Hawaii fires

[dainthomas]

I'm kind of surprised it took this long for the vultures to move in.

I'm sure the National Guard was having to turn them away while the buildings were still smoldering.

 

[Kaido]

Dang

One house made it!

 

[dainthomas]

Dang

One house made it!

View attachment 84492

Looks like a metal roof and probably some kind of fire-resistant siding. And a ton of luck.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

That looks like a rendering.

 

[Kaido]

That looks like a rendering.

Right?? Totally looks photoshopped! You can see it in the drone flyby at 36 seconds into this video:

 

[Kaido]

Power lines may have been a root cause:

Videos Put Scrutiny on Downed Power Lines as Possible Cause of Deadly Maui Wildfires

Awakened by howling winds that tore through his Maui neighborhood, Shane Treu went out at dawn and saw a wooden power pole suddenly snap with a flash, its sparking, popping line falling to the dry grass below and quickly igniting a row of flames.

cheddar.com

Video is crazy:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=963298954953529

 

[Jaskalas]

Power lines may have been a root cause:

California knows this all too well.

 

[BoomerD]

Power lines may have been a root cause:

Videos Put Scrutiny on Downed Power Lines as Possible Cause of Deadly Maui Wildfires

Awakened by howling winds that tore through his Maui neighborhood, Shane Treu went out at dawn and saw a wooden power pole suddenly snap with a flash, its sparking, popping line falling to the dry grass below and quickly igniting a row of flames.

cheddar.com

Video is crazy:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=963298954953529

I thought the downed powerlines being the cause was already well known...

 

[GodisanAtheist]

What's been really interesting about this whole thing is how little I've heard the mention of climate change. And I listen to NPR for christ's sake.

Any kind of natural disaster happens anywhere: Climate Change.

Entire town burns down in Hawaii... nothing.

This isn't a 'climate change is a hoax' post, but my first inclination was "massive fire in hawaii, how the hell is that possible? Climate change?" and instead I get a bunch of well reasoned and considerate answers about invasive grass on abandoned plantations, natural rain shadows causing dry patches on the islands etc.

 

[K1052]

What's been really interesting about this whole thing is how little I've heard the mention of climate change. And I listen to NPR for christ's sake.

Any kind of natural disaster happens anywhere: Climate Change.

Entire town burns down in Hawaii... nothing.

This isn't a 'climate change is a hoax' post, but my first inclination was "massive fire in hawaii, how the hell is that possible? Climate change?" and instead I get a bunch of well reasoned and considerate answers about invasive grass on abandoned plantations, natural rain shadows causing dry patches on the islands etc.

I mean I don't see too many volcano eruptions or earthquakes blamed on climate change...

 

[pmv]

What's been really interesting about this whole thing is how little I've heard the mention of climate change. And I listen to NPR for christ's sake.

Any kind of natural disaster happens anywhere: Climate Change.

Entire town burns down in Hawaii... nothing.

This isn't a 'climate change is a hoax' post, but my first inclination was "massive fire in hawaii, how the hell is that possible? Climate change?" and instead I get a bunch of well reasoned and considerate answers about invasive grass on abandoned plantations, natural rain shadows causing dry patches on the islands etc.

I'm also a little surprised there hasn't been the usual back-and-forth about it - "you can't ascribe any one bad event to climate change" vs "this is the sort of thing climate change makes statistically more likely". I assume there's no clear link for this one, or it would have been discussed at length already.

The thing that I have wondered about is to what extent all these recent wildfires (Greece, Corfu, North Africa, much of Canada, now Hawaii) will have contributed to increasing atmospheric CO2.

According to this article, 2021 saw a record amount of CO2 release due to wildfires. Perhaps 2023 will be worse? Could that be another unfortunate positive feedback effect?

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade0805

The Canadian fires apparently contributed a good amount of CO2

Canada’s wildfire carbon dioxide emissions hit record high in first six months of 2023

This year’s wildfire season is already worst on record as nearly 600m tonnes of carbon dioxide has been released since early May

www.theguardian.com

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Map shows why Obama's Hawaii house was "spared" from Maui wildfire

"The number of confirmed fatalities was 106, the Maui Police Department reported Tuesday 8/15," Maui County officials said.

www.newsweek.com

"Former President Barack Obama's home in Hawaii has been discussed on social media in relation to the current wildfires in Maui, and how it has avoided damage due to its location.

"Obama's estate was spared from the Maui fires because it's on Oahu,""




In this article is a neat little tidbit:

"According to Fox News, in 2015, the residence in Oahu was purchased by Obama's friend Marty Nesbitt, who also serves as the chairman of the Obama Foundation. BestofHawaii.com reported that the home was previously made popular by the show "Magnum P.I.""


We all remember the King Kamehameha club administered by Higgins, don't we?

 

[pmv]

"Obama's estate was spared from the Maui fires because it's on Oahu,""

Maybe the space lasers were aiming for Mar-a-Lago and got the co-ordinates wrong?

 

[Zorba]

I mean I don't see too many volcano eruptions or earthquakes blamed on climate change...

You haven't looked enough. Oil companies in Oklahoma tried to blame earthquakes on reservoirs filling during a heavy rain spring, followed by a significant drought. Of course it was actually all the injection wells.

 

[K1052]

Couple of plans I have for south Maui in early September emailed me to confirm that I'm still coming. Sounds like a lot of cancelations.

 

[Kaido]

I thought the downed powerlines being the cause was already well known...

iirc the initial blame was the existing wildfires, but the winds + the power lines may be either a root cause or a contributing factor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/15/maui-fires-power-line-cause/

It adds to evidence that the state’s main utility equipment sparked multiple fires last week, when powerful winds — predicted for days — whipped through drought-stricken grasslands. While the still-burning Makawao fire had nothing to do with the blaze that roared into Lahaina, it was one of several fires sparked on Aug. 7 and 8. At least one of those exploded into the blaze that roared into Lahaina, overwhelming residents, tourists and firefighters.

 

[pmv]

Sounds like a double-whammy - cut off the power to firefighting equipment and warning systems, and started new fires. Would it be too expensive to put such power-lines underground?

 

[Muse]

They weren't prepared. 80 mph winds toppled trees causing downed power lines. Preemptively cutting power would have eliminated power needed to enable firefighters to douse flames. Add the false security of them declaring the initial fire to be "100% contained," the failure of the alarm system to go off and the tinderbox nature of structures in Old Town, continuing virtually hurricane force winds, very limited escape routes, and you had the inevitable catastrophe.

 

[Zorba]

An update on the tree:

TLDNW: Tree appears to be alive, but weak. They are trucking in water for it and they are breaking up the soil and adding compost and mulch.