Me and mine are ok. We had grass fires in kohala too and the road was closed into hawi but only a few wealthy subdivisions were threatened and were evacuated as a precaution. We’ve never thought of these events as especially life-threatening and property is rarely at hazard and human life virtually never, until now. It seems we will need to re-evaluate the risks in light of current events.
What happened to lahaina will create a scar that will likely never heal. These were 18th century buildings, the oldest in the state. Many small businesses, many classic and unique old waterfront mansions, many small businesses and apartments and homes of local workers. Kanaka maoli, recent immigrants, entrepreneurs, kamaainas, tourists; it was an iconic whaling village much like alii drive in kailua village on the big island. It was as heavily touristed as anywhere on the islands but this is the culture the tourists come here for and it has been destroyed forever. There is no rebuilding what we had cultured here over centuries.
That’s not even talking about the unprecedented loss of life, the stories of terror, suffering and death each of these often deeply rooted families will have to live with. And where will they go? Even modest homes here inch into seven figures. Homes often hold many members and multiple generations. Many immigrants live in densely occupied buildings. We have dealt with eruptions and taken in hundreds but not something of this scale. We think of the hilo tsunami in 1960 but drowning seems almost benign compared to this, people chose the harbor over the flames.
A lot of vehicles burnt up too, and cars are expensive and essential here as elsewhere. Hawaii seems busy with all the tourists but the actual community living here is pretty small, especially on the neighbor islands. It’s like a shark took off a big chunk of leg and we don’t know if we will walk right ever again.
Once the hills behind lahaina were forested. The forests were cut down by king kamehameha in the whaling days to sell sandalwood for gold and silver, ships and men. The missionaries came in and cleared the land for sugar cultivation. Eventually the land was abandoned to invasive tall grass in the 80s and 90s. Grass fires have become common but global warming has caused our current danger. Increased rainfall in the wet season causes luxuriant growth and excessive aridity in the dry season causes the grass to become tinder and fuel for fires. It gets worse every year. The combination of powerful downslope winds and wildfire may have been inevitable in hindsight but no one here ever imagined anything like this could happen. We were caught totally unprepared.
We will rebuild, money is pouring in but just thinking about this is heart-breaking. People will want to rebuild luxury housing on the water-front and luxury shops on front street. Expensive apartments. “Boutiques and swinging hotspots. Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”
Global warming is baked in to our future and sea level rise and increased fire danger are in prospect. When we rebuild we should build well up from the shore, as we did after the hilo tsunami, which will be cited as a precedent I am certain. But the wealthy home-owners of current ocean front property will demand public funds to rebuild and we need to deny them. The wealthy will use their power, the community will politicize and power-up, but the contest will not be pretty.
Also, there is no future in tourism, which should be abandoned asap. Close the airports, junk the jets, people can stay home. It not that we don’t love them but that burning fossil fuel will kill all our descendants and many others if we don’t stop. So we should not let them build luxury shops and high octane adventure salesrooms and so forth for a dying and killing industry.
The question is whether in the rebuilding we continue to give power to the people most responsible for the destruction, the joe manchins and the exxon/mobil/chevron/shell/bp climate criminals, or will we build for the community that will stay for generations and live sustainably? Will we even try to do the right thing?
Auwe.
