We can’t avoid it. We tried to stay happy all week, and the gathering last Thursday proved to be a sentimental focus for fond memories. We had all met when the Navy brought us together in Hawaii. Our duty station was on the top floor of the Fleet Intelligence Center- the “F-I-C” that rose up the slope of Makalapa Crater. Decent parking down at the lot on the ground floor, facing the harbor. Our duty was done on the top floor, which had an entrance facing inland and a shorter walk over to the headquarters complex.

The discussion at Ireland’s Four Courts mixed the events of four decades ago with the deadly one that was happening just this week. A deadly fire had broken out in extremely dry conditions, and with winds gusting to 60 miles an hour. The information about the fire did not mention the cause of it, which was part of the story told without mention. swept up the street of Lahaina, once a quaint city that had briefly served as capital for the Hawaiian Kings and Queens.

The news was grim. Initial reports included “36 perish!” which were replaced this morning by “80 dead, a thousand missing.”

That news made it a personal matter, since we had all served out there. All of us had visited Maui for the beauty of its beaches and hills. And those watching the flat-screen at the end of the new HQ suite muttered that “85% of wildfires are human caused.” The other 15% of the conflagrations are due to electrical lines being knocked down, or lightning strikes. There was no word on which cause is the preferred official answer.

The Chairman stopped by for a quick reinforcement cup of Chock Full ‘O Nuts to start his day. He looked unusually sober as he waved a copy of an old tan-covered book. “My kids were conceived and born over on O’ahu,” he said, taking a sip of java. “There is a family report that at least one of the grandkids was conceived there. We are connected to the soil of those sometimes tranquil islands, and trips to Maui always featured a stroll down the historic street with the churches and graceful wooden-frame buildings. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families affected, and hope those reported missing are still missing are just cut off from their phones.”

All of us had seen pictures of the devastation, which is the only appropriate word to describe the piles of ashes. Lahaina’s downtown resembled the drone-pictures of a little town in Ukraine after being worked over by artillery and high explosives.

That these were pictures of an American town in peacetime was startling, and the tragic stories will come only as local officials are able to collate the chain of events. But the smoke of this summer emitted from fires across the country and Canada, our neighbor to the North, evokes a certain suspicion for Mother Nature’s periodic outbreaks. But the percentage of fires caused by human activity historically mean there is the possibility that there is a potentially criminal aspect that merits investigation.

Major General Kenneth Hara is the officer commanding Hawaii’s Army National Guard. He was restrained in his initial assessment, saying at his press conference that the “low humidity and high winds set the conditions for the wildfires.” His phrasing left the possibilities for the cause of the disaster open.

That is the way things are reported these days. In Las Vegas back in 2017 a disgruntled gambler opened fire on the crowd gathered for the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. fifty-eight citizens were killed there. No conclusive motive has ever been announced for the slaughter and the template for the news was that parts of the story were deemed better left unsaid.

The powerful winds that fanned the flames were generated by Hurricane Dora, a storm that was moving eastward across the Pacific hundreds of miles south of the Hawaiian islands. The National Weather Service said Dora was a Category 4 Storm, which meant the winds blew at more than 60 knots, knocking down power lines and possibly generating sparks that ignited the blaze.

We looked for a means to contribute to relief efforts. The American Red Cross has one means that can be done online here.

President Biden did not issue an emergency proclamation specifically about the Maui fires. There had been stories that an emergency declaration on Climate Change might be issued, but so far, that has not come to pass. The time-line for the campaign may have that action deferred to later in the 2024 election cycle. In the meantime, there is a real and tragic need for help out west in the Pacific. We gave something this morning, and hope you can pitch in and help as well.

It is for Maui, and for those who called Lahaina home.

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com