Don't forget, they blocked basically the only good exit out of town because that road had "downed power lines".
So instead of sending one fire unit to lead the road out and move one power line (I assume most would not be hot if they are AFTER the first broken line, although I guess you don't know which one that is).. they just let people stay back where a major fire was. We wouldn't want you driving over a down power line!
Looks like hundreds are dead over basically government ineptitude.
The person you're replying to didn't mention climate change, nor did the WSJ article they linked. The article says things like:
"West Maui dried up over the past 150 years as water was diverted to support an
expansion of sugar plantations and then real-estate development."
And then talks about how the sugar plantations were abandoned and non-native grasses took over, real thick nasty invasive flammable grass. People said "we should do something about that grass" and they did a bit, but the only way to get rid of the grass is to dig it up, and who's gonna pay for that?
