sunbum1944

Jeff Bezos to donate $100 mil to Maui fire victims. Wow! That's a lot of money

coral22

That is fantastic news!

starrs

That is amazing!

sunbum1944

I just learned the friend we have over there lost her house. She had lived there for a long time, moved back to the mainland for a few years and had just been living back in Maui for a few months. Does anyone know if Star Noodle burned? She works there.

LucieV

I am officially no longer in the I-Hate-Jeff Bezos club.
Now let's see what Elon comes up with.

zebec

Did any of you catch the report about that old rock artist, the painter who'd done stylized portraits of rock music icons for decades and was literally one day away from his latest gallery opening next to Mick Fleetwood's restaurant?
One of his pieces was of local Maui resident Steven Tyler. There was also Joni Mitchell and many others.
The artist's house survived, as it was in a different town on the isle, but alas, his gallery did not.
But he himself was a survivor, having apparently conquered cancer three times.

I am done. the lost town

sunbum1944

I am reminded once again that we should all have a disaster bag ready to go just in case of emergency complete with a change of clothes. Our country has a list of things to pack. One thing I had not thought about was a pair of shoes by the door. My next project to work on.

annw

IIRC Zuckerberg has quite the compound on Kauai; it's about time he matches Bezos' donation instead of shadowboxing with Musk.

cathies

About 20 years ago we had a very real bushfire alert close to us. I had bags packed and a list on the fridge of things I needed to throw in the car if we did need to evacuate. Shoes by the door is a good idea. The list on the fridge consisted of things that couldn’t be replaced - artwork, jewellery, things that were of sentimental value. It didn’t include anything that insurance would cover.

Moderator1

We deleted twenty posts including one inappropriate, insensitive comment plus many responses to it. We also slightly edited three other posts which were only partially in response to the first deleted post.

kureiff

I don’t think about it much, but you’re right. My parents’ house almost burned two weeks ago. A contractor was working on digging a foundation near their house, sparked a fire, and their entire hillside burned down to the river. Helicopter was dumping buckets of water on my parents’ house. The lawn helped stop the fire, but it was incredibly close.

I can’t imagine the devastation in Lahaina and how hard it was to get out of there as there is really just the one highway out.

Several years ago, We were delayed a couple days going home from Maui when a vehicle accident shut down the highway for six hours. We missed our flight along with so many other people and it took a couple days to get everyone’s flights rescheduled.

This is so massive and so many people left homeless. I just can’t imagine.

starrs

When I was a teen we almost lost our house. We were outside, hosing down the house with garden hoses (using water from the well) and hoping the fire wouldn't reach us. We lived on 60 acres and at the time there was no fire department. The county bulldozer cut a fire break in the woods and it worked. Such a scary time.

The next house did burn, although not to the ground. The water damage was extensive.

People on the ground said the fire moved so fast through Lahaina there was virtually no reaction time. Flight announcements say to leave everything behind on the plane in case of emergency. I wonder how many people would actually do that.

Shoes are very important, based on what people from Lahaina were saying. I think I'll keep a better pair (than my sandals) by the door, near the car keys.

So much devastation in Maui. So much will have to be a total rebuild.

starrs

I know there are a lot of Oprah haters on this forum but I saw footage of her at the emergency shelter. She had stopped by to see what they actually needed and then went shopping and brought it back. I thought that was cool. Sending money is great and I know many are doing that, including perhaps Oprah. But to actually show up and then bring back pillows, diapers, the things she was told they needed most right then must have been something to raise spirits. Kudos to all who are helping in big ways and small.

It's the kind of thing Tyler Perry does a lot in the Atlanta area.

macdogmom

Been in two big earthquakes-1971 Los Angeles sylmar and the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area. Always kept extra water in the garage when my kids were growing although you never know if garage will be accessible. Our old neighborhood near Stanford had earthquake/disaster captains and supplies kept in a metal shed. We lost electricity for 24 hours during Loma Prieta but house was fine. It was close to fault line but on bedrock. Places that collapse are built on land fill (like the marina in SF) or old construction that hadn’t been reinforced.

In 2017 we had the Thomas fire threaten us and we had to leave because of terrible smoke. Fire was stopped at Montecito but then came the terrible mudslides 3 weeks later. Fire is a constant worry in Calif. thankful we had a very wet winter and hoping things will not be so bad this fall. Our son lives on the big island and they also had fires and gale-force winds. They live in Waimea away from the coast and it’s very wet there, so no fire worries (so far). Being on an island definitely feels different and a bit scarier than on the mainland.

macdogmom

I think she has a house on Maui and probably was there when fire happened. Her Montecito house came close to burning down and then being swept away in the subsequent mudslides in the Thomas fire in 2017 so she knows about disasters!

sunbum1944

Starrs- I was thinking about what shoes one should keep by the door and decided hiking boots would provide most protection. Regular runners would likely burn through or not provide much insulation.

starrs

"Regular runners would likely burn through or not provide much insulation"
I agree.

I saw a poor guy who had second degree burns on his feet from crossing the road before he jumped in the water.

I can't imagine!

You really ARE picking the pair of shoes that would work best for a mix of conditions. I'd probably slip on my sandals and grab sturdier shoes to take with me. Would there be time to put on hiking shoes? Things most of us have never even thought of before!

Barbara

Oprah owns 2,000 acres on Maui, She must have been there and I think what she did was very good. Smart to find out what was needed then getting that. I'm no Oprah fan, but I'd bet this won't be all she does.

Still waiting to hear something from Larry Ellison who owns 98% of Lanai.

zebec

MacDog, Oprah's mansion house is in Upcountry on the isle.
And as regards your abovementioned Thomas fire, did not the great actor Jonathan Banks ('Mike' from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul) lose his home coz of that?

Starrs, when I was a teen we actually lost our ravine-lot home. The cause was a severe storm during July '76, the waters of which caused our substantial backyard to dissolve into the park below. The subsequent risk to the actual house itself resulted in a tortuous ten month geological survey to determine whether tearing down the building was necessary. Unfortunately, it was. The insurance company hid behind the 'Act of God' clause and my parents were given exactly zero cents.

Each of us has experienced events that toughened us up. Fires included.

starrs

Yikes.

That reminds me of a good thing for me. I have a 1953 GE pushbutton range that I found online. The original owners were selling it - because they had to move. They had to move because flood plains were recalculated and four homes that backed up to a creek had to be removed. I'm not sure if the owners got fair market value or not. When I called to ask about the range, she asked me if she could keep it until after Thanksgiving. She wanted to cook her last Thanksgiving dinner at home on it. When I cooked my Thanksgiving dinner the next year, an in-law by marriage followed me into the kitchen and whispered to ask if I KNEW the stove was 50 years old when I bought it. LOL

She doesn't understand me. Not unusual though.

I could make a lot of $ on it now given the vintage market.