These are all old, but they are “the latest and greatest” – sad if you think about it – the county is suppose to have open meetings on ALL of this AND these are all suppose to be updated every 5-10 years. Forgive me for the highlighting – I have studied these through the years and made notes at the time. I have no idea what the notes were at this point, but the yellow highlights are still there…

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS FOR MAUI COUNTY- A CITIZEN’S GUIDE
The Maui County Hazard Mitigation Plan

County of Maui 2030 General Plan – County Wide Policy Plan
County of Maui Department of Planning COMMUNITY PLANNING PROCESS HANDBOOK August 2017
Maui Island Plan General Plan 2030

WEST MAUI COMMUNITY PLAN (1996)

A lot of people are going to be litigation happy for the next few years – and, as American citizens, it is their right to be. The only way anything gets changed in this country is through the law…

You have to consider the above plans and weigh them against the thinking of the time. As tourism took off in the 90’s, not only did the idea of “controlling it” fall away, we were all happy to put these plans aside and pretend they didn’t exist (or they no longer applied because the economy had changed). We were all on the train – and as long as the train was rolling, we were all happy and fat…

We really wanted to do something with the deserts on the south side (Kihei/Wailea) and the west side (Lahaina/Kaanapali) of the island – so we created a few Urban Heat Islands (without updating any of the old infrastructure) and created the (WUI) Wilderness-Urban Interface without REALLY considered the consequences. No one cared as long as the money was flowing as we crept more and more into the WUI with our modern technologies (which are all, at some temperature and/or pressure, ignition sources)…

It’s very ironic that this happened when it did because I spent most of the year studying Urban Heat Islands and WUI’s and their effect on the local watersheds/environments and “Global Warming” – I didn’t post for more than 6 months because I wanted the second half of the years posts to be ALL ABOUT these topics. My first post this year (July 29th) has tons of articles and data to read through if you’d like:
Urban Heat Islands

Even after the Lahaina fires a few years ago – the money was flowing and no one wanted to spend it on infrastructure – so we ALL ignored it. Hell, I was there cleaning ash out of the carpets the next day – we all went back to work and just ignored it…
2023/08/22 – A Maui wildfire nearly took Lahaina 5 years ago. Its warning was ignored

In June of 2020, I Wrote this:
No Blame – Just Solutions – this was a response to Victorino asking for solutions during one of his press conferences while everyone was locked down. At the time, there was no way of getting any information to him or anyone who worked for him – so I posted my response. It highlights some of the events that have, and have not, occured on the island over the years and how we could potentially “fix” them.

The fear now is that “they” can start from scratch. There’s one thing I’ve learned over the years and that is that the government is bad at just about everything they do – the market is what works. The best job the government does is to support anything that keeps the market open (so consumers have their choice of the best products and services, for the best pricing) – in other words, the governments only job should be to stay out of the way and to assure that large companies stay out of the way so no choices are limited, withheld or blocked from consideration.

Here… Today… How we rebuild the areas of Maui that need to be rebuilt is up to us. We can not let “them” do what they do…

Thank You EVERYONE for the starlinks – so many people donated that I don’t know who to thank individually…

We’re still having flareups upcountry (the fire no one is paying attention to) – they are meeting up at Kula Lodge daily to get work teams together to create fire breaks and clearing any loose debri that may be flammable. The wind knocked down many trees so they are clearing those as well… It is being run by civilians who live up there. At the moment they have plenty of gloves, hard hats, shovels and such – what they need is water and meals for those working up there. We’ve been running stuff up there as needed…

The displaced from the upcountry fires are getting their supplies from the Pukalani Station – it’s right across the pool at the park there – red cross is running it (there’s a lot of supplies there – mostly because no one trusts the government right now and they are not going to the supply depots for much of anything). There are folks upcountry who will not leave their homes – if you are one of these folks, please contact Anna or myself and we will get you supplies…

Our two oldest have went to the mainland for college this last weekend (they were a huge help and enabled us to be in several places at once) so Anna and I are stretched kind of thin right now – so please let us know future needs as well so we can get them to you BEFORE you need them.

The folks out at Camp Moluhia are making shaker boxes and prepping for cleanup. They got a huge order of Personal Protective Gear yesterday so those cleaning up will be protected from the environment – don’t want to breath the air out there right now…

There are a few folks collecting school supplies and backpacks for the mobile schools which have popped up here and there – if you’d like to be part of that contact us and we can hook you up with the right folks…

Someone has donated some really nice, portable, pop-up tiny houses which are being set up over at King’s Cathedral – many “refugees” ended up there and can house there as events continue to unravel…

I’m not going to talk about “the crap” that created these events or “the response” which made them worse – I’ll let everyone else vent on social media for now and just keep helping as needed…

Fix the problem, not the blame – once the problem is fixed, then…

…I’ll vent when I’m done…

Heads up locals – the air and ocean are not your friend right now – don’t eat anything from the ocean and stay upwind of the disaster area – people are getting sick – don’t be one of them… You have to stay healthy to help others…

Also, use the bottled water for cooking and boiling right now… If you don’t trust the source you got it from, contact us, we’ll get you as much as you need…

So, we have folks going neighborhood to neighborhood and parking lot to parking lot getting needs from folks who will not leave their “area”. They are then driving back to this side with their lists and we all run around to find the stuff on the lists – they are not letting any supply vehicles in unless they are visibly full (so there’s a caveat to overcome). We usually load up any “not-full” truck with full gas cans, water, toilet paper, dry wipes and such…

If someone on the island could donate their Mobile Starlink for a few weeks or so they could let us know what they need as they are driving toward us and we can have it waiting for them when they arrive…

It would cut the resupply time from a day to a few hours…

Everyone is where they are going to be for a while (at this point). Those who made it to this side of the island are going to stay where they are and those who stayed on that side are going to stay where they are – so, for now, we just have to deal with “what is”…

It would be great if we could possibly setup a few “Starlink Centers” (with security of course) if we get more than a few donations – so the folks out there can have COMMS and call loved ones…

I made a list a few days ago of a few helpful items which can be used in case of emergency. If anyone thinks of something else can go on this list, let me know. These people are not survivalist – and many are not thinking straight – so the list needs to be “easy to use” items.
I’m not going to put anything on the list that can start a fire or potentially be a weapon (nothing that has a blade or shoots any projectile), and
I won’t put anything I haven’t used and had a good experience with on the list.

I added Starlink to it (but there’s a monthly bill for Starlink so I don’t expect that to go anywhere):

Rainman Desalination Kits – I would still run the water that came out of this through one or two of the filters below due to what is in the sea water right now – I’d run it through as many filters as possible (they all filter out more of this or that specific microscopic “blah-blah” that can make you sick)

Berkey Water Filters
The Water Machine
Sawyer Water Filtration Systems
LifeStraw Peak Series Water Filters

Advanced Elements Summer Showers – Mobile Shower
RinseKits – Mobile Shower

Go Sun Fusions – Mobile Baking – Solar
All American Sun Ovens – Mobile BBQ & Baking – Solar

Ready Wise – MRE’s
Patriot Supply – MRE’s
Sun Kettle® Solar Cooker – Solar water boiler for the MRE’s – I use them for coffee as well

Inergytek – Solar Panels w/ Solar Generator/Batteries
RockPals – Solar Panels w/ Solar Generator/Batteries
EcoFlow – Solar Panels w/ Solar Generator/Batteries

The PUC Expandable Lantern / Charger – best flashlight ever – I love these things!

Mobile Starlink

The distribution places on the Lahaina Side are full – if you have a plan with someone on that side to go house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood, parking lot to parking lot and car to car distributing things directly to people (who will not leave their “areas” or houses) then you may have a productive day. The distribution places will turn you away – so don’t waste the resources to go out there unless you have a plan (with someone on the Lahaina Side).

A lot of folks are just loading up and going over there and coming back with full trucks – have a plan before you waste time and resources. There’s still another 150,000 people on this side of the island who require those resources – stop raiding the stores!

Basically, Lower Honoapiilani is the road to find people to help (or to find someone who can point you in the right direction – it changes day to day). There are a lot of culdesacs and small streets running off Lower Honoapiilani that also may need attention… Do not go down without a convoy or large group of people – stay safe! Talk to people – ask them what they need…

Today, the immediate needs are Ice, Gas and Toilet Paper. I’m thinking they’re using the gas for their generators (because those who are there are not looking to drive anywhere at this point).

Soon, they will need Meds and more Generators to run the fridges to keep the meds (such as insulin) cold…

Of course, if they have bottled water, a freezer and a generator they can make ice for their neighbors all day long – but no one is thinking straight right now… That may be the combo to look for in the coming weeks – the freezer and geni don’t have to be large…

Anyway, trying to figure out the plan for tomorrow so I’m gonna sign off now…

Please do not come here… Every tank of gas you buy – every meal you buy – everything you do takes resources from relief efforts.

Send boxes of things – old cloths from your closets, cleaning supplies or canned goods from your kitchen or bathroom – soap, shaving supplies, shampoo, toilet paper – see the list in the last post… After the “sweeps” and “investigation” is over, cleanup will start – shovels, trashbags, push brooms will all be important at that point…

We have finite supplies on the island – so, if you are here – stop raiding Costco, Safeway, Foodland, Walmart, Target, Ace Hardware, Home Depot and Lowes for supplies and then donating them – this is “displacing” resources we will need next week and the weeks to follow…

If you feel the need to donate, please order it online and have it sent here – and then donate it…

News Crews – I get it, use to be a cameraman myself – stop using resources. Bring in your own food, water and gas… Actually, you want to be helpful…? Take resources in with you… You want the shot…? Help people – they may tell you their story… Don’t worry, you don’t need to be part of the story by helping a few folks…

The only thing we (being my family and those with us in the relief efforts) really need money for (for the next week or so) is to take gas cans, bottled water, stacks of pizzas or plate lunches to the other side – there’s no working gas stations or markets over there right now and the shelters idea of a meal is a joke… So if you send me or Anna money that’ll be what we’ll be doing with it for the next few days…

Anything else you send us will be to get the stuff from the last post so we can distribute it to those who need it…  

Yesterday, I went to the West Side (Lahaina) in a convoy to drop off supplies.  The first three places we tried (churches) were very picky in what they received – they were “full up” with supplies. So we ended up taking most of what we had to the guy who popped a tent over on Honokawai Beach who was receiving and distributing right there on the sidewalk – the line of people was moving and there were no issues (we saw a few issues on the way in and didn’t know what to expect when we got further in). We drove by this guy on the way to our first drop point and saw that there were dinghies and jet skis bringing stuff in to him from boats and saw the line of folks getting supplies from him so we went back and gave him what we had left…

TODAY, I was passed on the way in by a motorcade – nothing like disrupting an hours long line of traffic for folks trying to get in there to drop supplies – for a photo-op… Take a damn helicopter next time!

The County, State, Red Cross and FEMA – well…  They set up a few stations but the word has passed (true or not) that they are low on supplies and are “full” as far as beds go. Many folks do not want to leave their “location” and feel they have to stay “in place” (whether it’s a car, house or beach) or they don’t want to fill out the paperwork required (or sign their name to anything yet) – so they won’t go… It appears to be more about paperwork, rules and data…

People who were able to load things in their car do not want to leave their cars to fill out all the paperwork and then get supplies – more than a few people have come back to an empty car.  People who are lucky enough to be in their family or friends house north of Lahaina do not want to leave the house because of the looting happening in the neighborhoods. People now “living” in parking lots, on the side of the road or beach parks do not want to leave “their area” because the supplies in their area is all they have. We citizens need to take supplies house to house, block to block, parking lot to parking lot and car to car –  it’s on us to help these folks…

They have no running water or electricity – when they get running water it will be nasty and they will have to clean it somehow – we have to take these supplies to them…

The churches are full of things they do not need and the distribution centers (including a few beach parks) are full of things they can’t get rid of so every time we (or one of our friends) goes over there – we talk to people and make a list of what is needed, who requested it and where – and we get what we can, from various sources, for the next run…
For example, tomorrow – on the way out – we will be collecting gas, propane and diesel containers/cans (folks can write their names and address on them) and we will drive them over to this side, fill them up and take them to the addresses on the cans… If this isn’t set up ahead of time with someone on that side of the island, it wouldn’t get done – we’d waste the day driving around…

We confirmed how bad it was at the shelters today when the local gym opened up for folks so the kids could get a little release.  We went to the main shelter in Kahului and they said we were not on their list so we could not announce it was available to them and we could not drive them there because none of our drivers were vetted.  After talking to a few folks we found that they wouldn’t have came anyway because they can not leave the shelter because the shelters are full and they will lose their spot – they don’t even want to get up from their spot because if they “blink” everything from their spot will be gone…

As far as the West Side fire goes, basically everything on the Makai side of the Bypass Road is gone from Puamana to the Sea Wall at the end of Front Street (Safeway is still there at the North end and the Lahaina Inn in still there on the south end – but the metal in the cement in both buildings most likely melted – so they are still standing but probably unstable).  At that point, everything on the Mauka side is gone from Shell Station at Kapunakea Street all the way to Fleming Road (right before the Police Station).  You can literally see the melted electrical line on the side of the road:

A few folks were saying that their “alarm” to leave was when the wind blew the roof right off their house, that’s when they left and they saw and heard the houses “going up” behind them (most likely the propane tanks) as they were driving out of their neighborhood…

The thing is, we still have fires burning upcountry.  Our neighborhood was saved by the rain a few days ago, but there’s still fires going…

OH! One thing I wanted to add is that there’s still no cell service out there – but the weirdest thing is happening, every once in a while (when you drive in certain zones) you can receive texts (but not send any out). So for those of you with loved ones, text them to find a land line, or pay phone, and give you a call ASAP…