"Do not convince yourself that your presence is needed on an island that is suffering this deeply."
The devastation suffered on Maui due to an out-of-control wildfire has not quite settled. 80 confirmed deaths and counting. Over 2000 structures burned. Historic old Lahaina town taken to the ground. Thousands of lives forever changed. It is both heartbreaking and sobering.
Surf great Kelly Slater shared with TMZ Sport as he flew from Africa to Teahupo’o, “Everyone within our surf community is rallying to get boats in, supplies, donate money. but that’s all not organized yet.” He vowed his help but said its difficult with communications still down and the harbor choked with debris. “One friend lost everything he owns but he was able to save his dog and a backpack and that was about it,” the 11x World Champion added. “I know at least two friends, right now, that lost their houses — actually three. I just got a text about another one, but that’s just the beginning.”
Hawaiian heartthrob Jason Momoa is also helping, financially, pointing people in the right direction and, importantly, excoriating potential tourists considering seeing their long-planned vacations through.
Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now.
DO NOT TRAVEL TO MAUI.
Do not convince yourself that your presence is needed on an island that is suffering this deeply.
Mahalo to everyone who has donated and shown aloha to the community in this time of need.
Momoa added the same link provided earlier by Ian Walsh, the Hawaii Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund.
Good advice, I think. It would be difficult to sit poolside enjoying a frosty Mai Tai or trying to poach a corner at Ma’alaea Bay.
Bad form all the way around.
Many do. So many are the first ones in with aid and the last ones out when everyone else is gone
Death toll at 93 now, and I read on BIN that only 3% of Lahaina has been thoroughly searched. Sadly, it seems that the scope of this tragedy has yet to be determined.
Mahalo nui G. Much aloha to you.
TMZ: What up Kelly. The tragedy on Maui, horrific no?
Kel: I’ve got friends!
any onsite progress reports, positive limited press releases…anything to pass along to us readers?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Sorry Jason but us normal folks can’t afford to just cancel things we’ve spent thousands of dollars and months planning for…. The situation sucks but there is no reason to bash people for going on vacations they work their ass off for.
Sure you can, it’s called go to a different place. They need the beds, don’t need people in the way at the airport. Food needs to be diverted to those that lost EVERYTHING. Not to a bunch of whiny tourists. I’m sure the airlines and the hotels are accommodating at this point in time.
It’s ironic you call people “whiny” when you’re literally sitting there whining…. Typical liberal hypocrite
This is a good chance to catch uncrowded Honolua Bay ! Yewww! I’ll bet ELO is holding up there.
Nope!
Booji Boy!
Classic video. There are even earlier versions, too (with the refrain “I’ve got a rhyme that comes in a riddle…”).
On New Years Eve 1980, I got to see Devo perform at the Long Beach arena. After the show, I drove south, slept in the back of my VW Squareback, and surfed some big winter waves in Laguna the next day.
Not at all. When I dined there, it was common to see Mexicans, Asians, Blacks, Pacific Islanders, and even people with Biden bumper stickers on their cars, right alongside the rednecks. People like Chic-fil-a because it’s above average fast food with good service.
Supposedly, 2 million tourist a year visited Lahaina .
They are going to be diverted to other outer islands now.
Kauai already can’t handle anymore.
This will negatively effect the entire island chain forever
The repercussions from this disaster will be far-reaching for the entire state.
It’s your system. This is one of the best managed tabloids on the net.
Run a “system check, make sure everything is operational”
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
just pledged 250 and challenge the BG community to raise 5K+
people with faith. the church survived. essential.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
cam got us at three’s…four of us, longies…sail & stink-potter charter’s X-cross safely below the horizon…
https://youtu.be/3P8D-J8CMTk
sobering, as only a replay of Front Street is a reminder of how special that beachfront town was…and will become again.
https://youtu.be/wtKSwWmHaaI
Their own Governor is telling tourists to stay away from Maui.
Haven’t seen that. It was true during Covid. Please post link. Hawaii tourism agency has asked that tourists with plans to immediately visit Maui to reconsider and postpone because obviously West Maui is down. Every other part of Maui and Hawaii is open.
If you’re coming to help, great. If you’re coming to rubberneck then stay away.
There was an emergency proclamation made by the Lt. Governor a few days ago, discouraging “all non essential travel” to Maui. I saw it in an article on Big Island Now.
Hey Occ, I’m not sure if your side of the BI got that 7 day south from Dora. Oahu south shore reefs were solid.
Not since Hurricane John back in the 90’s has a hurricane meandered slowly a couple hundred miles south with 100 plus winds.
Like John it’s still going across the dateline now.
We just didn’t know that the unusual confluence of weather factors would help to fuel the disaster of Lahaina.
Aloha to you and Malama Maui
The direction was a little too south for my local spot. It was good, but not great. Fairly inconsistent. Needs at least 210 degrees.
Dora did pass slowly, and the weather on Kona side was weird. Tuesday, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky until near sunset (one could see the summit of Hualalai all day) and it was really warm, even at our house at 1200ft.
It is truly tragic that the weather conditions took everyone by surprise in Lahaina. My heart goes out to the people of Maui.
Iwa did that. I was living in Poipu and we had 5 days of 5′ glory not even realizing where it came from.
Then the night before was AAA perfection no wind gloomy 8″ backs. No one around.
Next day 70′ faces
8′ back lol
Hawaii’s alarm system didn’t warn people of the blaze. Why did it fail?
In the last five years, the Hawaiian emergency alarm system mistakenly went off two different times, causing panic among residents. This week, the system fell short yet again but in a profound way — there was never a warning to the community about the latest wildfires set ablaze on the island of Maui.
Hawaii has prided itself in the past on what it’s called the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, equipped with 400 sirens across the island.
But the Hawaii emergency management team has no record of the sirens sounding to warn residents of the fires on Tuesday, per AP. Instead, Adam Weintraub — who
is a Hawaii Emergency Management spokesman — said alerts were sent out
through cellphones, televisions and radio stations, which weren’t reliable considering the power and cell tower outages at the time.
The stage was set for a mess of confusion and lack of communication from emergency services.
Maui Fire Department Chief Brad Ventura told CBS that the fire moved too quickly from the brush into neighborhoods. Propelled forward by the hurricane-force winds, it was too late to get messages to the emergency management who could then inform residents.
(yahoo news)
Yep, there should be a better reason than “no record” as to why those 400 sirens weren’t blaring the entire time.
The sirens are for tsunamis .
Everyone has a plan for that.
Would it have been a good thing if people were running for higher ground when that’s where the fire was coming from ?
Thx-
80 mile per hour winds blew that fire way too fast is my thinking. Probably burned the sirens and wires. No electricity. Nothing.
“wildfires set ablaze” is shit language – wtf is that supposed to mean anyway?
Every time there’s any disaster these fake Hawaiian Hollywood cunts with their dangling gold chains come out of their mansions trying to get some free self aggrandizing publicity.
Maui is open and every other part of the island needs to stay employed and functioning with goods and services. Imploring people to stay away is exactly what we don’t need to help us recover.
And let’s stop calling Momoa “Hawaiian” His mother is 100% Caucasian from the mainland and his father is Samoan from Samoa. He claims to be born in Hawaii but left with his mother as an infant and was raised on the mainland until his 20’s. He is hapa -Caucasian/Polynesian mainland haole who should just STFU.
#Malama Maui
Does everyone need to submit a DNA test to you before they speak ?
Nah Ski, it’s not about blood it’s about provenance. If a local 100% haole who is born, schooled and raised here, steeped in Hawaii’s multi-racial culture, they can claim.
Fakers like Sam George and others who have limited and tenuous links to Hawaii claiming to be Hawaiian are not tolerated.
Your comments seem to be usually rational and measured. This one got under your skin eh?
Are you Aussie or Californian? What’s your cred to be opining about Hawaii?
Dude is using his megaphone thanking people for donations and repeating the Governors request to stay away. Why does his or anyones race have to be part of this?
Also a credit report, and last 3 times you ate at Chic-fil-a
excellant range comment
“I’m tired of target practice,…who has some tannerite?”
Another favorite range comment….
solid 8.8 comment
You just described the majority of people who call themselves Hawaiian these days
Surely the request for people to vacation or avoid vacationing on Maui should be made by the county and residents of Maui, no? The fire isn’t even 100% contained yet. If outsiders want to help, there are many ways of doing so.
Exactamundo Occ. As I’ve told you before, my family is from Keokea and I have friends and relatives who still haven’t been located in Lahaina. I lived and worked on Maui for 25 years.
What Maui doesn’t want is for tourists to cancel plans to visit in future weeks. For good or bad the economy runs on tourism. Blanket threats by kooks like Momoa to not visit Maui during the recovery period defeats the machinery of recovery.
I’m a haole born and raised in Makawao and a former wildland fire fighter. I have mixed feelings about all this. I live in Paia now and it’s pretty hard to swallow watching the tourist going about their day, talking, laughing, and joking, knowing what’s going on on the other side of the island. Realistically we were way over our carrying capacity of with tourists before any of this took place. Thankfully, my job is not in any way dependent on tourism, so I can’t speak from that perspective.
Aloha Beau. No doubt Maui has long ago exceeded tourist carry capacity. It was the main reason why I left and returned to O’ahu. It’s not just the visiting tourists but all the outsiders who bought up all the real estate on Maui displacing locals and now want to call Maui their home.
I do miss the ono plate lunch grinds at Liquor Shack in Makawao and the donuts at Komoda bakery.
Liquor shack kalbi is one of the best I’ve had! Unreal after-surf grinds.
And hot glassy summer afternoons at Breakwall and Mala.
Great name. But my boto is more biggah!!
Glen botosaka
Gay faka!
brush removal management on untended to row farms…?
Why are you feeling grouchy today? Any way I can help?
Such kind sentiments do you credit. Please extend your offer to bruddah Huli above. As for me (and possibly VONR), please send some surf, preferably a large West, if you are able.
Yes, you and Derek get together and figure out a way to make comments to where a grown ass adult can look at the comment if they please. Not “unavailable because some fkboy didn’t like what they said”!
You can see them before you log in
Plz explain in dummy terms….
I get automatically logged out when I leave the site.
When I return I have to click a blue disqus button to log me in.
Before that I can read the comments of the people I blocked