|
|
Musings Report 2023-34 8-19-23 Lessons in Self-Reliance from the Maui Fire
You are receiving this email because you are one of the subscribers/major contributors to www.oftwominds.com.
For those who are new to the Musings reports: they're a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Thank You, Patrons and Contributors!
Thank you longtime stalwart subscribers and welcome new patrons / subscribers Jerry K., Steve M., Glenn A., Roy P., occam24 and Joe G.. -- thank you very much!
Lessons in Self-Reliance from the Maui Fire
Lahaina and I go back a long way: Lahaina was the "big exciting town" we visited via inter-island ferry when I lived on the nearby island of Lanai as a teen circa 1969-1970. Lahaina and Maui were touristy even then, of course, as Hawaii was boasting of hosting 1 million tourists a year. (Now the annual total is around 10 million visitors a year.) But Maui was not over-developed back then, the resorts of Ka'anapali and Kihei did not even exist. The soundtrack of Lahaina in 1969 was the Beatles' Abbey Road. Yes, a long time ago.
My sister went to college on Maui and often vacationed there, and my brother worked as a builder there for years, so Maui looms large in memory and emotion. The fire destroyed more than structures and lives.
I have no personal contacts in Lahaina, so media reports and videos are my only sources.
It's only natural to ask ourselves, could such a wildfire consume my neighborhood? Am I prepared for such a terrible eventuality? These questions can be summarized as: what can we learn from the Lahaina fire in terms of self-reliance?
For context, perhaps it's best to reconstruct the confusion of mixed messages from authorities, the loss of power and communications and the timeline of the fire's spread: How the Maui wildfires devastated Lahaina, hour by hour.
While the initial media coverage emphasized the speed of the fire's spread, it appears to have been an uneven, unpredictable wildfire that lasted from late afternoon until long after midnight, racing through some areas while sparing a few enclaves.
Imagining ourselves in a similar chaotic swirl of fast-developing threats and a lack of coherent instructions from authorities, four questions arise:
1. Are we prepared for such an emergency? Do we have a "bug-out" bag of IDs, cash, phone chargers, essential medications, bottles of water, etc.? Did we have escape routes in mind if gridlock blocks the roads? Have we photographed our house to aid insurance claims? Or are we completely unprepared?
It seems incomprehensible that my neighborhood could be consumed by a fast-moving fire, and most Lahaina residents probably felt the same. It doesn't seem possible that such a terrible event could happen, and so we feel no urgency to be prepared. Do I have a "bug-out" bag? No. But I'm certainly thinking about making one now.
2. Are we prepared to make our own assessment of the threat and make a decision that ignores the authorities' instructions?
We're highly attuned to authority and what people around us are doing. It's hard to make a decision that goes against authority and whatever the crowd is doing or not doing. We've been trained to await instructions from authorities and follow orders, and if these are not forthcoming, or are confusing / constantly changing, we may well freeze up, unsure of what to do.
This hesitancy becomes a life and death matter in such fast-moving threats. One account told of a person who tried to escape in a vehicle and encountered a roadblock, apparently originally set up earlier in the day to keep people from driving on a road threatened by the wildfire. He drove around the roadblock and saved his life.
3. What have we learned from other such fast-moving emergencies elsewhere that can help us should we face a similar emergency?
The key take-away from virtually every such fast-developing emergency is roads quickly become gridlocked as everyone tries to escape in vehicles at the same time. Being stuck in gridlock can become a death sentence. The only alternatives are to leave well before the crowd finally senses the urgency or escape on foot. Leaving before everyone else requires making a risk assessment that "better safe than sorry"-- leaving as a precaution rather than as a last-ditch desperate measure.
4. Do I have the necessary endurance to walk-run-swim to safety? If fleeing on foot--or in some cases, jumping in the ocean and swimming--then we have to have the physical strength and stamina to reach safety. This places a premium on being fit. The very elderly and disabled are at extreme disadvantages and must be helped to safety by people who are not just fit enough to help themselves but fit enough to help another far less able person.
I'm a pretty good swimmer, but do I have what it takes to swim in cold, rough water at night amidst choking smoke and drag another less able person to relative safety? That is a tall order for anyone. Over-estimating what we can manage can be as problematic as being frozen in inaction.
Can we rely on our own abilities to react and act to save our own lives and aid those around us? This is obviously core to self-reliance.
The other core to self-reliance that I emphasize in my book is being a contributing member of productive groups. We cannot survive and thrive alone. Self-reliance demands working well with others.
What is remarkable and heartwarming in this post-tragedy period is how many people on Maui and elsewhere responded immediately, organizing ad-hoc relief efforts in whatever ways they could. These three media stories describing volunteer responses mention the "coconut wireless" and the existing connections that were tapped to make it happen. If there are no informal, tight-knit community ties, there is no capacity to organize such amazing efforts on the fly.
A nonprofit dedicated to wildlife conservation finds a new mission: Delivering disaster aid
In the ruins of Lahaina, a surfing legend leads a volunteer army to get supplies to survivors
Maui residents fill philanthropic gaps while aid makes the long journey to the fire-stricken island
Individuals with connections to Maui or Hawaii also responded by activating fundraising / supply efforts. For example, the daughter of my Honolulu high school basketball coach, mixed-martial artist Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, raised $2 million in her fundraiser.
As I often note, self-reliance isn't self-sufficiency. It encompasses both our ability to assess, decide and act decisively, and contribute to mutual-help efforts that are larger than ourselves.
If you want to contribute to the relief efforts, you might consider
Hawaii Community Foundation's Maui Strong Fund.
Highlights of the Blog
I Have a Very Bad Feeling About This 8/18/23
The Peculiar Unreality of Spectacle 8/16/23
2021 to 2024: From "Revenge" Splurging to Forced Frugality 8/14/23
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Made another batch of super-food: poi!
From Left Field
NOTE TO NEW READERS: This list is not comprised of articles I agree with or that I judge to be correct or of the highest quality. It is representative of the content I find interesting as reflections of the current zeitgeist. The list is intended to be perused with an open, critical, occasionally amused mind.
Many links are behind paywalls. Most paywalled sites allow a few free articles per month if you register. It's the New Normal.
Maui wildfires expose rift over island’s tourism: ‘We’re more vulnerable than anyone admits’
Rise of the machines: AI spells danger for Hollywood stunt workers (via Richard M.)
The year that broke US politics: what 1968 can tell us about 2024 (new book)
Hawaii: growing threat of ‘devastating’ fires as island landscape dries and warms -- wildfires were non-existent or rare until recently....
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs vs. The Max Neef Model of Human Scale development (via Ryan K.)
OTFC Podcast Ep. 5: Of Narcissists and Consumption
On the Highway to Climate Hell: The world's infrastructure was built for a climate that no longer exists.
Marshall McLuhan - rare archival footage from 1977 (5 min)
Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and the Evolution of the Noosphere (book)
Manna - psilocybin mushroom inspired documentary (54 min)
The exegesis of Philip K. Dick - hacking the hero's journey: Richard Doyle (15 min)(via Ryan K.)
See Inside a Ghost Town of Abandoned Mansions in China (via Cheryl A.) -- 65 million empty dwellings, wow, what a vast mal-investment...
"The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. No, the true measure of a man is this: how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give." Philip K. Dick
Thanks for reading--
charles |
|
|
|
|
|
