2023 Hawaii Wildfires - Fire burns down part of island, currently 106 dead, 1,300 missing. Maui - wowie!

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MasterBaiter said:

Apparently fema and the red cross confiscated everything from the local chairty and people haven't gotten shit . All while apparatchiks are sitting in luxury hotels

The locals also confirm that the government lies through their fucking teeth locals were pulling 100s of bodies and the government's still claims is just 100 victims.
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The local government is doing everything they can to cover up the situation because they dropped the ball bad. Even after 9-11 you didn't see this much secrecy around this nonsense.
What makes things worse is any sort of local help is being purposely destroyed because specifically it undermines the government and this isn't Louisiana with it's rednecks and swamps this is Hawaii the plebs have to obey us here because they're brown. And we own Mansions here look those swamp rednecks and niggers can fuck themselves but Hawaiians they need our help like good little victims.
Omen_Sulk said:
They are both malicious and incompetent. As the Governor demonstrates.

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Smart cities part buzzword part nonsense.
 
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DOE: Number Of Students Missing, Killed In Maui Fires Is ‘Too Small’ To Release
Parents demanded more transparency from education officials at a meeting Thursday.

By Madeleine List / September 7, 2023
The Department of Education says the number of students listed as missing or killed in the Lahaina fire is so small that releasing it would violate their privacy.

This comes as the department announced it has been unable to make contact with nearly 500 families in its system more than a month after the disaster that killed at least 115 people and displaced thousands.

Education officials have faced a groundswell of anger following the Aug. 8 fire that razed entire blocks. At a meeting on Maui last month, many families from Lahaina expressed concerns over plans to relocate students and the timing for reopening school campuses.
Superintendent Keith Hayashi said the department knows the whereabouts and education plans of most of the some 3,000 students who had been enrolled in Lahaina before the fire.

He said 907 of them have enrolled in the state’s distance learning program and 782 have enrolled in other public schools. Nearly 345 students are now enrolled in charter schools, private schools or have withdrawn, he said.

“We are actively reaching out to contact families for the remainder of students who have not yet enrolled in an option, knowing that some may have moved out of state or have paused their child’s education for the time being,” he said.

Trying To Reach Families​

After the meeting, DOE spokeswoman Nanea Kalani said the department has not heard back from 463 families that it has tried to call. There are 32 families that still have not been called as the department works its way down its list of phone numbers, she said.

She also explained why the department has not released a number of those believed to have died or who remain missing. “For students, we can’t release their identities or numbers right now because the n-size is so small. The n-size is too small, if we said it we’d be in effect identifying them,” she said. N-size is a term used to describe a small subset of students.

Kalani pointed out that Maui County has a list with the names of people who are unaccounted for.

“The Maui Police Department is the lead on making those identifications,” she said, “and then their privacy rests with their parents to disclose whether they were students.”

Many attendees at the meeting called on the DOE to release more information and expressed concern about the well-being of children and families that have not been contacted.

“There’s a lot of anxiety because the students aren’t being identified as safe or deceased,” said Susan Pcola-Davis. “What I don’t understand is why. Why haven’t all the calls been made?”

One child, 7-year-old Tony Takafua, has so far been included on the official list of the deceased released by the Maui Police Department. On Thursday, the death toll remained at 115 with 60 individuals identified. Five of those individuals’ families have not yet been notified.

Tony Takafua, 7, is the only child so far included on the Maui Police Department’s official list of fire victims. (Screenshot/Facebook/2023)

Fourteen-year-old Keyiro Fuentes was identified as a victim by his family, though he has not been officially identified by police. Loved ones have said he was an incoming junior at Lahainaluna High School.

When asked by members of the board why the process of contacting all the families has taken so long, Deputy Superintendent Heidi Armstrong described a “chaotic” situation in the immediate aftermath of the fires.

Cellphone service and internet connections were down in Lahaina and surrounding areas. But she said Department of Education staff started “taking action from the first week.”

Reopening Plans​

Staff members and school principals went to Red Cross shelters to try to identify families and students, she said. When shelters began closing and displaced people moved into hotels, school officials continued their searches there.

Department employees are trying to call every family that hasn’t been contacted in person, but sometimes calls aren’t answered or returned, and in some cases voicemail boxes are full or nonexistent, making it impossible to leave a message, she said.

Keyiro Fuentes, 14, has been identified by his family as a fire victim and student at Lahainaluna High School. (Screenshot/GoFundMe/2023)

King Kamehameha III Elementary School was destroyed and the three other public schools in town, Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High, are closed.

Lahainaluna High students will go to school temporarily at Kulanihakoʻi High in Kihei beginning Sept. 14, according to the department. Students have access to free school bus transportation from West Maui.

Hayashi said he hopes to reopen the three Lahaina schools that weren’t destroyed “as soon as safely possible” and is aiming for sometime after fall break, which takes place Oct. 9-13.

The department is working with contractors to conduct soil sampling around the school and evaluate the water quality, and the Department of Health has installed air quality sensors at the three campuses, he said. Professional services will also clean the schools and school officials will revise evacuation plans before schools reopen, he said.

Hayashi said the department had facilitated a 24/7 mental health hotline through the Hawaii Medical Service Association and made therapists available in schools and at community centers in Lahaina and Wailuku.

The King Kamehameha III school was destroyed in the fire. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023)
Sites around West Maui, including churches and hotels, are being considered to serve as temporary classroom sites, and the state has plans to open in-person distance learning hubs for certain students, including those with special education needs and those in the Hawaiian language immersion program. Those hubs would also provide meals and mental health services, he said.

Enoka-Shayne Bingo told department officials during the meeting that community members want to be more involved in the recovery process.

“Let the village of all of these islands help,” he said. “Let us through this red tape, because we are all suffering with Lahaina.”
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If you recalled what The Rock was cooking months ago:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dwayne-johnson-addresses-backlash-oprahs-183828313.html

Dwayne Johnson says he totally gets why people have criticized him and Oprah Winfrey for asking the public to donate to their Maui fund.

"When we first launched the fund, there was some backlash,” Johnson said in a video posted to his Instagram page on Sunday, after joking that he keeps "receipts." “I get it and I completely understand, and I could’ve been better — and next time I will be better.”

The People's Champ said he remembers how it feels when money is tight, commenting, "I understand money ain't falling out of the sky and it isn't growing on trees. And there's a lot of people out there who's living paycheck to paycheck, and I get it and I know what that's like."


"I've lived paycheck to paycheck — seven bucks, I know," he added.

Clarifying that he was only speaking for himself, he recalled being "easily pissed off" and "frustrated" when living paycheck to paycheck. He continued: "And the last thing you want to hear when you're living paycheck to paycheck is someone asking you for money, especially when the person asking you for money already has a lot of money."

Johnson and Winfrey started the People's Fund of Maui in August, days after wildfires tore through West Maui, including Lahaina, where flames destroyed homes, businesses and historic, cultural landmarks. More than 100 people died in the blaze, named the deadliest fire in the United States in the last century.

The fund connects donations directly to people affected by the wildfires in the form of $1,200 monthly checks. To start the fund, the pair of celebrities donated $10 million each to seed the charitable foundation. For the rest, Johnson and Winfrey asked the public for help.


A flood of voices online blasted Winfrey and Johnson’s invitation for donations, with some asking how they expected the public to give when many Americans “barely can pay rent, barely can put food on the table for our families.” Others demanded that the celebs instead fund the project by digging deeper into their pockets or rallying their wealthy friends in Hollywood and Washington, D.C.

TV personality Nick Cannon joined the backlash, commenting on his “Daily Cannon” podcast that he supported the criticism against Winfrey and Johnson.

“It’s in poor taste for a billionaire to ask anyone for money,” Cannon said. “I don’t care what the situation is.”

Winfrey addressed the backlash in September, telling “CBS Mornings” that she had been “terrorized and vilified” online. “I was so excited and I got up the next morning and I saw all of this vitriol and I was like, ‘Whoa, what happened here?’” Winfrey said.


Earlier this year, Winfrey bought more than 870 acres on Maui, expanding her holdings on the island to more than 1,000 acres of land. After the acquisition, Forbes estimated her net worth at $2.5 billion.

Johnson’s net worth is around $270 million, and he was ranked by Forbes as among the top five earners in entertainment. He reportedly rents a massive vacation estate on Oahu. However, Johnson, who is of Samoan descent, also does have roots in the Hawaiian islands — as a child, he lived with his mother on Oahu before they were evicted when he was 14 and had to leave Hawaii.

During his apology, Johnson also announced that the first round of monthly checks have been given to "the thousands and thousands of survivors" over the last several weeks. He shared how his part in the rebuilding effort with others is inspired by his culture, and said it is a "reflection of who we are as Polynesian people."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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The State of Hawaii, Maui County, HECO And Others have agreed to pay out a $4 billion settlement for the Maui Wildfire victims. / (Archived)

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The State of Hawaii, Maui County, Hawaiian Electric Industries, Kamehameha Schools and other defendants have agreed to pay $4.037 billion to settle legal claims related to wildfires that destroyed much of Lahaina and killed 102 people in August 2023.

HECO said in a statement its part of the agreement is $1.99 billion. The settlement term sheet, which was filed in Maui state court on Friday, did not disclose the amounts individual defendants would pay.

The agreement marks the culmination of months of court-ordered mediation and ends speculation that a deal was close. Also agreeing to settle are Spectrum Oceanic, Charter Communications, Cincinnati Bell, Hawaiian Telcom and several entities affiliated with West Maui Land Co. and Launiupoko Water Co.

“This Global Settlement of over $4 billion will help our people heal,” Gov. Josh Green said in a statement. “My priority as Governor was to expedite the agreement and to avoid protracted and painful lawsuits so as many resources as possible would go to those affected by the wildfires as quickly as possible.

“Settling a matter like this within a year is unprecedented, and it will be good that our people don’t have to wait to rebuild their lives as long as others have in many places that have suffered similar tragedies,” he added.

“This global settlement will give fair justice to the people of Lahaina, and it was achieved before the one year anniversary of the fires, which is relatively quick in litigation,” Jesse Creed, who serves as liaison counsel for individual plaintiffs, said in a statement. “I hope the people can use the money to rebuild their lives, their homes, and their communities.”

Some 649 lawsuits have been filed on behalf of individual plaintiffs for wrongful death, injury and property damage, and the settlement would resolve those suits. The term sheet is signed by Creed and fellow plaintiffs liaison counsel Jacob Lowenthal and Jan Apo of Maui and Alexander Robertson IV, class counsel for a case consolidated in federal court.

The agreed upon terms still must be memorialized in an official settlement agreement that would supersede the term sheet in the court record, the term sheet says.

Still, the document makes clear that a wide variety of defendants have agreed to make a massive collective payout to end the lawsuits. The term sheet is the result of negotiations mediated by Louis Meisinger and Daniel Buckley of Los Angeles and Keith Hunter of Honolulu.

According to the term sheet, the mediators “engaged in multiple in-person and virtual mediation sessions over the course of months” and crafted a proposal that reflected their understanding of the maximum amount the parties could pay based on potential exposure, available insurance and other factors.

The $4.037 billion aggregate reflects a payment schedule that anticipates some payments being made over time, although the aggregate could be reduced if parties pay ahead of schedule. The mediators also specified each party’s respective share of the aggregate, the term sheet says.

However, the term sheet does not disclose the amount each party will pay. In a statement, Hawaiian Electric Industries said it will pay $1.99 billion.

A major outstanding question involves what happens to lawsuits brought by insurers who have paid out billions of dollars in claims.

According to the Hawaii Insurance Division, claims paid as of June 30 totaled $2.34 billion including $1.37 billion for property damage. Insurers have filed several so-called subrogation lawsuits seeking reimbursement from the defendants for these claims.

These insurers did not sign on to the settlement term sheet. And if they were given a priority for payments from the settlement fund, it would mean significantly less money for fire victims.

Plaintiffs have argued that Hawaii law calls for fire victims to be made whole before the insurance companies can be reimbursed.

The term sheet essentially creates a 90-day deadline for one of two things to occur: either the insurers settle the subrogation claims or a court determines that, in the event of a final settlement, the insurers’ recovery would come from policyholders who received settlement payments — and not from the defendants.

Creed said insurers “did not agree to this global settlement and are trying to take money back from the victims who paid their premiums and send it off-island to pad their profits. The insurance companies shouldn’t take a penny as long as the victims are not fully compensated.”

Chip Lezy, a Honolulu lawyer representing the insurers, did not return a call for comment.

The contribution to the settlement from the state must be approved by the Legislature, the governor’s office said. The payments would begin after such approval and are expected to start by mid-2025.
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Although it's likely that $3,999,900,000 goes to the lawyers, leaving $100k split amongst actual people, so they'd only get paid something like $10 each.
 
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The cause of the Maui fires was "declared" as a fallen power line. / Archive

Aka the Government absolved themselves of all blame for the fires, and put all of the blame on HECO for the power line, and Kamehameha Schools for not cutting the grass in the area. And this isn't comparable with the California wildfires, since PG&E were deliberately negligent in regards to maintenance, because the Maui Fire Department said "we're done" and just left the scene early, before the fires broke out.
 

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Thiletonomics said:
The cause of the Maui fires was "declared" as a fallen power line. / Archive

Aka the Government absolved themselves of all blame for the fires, and put all of the blame on HECO for the power line, and Kamehameha Schools for not cutting the grass in the area. And this isn't comparable with the California wildfires, since PG&E were deliberately negligent in regards to maintenance, because the Maui Fire Department said "we're done" and just left the scene early, before the fires broke out.
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Damn, I just hate those power lines that burn everything that isn't blue. Hey what ever happened with all those kids? Is it the official politburo line that they didn't exist?
 
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