Maui County, no stranger to hurricane-driven wildfires, sits in a relatively dry area covered by a rain shadow. Introduced to the region near the turn of the 19th century, fire-prone non-native plants often replaced their native peers resulting in the creation and quick spreadability of additional fires (Trauernicht et al.,) which further complicate response and thin-out the already limited available resources. Hawaii, after all, is a chain of islands far away from the mainland United States – or any major county for that matter – severely limiting mutual aid capabilities. Not unlike the current conflagration, the county experienced wildfires that took them by surprise in recent years. In fact, according to the 2020 Hazard Mitigation Plan (which is a great read by the way) between 2015 and 2019 the County experienced over 40 fires that collectively burned in excess of 36,000 acres (County of Maui, Hawai’i, 2020) and destroyed entire towns.
Also of note for Maui is the impacts to healthcare - including dialysis centers which require both electricity and fresh water (and as you noted, the freshwater supply is pumped via electricity). There's an NGO called "Healthcare Ready" which is collecting, monitoring, and reporting OSINT related to ESF#8 - Public Health concerns. Here's a link to their first SitRep:
Michael, thank you for the great insight. It is clear that the infrastructure has many fatal flaws whether it be location of equipment, transportation routes, electrically run everything (off of the same grid), etc. I just hope the storms/hurricanes headed towards Hawaii die out soon or we may also be in for a whole new set of issues that further complicate response efforts.
Our dependency on electricity - critically during disasters - is a fatal flaw, especially on islands (also reference Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria in 2017). I wrote a piece on it for Medium, which I will share with EMN subscribers for free: https://bartondunant.medium.com/are-we-overly-dependent-on-electricity-especially-during-disasters-1b6f293a5a3a?source=friends_link&sk=b328e2b846597ad4a7068e7aa05cec20
Also of note for Maui is the impacts to healthcare - including dialysis centers which require both electricity and fresh water (and as you noted, the freshwater supply is pumped via electricity). There's an NGO called "Healthcare Ready" which is collecting, monitoring, and reporting OSINT related to ESF#8 - Public Health concerns. Here's a link to their first SitRep:
https://mailchi.mp/healthcareready/hawaii-wildfires?e=27f929b24e
Michael, thank you for the great insight. It is clear that the infrastructure has many fatal flaws whether it be location of equipment, transportation routes, electrically run everything (off of the same grid), etc. I just hope the storms/hurricanes headed towards Hawaii die out soon or we may also be in for a whole new set of issues that further complicate response efforts.