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A [Hawaii] State Official Refused To Release Water For West Maui Fires Until It Was Too Late
Honolulu Civil Beat ^ | 08/15/2023 | Stewart Yerton

Posted on 08/15/2023 1:13:31 PM PDT by rod5591

With wildfires ravaging West Maui on Aug. 8, a state water official delayed the release of water that landowners wanted to help protect their property from fires. The water standoff played out over much of the day and the water didn’t come until too late.

The dispute involved the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ water resource management division. DLNR delayed releasing water requested by West Maui Land Co. to help prevent the spread of fire, sources familiar with the situation said.

Specifically, according to accounts of four people with knowledge of the situation, M. Kaleo Manuel, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and DLNR’s deputy director for water resource management, initially balked at West Maui Land Co.’s requests for additional water to help prevent the fire from spreading to properties managed by the company.

According to the sources, Manuel wanted West Maui Land to get permission from a taro, or kalo, farm located downstream from the company’s property. Manuel eventually released water but not until after the fire had spread.

(Excerpt) Read more at civilbeat.org ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: disaster; fire; hawaii; lahaina; lahainafire; maui; mauifire; mkaleomanuel; nocomment; thebakedtater; water; werelookingatit; westmauilandco; westmauilandcompany
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To: rod5591

Sooner or later...the stupidity starts to flow!


21 posted on 08/15/2023 1:28:50 PM PDT by existentially_kuffer
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To: rod5591

Uh, do they not know that sea water does put out fires? So, still unknown origin, water held back, gov says the state may try to “acquire” the burned land, gov puts moratorium in place to keep haolis from buying land....... Nah, not suspicious. 🤔


22 posted on 08/15/2023 1:29:34 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉)
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To: dfwgator

What’s left?


23 posted on 08/15/2023 1:30:42 PM PDT by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: rod5591

This was a working class area - democrats don’t give a damn about them... Remember the train wreck?


24 posted on 08/15/2023 1:32:03 PM PDT by GOPJ (FoxNews Debate first time Trump ran: Democrat Chris Wallace with a blond bimbo. And this time?)
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To: bray

Doubtless !


25 posted on 08/15/2023 1:32:40 PM PDT by tomkat (SOTU = FUBAR)
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To: rod5591

They wanted these people gone from this area. Deliberate.


26 posted on 08/15/2023 1:33:20 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Larry Lucido
Bingo. You nailed it. There's a lot of racism in Hawaii — against White people.

27 posted on 08/15/2023 1:35:52 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: rod5591

Its an island. Can you not use salt water to fight fires?


28 posted on 08/15/2023 1:36:29 PM PDT by hattend (F U Pedo Joe.aka Martin Byrde.)
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To: rod5591

When faced with life or death decisions, just do what is right and the hell with the consequences.


29 posted on 08/15/2023 1:37:42 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter-deckhand-roughneck-geologist- instructor pilot-almost chemist-pharmacist-retired.)
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To: rktman

I noticed the Navy choppers were loading their buckets in the ocean. I expect that salt water will boost the yield from those taro fields. But I really want to know who was the Maui Land Co. guy who couldn’t work up the nerve to turn a water valve on. Sometimes one doesn’t wait to go thru channels. and that Manuel guy may want to keephisass off Maui for the foreseeable.


30 posted on 08/15/2023 1:38:01 PM PDT by OldWarBaby
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I think he and his ilk want the whole island chain. I also think the reason they are letting San Francisco fall into ruin is so they can push the people out grab the land cheap and turn the city into a wealthy haven like Monaco with full, city-wide lockdown in 20 minutes from any outside threats. Perfect city for it geographically as there is water on 3 sides. All according to plan.


31 posted on 08/15/2023 1:38:16 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: OldWarBaby

There are times to cut through the red tape and act.


32 posted on 08/15/2023 1:40:52 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉)
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To: hattend

i’m guessing the issue was that You need water PRESSURE. Something to pump the water from the ocean to the fire.


33 posted on 08/15/2023 1:42:37 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Harpotoo

A bunch of Marxist Dem fools running Hawaii.


34 posted on 08/15/2023 1:45:43 PM PDT by chopperk ( )
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To: Larry Lucido
I’m not big on geography but I’ve heard there is an ocean rather close by.

Can't do that. Untreated sea water?? That would be ecologically dangerous, possibly endangering the delicate habitat of the Maui dancing luau flea! Better to let the town burn.

35 posted on 08/15/2023 1:50:00 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt ( )
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To: dangus
You need water PRESSURE. Something to pump the water from the ocean to the fire.

Yes, you need pressure. Set up a wind turbine and use the power from the turbine to support a pressure pump. With the high winds that should have been easy to do.

36 posted on 08/15/2023 1:52:24 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt ( )
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To: rod5591
Alarms didn't work,

Power wasn't shut off from areas with downed power lines,

Water withheld, (NO, they didn't have gas powered pumps and 2000 feet of hose to fight the fires!)

Invasive grasses that fueled the fires weren't managed in advance, as if there aren't decades of data from California to highlight the risk.

Now the HI Gov't is talking about taking over the land and property destroyed?

37 posted on 08/15/2023 1:53:23 PM PDT by G Larry (It is RACIST to impose SLAVE WAGES on LEGAL Immigrants by importing Cheap ILLEGAL Labor!)
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To: Harpotoo

No big surprise here; soon it will be called,”Hawaiian Communist Islands’’.


38 posted on 08/15/2023 1:55:34 PM PDT by chopperk ( )
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To: rktman

cut the tape: I was on Oahu when hurricane Ewa hit. It blew huge Iron wood trees across one of our roads. The road wasn’t getting cleared and apparently I was the only guy on the island with a chain saw powerful enough to hack thru the trunks. I didn’t ask anybody. Just gassed up the Big Guy and sawed up the iron woods. Then I told the county road guy all he needed to do was push the logs out of the way. Next day the road was open. A few months later I got a “good guy” letter from the mayor.

Sometimes you just don’t stop to ask permission.


39 posted on 08/15/2023 1:58:48 PM PDT by OldWarBaby
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To: GOPJ

“This was a working class area”

Most of downtown Lahaiana was a dump. Crappy old buildings and apartments that blue collar workers lived in. The bigger resort hotels are north of there in Kannapoli and Kapalua or south in Wailea/Makena. Lahaina was where a lot of the people who worked in the tourist industry lived.

Many of those crappy old houses had been in the same family for a long time. Now, that they are gone many will be forced to sell because they have no other choice.

Right now, all the local pols are scared because the rumors are that there are thousands of DEAD people. Not just 100. That many are children and elderly people who died in their homes while the working parents were still at their jobs.
That there was no warning to evacuate.

There are going to be locals calling for their heads. With good reason. Someone is going to be blamed. It could be criminal negligence.


40 posted on 08/15/2023 2:02:24 PM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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