"Over Aug. 7 to 9, gale-force wind gusts reached 67 miles per hour (108 kilometres per hour) in Maui County, according to the National Weather Service. The fierce winds uprooted trees and roiled seas."
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2023-08-21/how-the-hawaii-wildfires-spread-so-quickly#:~:text=Over Aug. 7 to 9,uprooted trees and roiled seas.
You can't fly firefighting helicopters and airplanes in gale-force wind gusts. Extremely dry conditions coupled with hurricane force wind gusts contributed to this disaster. One of the articles said the fire traveled a mile per minute; that's 60 mph. A five square mile area would last how long? How would firefighters fight that? Even if they had water. By the time an alarm could have gone out went, the fire would have probably overrun the community.
This is one of those once in a 100 year disasters. It's not climate change. It was the perfect storm. I imagine Hawaii's emergency warning systems are geared toward hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis. I expect wildfires weren't really even in the picture. Going to be a lot of armchair quarterbacking. Tragic; over 1,000 lives gone in minutes.
Had a similar thing in Gatlinburg a few years ago. The saving grace was rain rolled in at 2:00 am.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news...nburg-fire-how-fast-did-winds-blow/850944001/
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2023-08-21/how-the-hawaii-wildfires-spread-so-quickly#:~:text=Over Aug. 7 to 9,uprooted trees and roiled seas.
You can't fly firefighting helicopters and airplanes in gale-force wind gusts. Extremely dry conditions coupled with hurricane force wind gusts contributed to this disaster. One of the articles said the fire traveled a mile per minute; that's 60 mph. A five square mile area would last how long? How would firefighters fight that? Even if they had water. By the time an alarm could have gone out went, the fire would have probably overrun the community.
This is one of those once in a 100 year disasters. It's not climate change. It was the perfect storm. I imagine Hawaii's emergency warning systems are geared toward hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis. I expect wildfires weren't really even in the picture. Going to be a lot of armchair quarterbacking. Tragic; over 1,000 lives gone in minutes.
Had a similar thing in Gatlinburg a few years ago. The saving grace was rain rolled in at 2:00 am.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news...nburg-fire-how-fast-did-winds-blow/850944001/