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For the Maui sirens, there’s actually an argument for not activating them. From my understanding, the sole purpose of the sirens is to warn residents of a tsuna

For the Maui sirens, there’s actually an argument for not activating them. From my understanding, the sole purpose of the sirens is to warn residents of a tsunami. Residents are trained to run into the forest in the mountains when they hear the sirens… the exact spot where they needed to keep people away from because the fire was raging. If that’s accurate, it might have done more harm than good to use them. It also sounds like the mayor didn’t bother to answer a request for temporarily rerouting streams to let the fire department have enough water to respond. Because it wouldn’t be equitable to the other people on the island to let that small group have so much of the limited resource. I might be missing some details, but that’s what I got out of a quick news article yesterday. I’d apply the avoiding work argument here more than the sirens. First guy made a hard decision. Second guy sat on it until it didn’t matter anymore. (Edited to fix a few words Siri felt should be changed after I typed them)

cratermoon 3y ago
> It also sounds like the mayor didn’t bother to answer a request for temporarily rerouting streams to let the fire department have enough water to respond. Because it wouldn’t be equitable to the other people on the island to let that small group have so much of the limited resource. That would be true if it really was about other people, but the water rights are tied up in multi-national agricultural and development interests. Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/hawaii-fires-maui-water-rights-disaster-capitalism https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/hawaii...
rcarr 3y ago
> Residents are trained to run into the forest in the mountains when they hear the sirens… the exact spot where they needed to keep people away from because the fire was raging. If that’s accurate, it might have done more harm than good to use them. Even if people went in the wrong direction, at some point they're going to see the smoke and fire, come across someone who tells them what's happening, or otherwise sees a load of people going in the opposite direction to where they're going and figure it out. Having a chance is better than no chance at all which is what these people got.
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cratermoon 3y ago

> It also sounds like the mayor didn’t bother to answer a request for temporarily rerouting streams to let the fire department have enough water to respond. Because it wouldn’t be equitable to the other people on the island to let that small group have so much of the limited resource. That would be true if it really was about other people, but the water rights are tied up in multi-national agricultural and development interests. Why was there no water to fight the fire in Maui? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/hawaii-fires-maui-water-rights-disaster-capitalism https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/17/hawaii...

rcarr 3y ago

> Residents are trained to run into the forest in the mountains when they hear the sirens… the exact spot where they needed to keep people away from because the fire was raging. If that’s accurate, it might have done more harm than good to use them. Even if people went in the wrong direction, at some point they're going to see the smoke and fire, come across someone who tells them what's happening, or otherwise sees a load of people going in the opposite direction to where they're going and figure it out. Having a chance is better than no chance at all which is what these people got.

deleted 3y ago

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