Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii is on fire

Until you see photos of the ashes, don’t assume it’s gone. That tree reminds me of some majestic live oaks here in the South that have survived many fires and hurricanes.

 

Were you Reelin' in the Years?

 

Wildfires are no joke. I live in California and the last major wildfire near me several years ago started only 1/2 mile from my house. It was a national news type fire. The first day it spread away from us along the mountain ridge. Next morning with increased winds, it came roaring across the valley toward our neighborhood. Seemed like in an instant and maybe it was. I don't know. But it forced the evacuation of roughly 8k people in my area of town. There were about a dozen fire trucks parked along the road in between our hood and the fire, plus several helos and a firefighting plane battling this edge of the fire. Fortunately, they were able to prevent it from jumping the road to our hood.

My wife was in Japan at the time and I didn't evacuate because I couldn't corral all of my pets. Sheriff's deputy put a big sign on our front door warning that I might be in the house in case it burned. I stayed in my car with the pets that I could corral for about 8 hours. Didn't sleep a wink for a good two days either. Been through several hurricanes in FL, multiple earthquakes out here, ice storms, and several tornado warnings etc. This was by far the single scariest natural event that I have ever experienced. I was legit frightened.

Anyway, all told, about 35k sq mi burned in the fire and took over two months to completely contain it. Then came the flood warnings and evacuations in the winter rainy season if you lived down hill of the burn scar.

 

At the edge of my hood

 

At the edge of my hood and aftermath. Might not look bad in the distance but that entire ridge and valley burned out, save all but two structures.

 

All family safe.

 

At least 36 dead. Just horrific. I don't think of Hawaii as being dry enough for this, but my knowledge is limited.

Live Updates: Maui and Hawaii's big island wildfires prompt evacuations

 

I can't imagine how hard it must have been to breathe. We've had smoke from the Canadian wildfires throughout the summer. Mostly mild smoke with moderate air quality indices (60ish), but we've had several days above 100, which gets a little bit gnarly. Those fires, though, are hundreds of miles away.

 

Someone reported 13" of annual rain in lahaina, that's dry. But the islands very rarely have wildfires. The plant communities are not adapted to frequent fires like we have in the SE states. Native vegetation will not quickly recover torched soils.

 

Each island has a wet side ( usually NE and E) and a dry side ( sw and west). Seasonal variations too as much of their precipitation comes in via the tradewinds moving east to west; exceptions being a tropical system or a winter rainstorm on its way to becoming an atmopheric river heading for North America.

 

Strong wind changes everything.

 

Death Toll now rises to 53 and likely to climb.

Live updates: Maui wildfires death toll climbs to 53

 

Jeez. Just terrible. Hate to hear it.

 

It was a bit, but I stayed indoors for the first few days and windows shut. Wasn't as bad as I thought breathing wise but the air quality was horrendous and everything smelled like smoke.

In an sense, the air is the least of the worries in the moment.

So incredibly sad. Seeing the news that it swept the town. High winds + fire=Things nightmares are made of.

 

Looks like the Banyan tree is still standing