"I'm already thinking of ways for the state to acquire that land so that we can put it into workforce housing, to put it back into families, or make it open spaces in perpetuity as a memorial to the people who were lost," Green said, adding that his government wants this to be something to remember after the pain passes as a magic place.
"Lahaina will rebuild. The tragedy right now is the loss of life. The buildings can be rebuilt over time, and even the banyan tree may survive, but we don't want this to become a clear space where then people from overseas just come and decide they're going to take it. The state will take it and preserve it first," he further stated.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green… “I’m already thinking about ways for the state to acquire that land”…? pic.twitter.com/pN78wPcNy6
— Pelham (@Resist_05) August 15, 2023
According to reports, the governor does not want foreign investors exploiting the burned lands. He also shared that he discussed with the Hawaiian attorney general "options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed."
"It's going to be a very long time before any growth or housing can be built, so you will be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here," he stressed. "I will try to allow no one from outside our state to buy any land until we get through this crisis and decide what Lahaina should be in the future."
Green also ordered the attorney general to embed lawyers at response centers to provide free legal advice to its residents. This is to make sure they are not taken advantage of by people who make offers to buy their land in the wake of the wildfires.
The blaze devastated the town of about 13,000 people in Maui County. Reports reveal that at least 106 people had died in the blaze as of Aug 16, while thousands more were left homeless. It has destroyed more than 2,700 structures at an estimated value of $5.6 billion.
CNBC called the inferno the "deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century and the worst natural disaster in Hawaii state history."
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden already declared a major disaster in Hawaii last week. The announcement unlocked emergency assistance for the island, including grants for temporary housing and home repair and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses. More than 500 hotel rooms and 435 donated rentals are available to temporarily house people. Airbnb will also provide more than 1,000 units, the governor said.
Hawaii fire survivor: This was not a natural disaster
The deadly wildfire that raged out of control is believed by attorneys seeking litigation over the blaze to have started due to electricity failures. "All evidence – videos, witness accounts, burn progression, and utility equipment remaining – points to Hawaiian Electric's equipment being the ignition source of the fire that devastated Lahaina," said Mikal Watts, who has won millions of dollars in settlements in other wildfire cases.
Locals were wondering why no outdoor warning sirens were set off by either local or state emergency agencies and the emergency alerts via mobile device warnings, local radio and TV stations, and Maui County's notification system for subscribed residents were not adequate. According to an anonymous whistleblower, who was informed by someone in the Mayor's office, developments are being kept from the public.
"The number of fatalities is expected to be more than 500 but less than 1000," the source told the whistleblower. "Many of the fatalities will be children who were at home because they canceled school. Parents worked and were not there to evacuate the children. Kids had no idea they needed to leave and by the time they noticed their homes or apartments were on fire, it was too late." The government is worried about how we will react when we learn that the fire department left the fire earlier in the day and claimed it was 100 percent contained knowing that the winds were expected to be 70mph by the afternoon."
The source added the fire department should not have left the original fire unattended. They plan to lock down Lahaina for several months. "They are very worried that the community is going to freak out when they find out how not a single fire truck responded to the fires," the source further claimed. "The emergency sirens were not activated (hurricane sirens) and loss of life could have been kept down by better emergency management which utterly failed."
What happened only triggered more elaborate "conspiracy theories," such as the one that an 'energy weapon' used to control the weather had unleashed the blaze. The motive cited was to allegedly further the "smart cities" agenda, a move spearheaded by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The fires in Maui were caused by a direct energy weapon to turn the island into a 15 minute city, all electric, an AI governed island. pic.twitter.com/6keaqQUe33
— AlphaFo? (@Alphafox78) August 13, 2023
One woman who claimed to be a Hawaii fire survivor said "This was not a natural disaster," and raised questions about how the fire started.
Maui Island, Hawaii fire survivor and first hand witness speaks out;
" this was not a natural disaster" #Hawaii #hawaiifires #Maui #MauiFires #Lahaina pic.twitter.com/0CCdAVhbcy
— Ivan (@Ivankalema01) August 13, 2023
The theories are yet to be proven but how can the local government explain the unsettling "coincidences?"
Stay turned to Disaster.news for more as this story continues to develop.
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