A Lahaina resident talks about the recovery efforts after a wildfire swept through the Maui town.

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Maui is cut off. No internet. Very sparce landlines service. No cellphones. Electricity is down. Because of that probably water too. Still have radio communications and some satellite stuff. The calvary hasn’t arrived yet. Winds at 35mph. Given all this it is not hard to understand that we don’t know the full extent yet.

    • CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Lahaina is fucked, not all of Maui. Power went down for all of Lahaina, Ka’anapali, Napili, and Kapalua on Tuesday (8/8/23) morning. All those towns are connected with a single road back to the rest of Maui, and Tuesday morning at 5a-ish, something like 30 telephone/power poles fell on that road and blocked up traffic in and out. There was a fire Tuesday morning, then the fire department said it was 100% contained in the afternoon and everyone let their guard down. Once the fire sparked back up later that night, all hell broke loose.

      The rest of Maui has power and internet without issues. I didn’t even lose power or Internet at all on the other side of the island.

    • Screeslope@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I wouldn’t talk about a meltdown of society here - this is a natural disaster, not the sacking of Rome. In due time help will arrive, people will bury the dead and rebuild. Though I agree it makes you appreciate how we take things for granted until one day they aren’t.

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Climate change caused this so I don’t know that you can really call it natural. Unless you include things people do as natural (I tend to but that’s not how most people use the word.)

        • Widowmaker_Best_Girl@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I mean, humans are perfectly natural beings. Everything we do to cause climate change comes from natural sources.

          Technically it’s natural. It’s just more accurate to say man-made.

          • BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s just semantics. If you go by that logic literally nothing in the universe isn’t natural meaning the word natural would have no meaning.

          • treefrog@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, I agree.

            Honestly I think the word natural doesn’t mean anything. Is an anthill unnatural? If not, neither is a city or a computer.

            • Widowmaker_Best_Girl@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I always thought it was a little arrogant of us humans to assume if we created something, or cause something to happen, that it isn’t considered part of the natural world. Like, of course it is. As you said, anthills are natural, beaver dams are natural, so skyscrapers are just as natural as a bird’s nest.

              • treefrog@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Yeah, we like to pretend we’re separate from nature. Then we get surprised when our actions destroy our environment.

    • Saganastic@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s a wildfire on a very small and very arid island. Not exactly representative of society at large.

      • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        …yet. looks at record breaking forest fires in Canada. Yes I know it’ll take a lot more to have a drastic impact but we’ve been neglecting our impact so it’s just a matter of time.

  • BB69@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I understand the frustration, but living on an island means that you are isolated. Help is on the way, I’m sure, but they have to arrive via ship. If I remember right, Oahu is the only island with a proper harbor for ships. I don’t think Maui has any type of airport either.