Hawaii wildfire lesson: You are on your own

[Croat]

 

[Retired Guy]

The drama continues. After Maui County filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric, HEI sent this out in an email:

Here are several important facts about the events on August 8:

· A fire at 6:30 a.m. (the "Morning Fire") appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.
· The Maui County Fire Department responded to this fire, reported it was "100% contained," left the scene and later declared it had been "extinguished."
· At about 3 p.m., a time when all of Hawaiian Electric's power lines in West Maui had been de-energized for more than six hours, a second fire (the "Afternoon Fire") began in the same area.
· The cause of the devastating Afternoon Fire has not been determined.

Full disclosure: I own HEI stock.

It's probably preaching to the choir but you absolutely should be ready to be on your own for 3 days. A week would be better. Two weeks would be even better! Any length of time you can go without needing help will mean what little help is trickling in will go that much farther.

I worked in Emergency Management for a while and it amazed me how many people refused to prepare because "it was too much trouble" or "it's the government's responsibility to help me".

 

[Camelfilter]

The drama continues. After Maui County filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric, HEI sent this out in an email:

Here are several important facts about the events on August 8:

· A fire at 6:30 a.m. (the "Morning Fire") appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.
· The Maui County Fire Department responded to this fire, reported it was "100% contained," left the scene and later declared it had been "extinguished."
· At about 3 p.m., a time when all of Hawaiian Electric's power lines in West Maui had been de-energized for more than six hours, a second fire (the "Afternoon Fire") began in the same area.
· The cause of the devastating Afternoon Fire has not been determined.

Full disclosure: I own HEI stock.

It's probably preaching to the choir but you absolutely should be ready to be on your own for 3 days. A week would be better. Two weeks would be even better! Any length of time you can go without needing help will mean what little help is trickling in will go that much farther.

I worked in Emergency Management for a while and it amazed me how many people refused to prepare because "it was too much trouble" or "it's the government's responsibility to help me".

The challenge with preparedness in this type of circumstance (minutes to leave), is just that.

You have minutes.

So what's on you. What's already in your vehicles (if the vehicles survive).

Perhaps & only a perhaps, what you have pre-staged to load quickly.

For the folks who abandoned their vehicles & survived, it circles back to what's on you. That's it.

Also, there's the folks whom weren't home when the tragedy happened. So only what they have on them & anything in their vehicles (if the vehicles survived).

Many things can be prepared for reasonably and well. Conversely many things simply can't (not reasonably nor well).

 

[Alexx1401]

The challenge with preparedness in this type of circumstance (minutes to leave), is just that.

You have minutes.

So what's on you. What's already in your vehicles (if the vehicles survive).

This again is one of the problems with incompetent people in charge. Many are showing pics of those rows of vehicles that were burned. Few are telling the story multiple people who were there are telling. Police blocked the road and would not let the cars out. Telling them they were following orders. So cars sat there till fire got to them when people ran for their lives. This is what the people who live there have been asking for, for decades. People who are totally incompetent to run the place.

 

[Camelfilter]

This again is one of the problems with incompetent people in charge. Many are showing pics of those rows of vehicles that were burned. Few are telling the story multiple people who were there are telling. Police blocked the road and would not let the cars out. Telling them they were following orders. So cars sat there till fire got to them when people ran for their lives. This is what the people who live there have been asking for, for decades. People who are totally incompetent to run the place.

Yup!

Still doesn't change what individuals can (reasonably) & cannot (reasonably) prepare for.

Yes, there are options. Like staging things in multiple places (family, friends, workplace, cache etc etc). However those types of actions are not likely to be done by the non preparedness minded. Many preparedness minded would like to do such, however may have their own barriers to actually accomplishing such…

So I circle back towards reasonable, for most folks.

 

[jkor]

What is with the color blue? I just watched some video from the California fires from a few years ago and the blue recycling bins were all untouched but the houses next to them were ashes.
Buy A blue car, wear blue clothes, have a blue house lol

 

[jkor]

"wild fire" prevention

 

[Burt Gummer]

Removed my vid, has the potato in it, too political.

 

[Croat]

 

[Burt Gummer]

As a former laser geek, I can attest that it is true. The color spectrum part of a laser. I used to have a Dragon laser that could light things on fire from 8' away and been seen for many miles. As big as a d-cell flashlight back then.

This was 20 years ago, so yes, not saying this is the case in Maui when more simple arson methods could have been used, but direct energy weapons are definitely real and can be deployed in many ways and forms.

I gave it away long ago because the Beavis in me really should never own something like that. Have always wanted a TRAIN HORN in my vehicle. Again, something I should not own. LOL.

In Maui the residents are already getting insulting others for their land with threats that they will see nothing unless they sell now.
Was it planned arson? Most likely. ANYTIME there are hundreds of billions on the line morals or child deaths, etc, mean nothing.

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

OMFG, have you guys seen this? Somebody smuggled photos out past the FEMA guards in the hollow heel of their boot showing the lazer in action!!

 

[Jim Horn]

As a former laser geek, I can attest that it is true. The color spectrum part of a laser. I used to have a Dragon Purple laser that could light things on fire from 8' away and been seen for many miles.

I gave it away long ago because the Beavis in me really should never own something like that. Have always wanted a TRAIN HORN in my vehicle. Again, something I should not own. LOL.

If you wanted to create a high energy laser for heating and igniting targets at a distance, you would want it to be able to travel through a distance of the atmosphere efficiently, through fog, clouds, smoke, etc.; to be efficiently created; to dissipate its energy in heating the target efficiently; and probably would like it to be stealthy so its source is not obvious.

In other words, you would use an infrared laser, for which there are plenty of technologies available. Blue lasers would be the last one due to its being terrible at all the above features.

 

[Burt Gummer]

The last thing most people will ever accept is that the Mega Rich, the Corps, in collusion with Gov't would KILL. For many of us, that reality took hold in 2001. In layman terms, it sucks. However that is the reality whether the deluded can see it or not.

It is basic human desire to believe Comforting Thoughts and most do while rejecting the unpleasant realities of life.

 

[Lazyfaire]

I remember seeing prescribed burns on the coat range when I was a kid but haven't seen one in ages. With the creation of "wilderness areas" closed to all motorized vehicles and less control of overgrowth it's like a giant tinder box

There have been a couple of fires down in the southwest part of Oregon in the past years in an area (Umpqua or Box fires) that allows no roads or equipment within its boundaries. They burned for months and only went out due to the winter rains. Fire IS good for a natural area that is not managed, but smoke and danger to populated areas make that a no-go. I do not know where the Mollala fire of a few years ago started but that was very close to human habitation.

What do I do? I go and move to Texas where the wind blows daily and now with this heat dome over us everything is dry dry dry. We are now in a stage 2 or 3 drought with water restrictions. Cornfields were dried stalks in July. Pretty much sucks all over.

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

The last thing most people will ever accept is that the Mega Rich, the Corps, in collusion with Gov't would KILL. For many of us, that reality took hold in 2001. In layman terms, it sucks. However that is the reality whether the deluded can see it or not.

It is basic human desire to believe Comforting Thoughts and most do while rejecting the unpleasant realities of life.

Meh, the .gov has been enabling corporations, and by extension the 'Mega Rich', to kill people forever by helping them cover up toxic chemicals, unsafe working conditions and choices made to favor profits over people's lives. Only difference is that in the past that was just all part of Capitalism and folks that complained "just didn't get it" and now it's somehow a shadowy conspiracy with improbable technology and unsupportable and unnecessarily complex conspiracies

 

[Burt Gummer]

@VinnieBoomBah Well, you are a doctor so I trust you!!

 

[VinnieBoomBah]

Well, you are a doctor so I trust you!!

 

[Burt Gummer]

Spending far more money on miles of black fencing to keep people from seeing what they're up to than any help and aid.

Just like any major gov't crime scene (9/11), keep the useless eaters at bay and far from what you are doing.

 

[malakajim]

Eff that nonsense...I have bourbon that needs drinking and a dog that needs to hunt!

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or indifference?

What I can tell you is that I work for a company that manufacturers lasers of all sorts, from low power medical use all the way up to DE. Hundreds of thousands of watts.

Prior to my employment here, I worked at another company that is deeply ensconced in the military complex
and i was involved with testing of DE that took place on a mountain top facility on Honolulu .

It's real and it's out there.

Last comment; I wholeheartedly agree with Burt.

 

[Nosferatu]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or indifference?

Yep.