equipment remaining — points to Hawaiian Electric’s equipment being the ignition source of the fire that devastated Lahaina,” said Mikal Watts, who has won millions of dollars in settlements in other wildfire cases.

High winds last Tuesday had intensified brush fires in Maui, turning them into rapidly spreading wildfires. Surprisingly, no outdoor warning sirens were set off by either local or state emergency agencies.

Hawaii’s Emergency Services Administration confirmed on Friday, “Neither Maui nor HI-EMA activated warning sirens on Maui during the wildfire incident.”

Residents instead depended on three other warning channels: mobile device alerts, local radio and TV stations, and Maui County’s notification system for subscribed residents.

“The sirens are used to alert the public to seek additional information; they do not necessarily indicate an evacuation,” emergency officials said.

Concerns are rising about the adequacy of the warnings, especially as Hurricane Dora’s winds, present over the central Pacific Ocean, caused power disruptions and hindered mobile communication.

Many believe that the emergency alerts were inadequate during the escalating crisis, leading to confusion in what’s now termed as one of Hawaii’s most catastrophic natural disasters.

“They didn’t give us no warning. No nothing,” Lisa Panis, a resident in western Maui, said in a phone interview. “No siren, no alarms, no nothing.”

There are an estimated 93 fatalities from the Maui disaster as of Sunday morning. Two victim identities have been confirmed due to DNA testing. Only three percent of the burn area has been covered thus far by authorities. It has already become the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history.

An especially unfortunate aspect of the Hawaiian tragedy is that many of the victims appear to be children. An anonymous source claiming to be a “whistleblower” gave her view of local conditions.

“Just reported from a whistleblower: What you’re not hearing from our local government – I just got out of a meeting where I was informed by someone in the Mayors office about developments that are being kept from the public. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I don’t want to make trouble but here’s what I’ve heard.”

“The amount of fatalities is expected to be more than 500 but less than 1000,” the source continued. “Many of the fatalities will be children who were at home because they canceled school. Parents worked and were not there to evacuate the children. Kids had no idea they needed to leave and by the time they noticed their homes or apartments were on fire, it was too late. The government is worried about how we will react when we learn that the fire department left the fire earlier in the day and claimed it was 100% contained knowing that the winds were expected to be 70mph by the afternoon.”

“This is against all fire control protocols,” the source added. “The fire department should not have left the original fire unattended. They are scared that the public calls for accountability will be more than they can control and protests and riots will occur. They plan to lock down Lahaina for several months. It will take months to clean up the hazardous and environmental contamination. They won’t have enough housing for All the displaced. There were 2,000 unaccounted for this morning. They have a list where they are trying to keep track. They found 700 today. But there are still 1300 missing.”

“They are very worried that the community is going to freak out when they find out how not a single fire truck responded to the fires,” the source claimed. “The emergency sirens were not activated (hurricane sirens) and loss of life could have been kept down by better emergency management which utterly failed. I’m not trying to make waves or stir up problems but I was so angry and sad when I found out how many children are dead that I knew I had to post this and let everyone know what I have learned. It’s time for our officials to stand up, tell the truth, and face the music. They failed Lāhainā guys.”

“Our government is full of incompetent nepotism. The fire chief is the son of the former fire chief. We need to hold officials accountable for the mistakes they made. Please don’t hate the messenger. I’m just relaying what I learned today,” the source concluded. “God bless Maui and Lahaina! Pray for all the victims.”

The trust in the government has become so broken that the Maui blaze has spawned elaborate conspiracy theories. This report that Hawaii is looking to buy up the land will certainly not help.

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