For Americans, what happened in Lahaina should be a wake up call

 IF you have ever been to Maui (I lived on Maui in 1989 and 1990) and if you have ever visited Lahaina, it is a very special place that you likely wouldn't find anywhere else on earth because of it's history and climate and ambiance as a place on earth.

You might think of slowly swaying palm trees and a light breeze and waves that go on forever and tourists and Hawaiian Locals in this very old and historic city dating back to at least the early 1800s for both Native Hawaiians and then white people from Captain Cook on.

So, this calm place on a desert side of Maui that is usually a happy place is now a place filled only with Horror and death with  more people dying there from a fire disaster now than any place in the U.S. in a century.

And what caused this? Global Climate change through Hurricane Dora which missed Hawaii by at least 800 miles but created a wind effect unheard of for this side of the island which killed everyone. I think what happened is the fire died down enough so people in the fire departments thought it had subsided and there were worse fires elsewhere.

But, the problem was that there still were embers underground and then the winds went up to 80 mph unexpectedly and then everyone was screaming, running and dying. (Those that even realized that a fire was coming).

So, the reason this should be a wake up call for All Americans and maybe the whole world is that "Almost anything unexpected can now happen because of Global Climate changes." Things that never could happen before can happen now and because of it thousands will die this year worldwide both directly and indirectly from all these ongoing changes.

For example, on Lahaina side people are now getting desperate and scared and some who are poorer are resorting to robbing people so that they can survive another day. Remember this is a small island without the resources of the mainland and so if you are on West Maui from Lahaina North along that side of the island you are likely scared with good reason because your life and property could be in danger from desperate people trying to survive in the summer humid heat of that side of Maui without water or food or shelter. Desperate people often do desperate things and you don't want to get into the way of them unless you are the police or military.