Last night we (finally) heard, our favorite one-man-one-raft captain Chad Blair lost his only raft (it’s one of those rigid rafts can carry 12 passengers) - we’ve gone with him 3x to circumnavigate the island of Lana’i (Maui Ocean Riders) and sit quietly on the water while mama whales showed off their babies to us. One of the things we love about Chad is how delighted he becomes as we stumble on amazing things. He and his schnauzer Sir Monty Bogart (Bogey) are inseparable, and Bogey has been sailing since he was 6 weeks old. Bogey always has his life vest on and swims around with us going back and forth checking in on everyone before he gets back on board and takes a nap!
I am thankful they’re alive, but gutted that he’s lost his form of income.
I did a post above on orgs I know to be legit & reputable. I’m sorry, I just don’t trust unknown people doing individual fundraisers, as I am unable to personally vet them and there are unfortunately too many scammers.
Thank you to all who donate but please try not to feed scammers.
Sorry, no it wasn’t directed towards you specifically. It was directed towards anyone that is considering donating.
In other emergencies, we initially hear that they need supplies and then, after a few days, are told that they have too much “stuff”. I was looking into the best way to help and found the announcement from the governor’s office.
I predict discussions of rebuilding will get very heated and there will be a lot of different ideas that are in stark contrast to one another (several already floated)—rebuild similar to what was there, make it an open space & memorial, make it more cultural & allow native Hawaiian community to have strong say in rebuilding, and I’m sure other ideas will also be floated.
These sharply divergent views will have to be hashed out and may slow rebuilding, perhaps significantly, once they finish putting out fires, recovering remains, and demolition and hazardous waste removal. It will definitely be a prolonged process.
Also, have read that they are having massive logistical obstacles with all the in-kind donations which by nature are bulky and need sorting, organizing and storage. They are encouraging people to consider donating cash to reputable charities instead, like those listed in prior posts.
One of the management companies is offering a credit for a future stay w/in the next two years.
We’ve heard nothing from the other one. Hawaiian air will give us a credit.
Next step is to file a claim with the travel insurance.
Well one of the local news sources suggests the lawsuits may push the power company into bankruptcy and I’m sure that will likely cause more chaos for all of us customers of this monopoly. Somehow it’s always the customers who end up paying. It’s awful if we never learn lessons from other places and even previous wildfires in state and on island!
I want to emphasize the “building will take many years”. I lived on the Big Island. There was a single hotel property, Kona Village Resort, that was damaged in the 2011 tsunami. It was a unique property and the owners promised to rebuild. It just reopened last month (July, 2023).
Another hotel, the Coco Palms Resort, on Kauai was damaged in Hurricane Iniki in 1992. It never reopened and the property has been in limbo for decades. Coco Palms Resort - Wikipedia
There are many more examples. Nothing happens efficiently in Hawaii. I predict that any attempt at rebuilding will be met with protests that will delay things even further.
Our state is notorious for having extremely long construction times—30 years to build a small portion of the freeway and a very very long time for the rail.
Kona Village was a very cool property—it’s sad it took so long to get rebuilt.
This has been happening in CA as well. The news article above makes it sound like CA has all of the answers. It doesn’t. There have been tragic fires and costly lawsuits in CA as well.
The only solution in California has been to shut off the power in certain zones when it’s windy. The utility is fine with shutting off the electricity to certain neighborhoods for days on end when it’s 100 degrees out, but they’ve done nothing to improve the safety of the power lines.
Yes, but how long has it taken them to figure that out? And, as the article states, CA utility companies had to develop safeguards for those who depend on electricity for their medical needs.
The past couple of years the electric company has trimmed the trees around power lines on city streets. I’ve lived in CA my entire life and don’t remember them ever doing that before. Sure, the city trimmed trees as needed, but not the electric companies.
Edit: I could be wrong, but I don’t believe Hawaii’s fires were started by the utility companies. Downed powerlines made things worse.
From the article, electricity powers the water pumps used by firefighters.
Our City/Electric Dept (they are the same) used to do that all the time. They haven’t for several years. Probably one reason we lose power all…the…time… We lost it twice last week, and it wasn’t even stormy or particularly windy.
I have become the champion digital clock re-setter…
We have this frequently, because there was a fire in the park in our neighborhood a couple of years ago. PG&E are providing incentives to buy a gas generator as a backup (and about 20-30% of houses now have one), the irony being that this comes at the same time as nearby cities are banning gas hookups in new homes.
Of course PG&E would rather have people buy gas generators that use gas that they sell, rather than other options like solar with battery storage that could enable completely leaving PG&E’s customer rolls.
It is shocking that the lines that caused the fire in Paradise, California were over 100 years old! I don’t know how old the lines were in Hawaii, but the power company needs to prioritize safety over any other expenditure. Harden those lines so that they don’t topple over or have the two line touch during high winds. Pending that, the power needed to be turned off when the high winds started. Surely places like hospitals and nursing homes had back up generators.
Somehow it’s always the customers who end up paying. It’s awful if we never learn lessons from other places and even previous wildfires in state and on island!