Covering Up The Truth About The Maui Fire Response

Last week I had posted about how M. Kaleo Manuel, Deputy Director of Hawaii's Commission on Water Resource Management and high priest of diversity, equity and inclusion, delayed making water available to firefighters--delaying until it was too late to divert the water, so essentially making his "approval" meaningless. A common tactic when some bureaucrat doesn't want to give approval but also doesn't want to be seen to deny a request: just wait until approval is a moot issue, then give approval. I came across CNN's report on the issue and it was strangely silent on Manuel's radical Marxism that may have contributed to his decision to delay. It reports:

    Glenn Tremble of the West Maui Land Company, which manages water supply companies, complained in a letter to the deputy director of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management that the agency failed to quickly approve his company’s request to divert stream water to nearby reservoirs.

    The agency told Tremble that his company first had to ask about impacts on downstream users, according to the letter.

    It’s unclear whether a prompt approval of the request would have significantly bolstered firefighting efforts in Lahaina. In the wake of the blaze, state officials announced they are investigating the emergency response to the disaster that has claimed more than 100 lives.

    Hours went by, Tremble wrote in his August 10 letter, before his request was approved. Tremble told CNN by that time, his company’s water system manager left the area to evacuate his family and other staff couldn’t be reached.

    Tremble said he made his initial request on August 8, when the fire ripped through Lahaina.

No mention that "that Manuel, an Obama Foundation Leader for the Asia Pacific Region, is a climate change activist and DEI devotee who's said, 'Like, we can share [water], but it requires true conversations about equity.'" Or his views, released on X a week after the fire:

    The commission is responsible...to protect and manage all water resources in the state. One water is ... looking at it from a holistic system perspective, and that's not any different than how Hawaiians traditionally manage water. You know, in essence we treated -- Native Hawaiians treated water as one of the earthly manifestations of a God... and so that reverence for a resource and that reciprocity in relationship was something that was really, really important to our worldview and well-being, right, living in an island and isolated from other civilizations.

    So I think where it shifted to today or over time is that we've become used to looking at water as something which we use and not necessarily something that we revere as that thing that gives us life, right. I mean, to me it's a shift in value set, and if we can start to really look at how we as humans, in an island, can reconnect to that traditional value set. So really my motto is always like, let water connect us and not divide us. Like, we can share it, but it requires true conversations about equity.

The CNN article does, however, report on some consquences:

This week, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees the Commission on Water Resource Management, reassigned M. Kaleo Manuel – the recipient of the letter Tremble initially sent – to a different division.

     In some other news:

• FEMA has ordered a media blackout on the fire damage. From Trending Politics:

    The current media landscape seems determined to maintain a positive image of Joe Biden, especially evident in the coverage of the Hawaii incident. Two significant aspects underscore this narrative.

    Firstly, there’s President Biden’s perceived aloofness, marked by his repeated “no comment” replies to early queries and frequent vacations during this crisis. His recent visit to Maui only magnified his public relations challenges. Secondly, there are concerns about the local administration’s measures, or lack thereof, which may have exacerbated the situation. Issues like an unutilized warning system, queries about the fire’s initial containment, and an alleged delay by a water management official in redirecting water to combat the flames, are notable.

    Among this muffled media landscape comes an anonymous tip: A reported FEMA letter dated August 19, 2023 that urges an official media blackout on new disaster footage.

    It was signed off on as Justin Angel Knighton, who is the Director of FEMA’s Office of External Affairs.

    “A person wishing to stay anonymous has sent me this email by FEMA sent to their nonprofit who is headed to Maui to help with disaster relief,” Anthony Cabasa reported. “They say they are being asked to STOP posting any images or videos while on the ground effective immediately.”

You can read a copy of the letter at the link.

• And from the Daily Mail: "Maui fire investigation: Maui's top emergency officials were on a different island for a disaster training as flames flared and did not join response call until five hours after the deadly wildfires begun." 
• And from The Hill: "Maui residents who disobeyed barricade survived fires: AP." 

    Those who disobeyed the barricaded road closures during the Maui fires survived the disaster, while many of those who heeded orders to turn around perished in their cars and homes with no way out, The Associated Press reported.

    At least 114 people were killed in the fires earlier this month, and the FBI is estimating that up to 1,100 more are unaccounted for. Officials are facing increased scrutiny for the emergency response, including why the emergency sirens were not set off and whether closing the roads prevented people from getting to safety.

    In the early hours of the Maui fires, there were more than 30 power poles downed alongside the Honoapiilani Highway at the south end of Lahaina — a historic town that was decimated in the fires earlier this month. Officials closed Lahaina Bypass Road due to the fires, blocking the only way out of Lahaina to the southern part of the island.  

    Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said during a news conference that officers never stopped people from leaving the area, but the AP report suggests that residents were discouraged from disobeying the barricade. 

    One family swerved around the barricade set up to escape the flames, while another resident took a dirt road uphill to climb above the fire, according to the AP. However, many others who stayed in the cars on that road were stuck in a gridlock, with fires surrounding them on most sides with the ocean on the remaining side.

    Nate Baird and Courtney Stapleton recounted their experience to the outlet, saying they loaded the car up with their two sons, Baird’s mother and one dog to escape the flames. When they turned south to escape Lahaina, they were met with cones and were told to turn around to Lahaina, which was already burning.

    Instead of turning around, they swerved past the cones and escaped to a neighboring town.

    “Nobody realized how little time we really had,” Baird said. “Like even us being from the heart of the fire, we did not comprehend. Like we literally had minutes and one wrong turn. We would all be dead right now.”

    Baird told the reporter that if they had 10 more minutes, they could have saved children who were left home alone in their neighborhood during the fires.

    “The kids just don’t have a filter. So their son ran up and was just telling our son, you know, ‘This kid is dead. This kid is dead.’ And it’s like, all my son’s friends that they come to our house every day,” he said. “And their parents were at work, and they were home alone. And nobody had a warning. Nobody, nobody, nobody knew.”

    Kim Cuevas-Reyes said that she survived with her two sons by ignoring orders to turn right onto Front Street, which has now been devastated by the fires. Instead, she turned left and drove in the wrong lane to escape the town.

    “The gridlock would have left us there when the firestorm came,” Cuevas-Reyes, 38, told the AP. “I would have had to tell my children to jump into the ocean as well and be boiled alive by the flames or we would have just died from smoke inhalation and roasted in the car.”