Couple of stories about what is happening in Lahaina, Hawaii – see what you think

Here’s some reporting from the UK’s Daily Mail to start with.

Hawaii resident slams investors she says are already calling distraught families offering to buy their scorched land while they pick over the ashes of their homes - as death toll rises to 99 and hundreds more are still missing | Daily Mail Online

“It comes as the death toll in Maui has risen to 99, a number that is expected to increase further. Hundreds of people have also been reported missing, with Governor Josh Green saying that a full search is 'probably going to take 10 days'.

Private electrical companies have also come in for criticism, as some state officials say there is a shortage of water available for firefighters, which they have blamed on  a recent ruling by an environmental court judge”.

Ok, here’s one article about the bidding by unscrupulous buyers for land of properties:

Why Is There Such A Frenzy To Buy Up The Properties That Were Just Burned Down During The Fires In Hawaii? (themostimportantnews.com)

“Can you imagine calling up a family that has just seen their home burn to the ground and offering to buy their land for below market value? 

This is apparently happening in Hawaii right now on a massive scale.  Grieving property owners are being bombarded with calls from very greedy people, and I think that says a lot about the current state of our society. 

We literally worship material possessions and financial gain, and the sheer greed that we are witnessing at this moment is absolutely staggering.

Lahaina was hit harder than anywhere else by the fires, and it turns out that property owners in the area have been getting pressured to sell for a long time.”

Here’s another article:

Hawaii Gov. Green Wants to Swoop in and Buy Up Lahaina (independentsentinel.com)

“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,” Democrat Gov. Josh Green said.

On Monday, Hawaiian governor Josh Green announced that his administration was considering acquiring properties in the seaside resort town of Lahaina that the recent wildfires had destroyed.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green doesn’t want foreign buyers and developers swooping in to exploit the tragedy in Maui, so instead; he’ll swoop in and buy up the property, leaving much of it to become “open spaces.”

“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 said, adding, “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.”

Independent Sentinel comments:

“The Floridians devastated by Ian rebuilt Sanibel in months. Why is he saying it will be a long time?

Also, why isn’t anyone talking about his potential incompetence? What happened to the alarm system?”

The State to the rescue after prior negligence? Lots of other stories about alarm systems not being activated and kids being unsupervised. Then there is the issue with the environmental laws resulting in a lack of water for firefighters who themselves left the fires controlled but unattended.

There will be lots more on this over the coming weeks. Not least that the death toll will escalate as more of the hundreds that are missing are found.

Onwards

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