This makes me sad for all the obvious reasons, but also that Mrs. Goofy and I honeymooned in the Papkea Shores at Lahaina on Maui nearly 40 years ago. It’s probably just a smoldering ruin now.
What I’m most interest in is how the government response failed so badly. According to one report, the “danger” sirens never sounded once. They are generally used for tsunamis or hurricanes (cyclones) but I would think an island-wide conflagration would trigger such an alert.
Pass a law saying live here for 183 days a year and document it, or pay an addition $50,000 per year as “non-resident”. I think that would do it.
Papakea is fine. I’ve got a place in Honokowai which is technically the same neighborhood as Papakea, so I’ve been over the satellite footage with a magnifying glass.
Unfortunately, the Maui Facebook groups and such are in full conspiracy theory meltdown mode, but what seems to have happened is the tsunami sirens weren’t used because that is a signal to get to higher ground, which was not what was wanted because that’s where the fire was coming from. By the time the text alerts were sent out, cell service had already been lost. Keep in mind that power and Internet was already out due to the wind in many places.
It has been almost two weeks since the Maui fire.
DB2
Outstanding episode of the Daily podcast on Friday. Long interview with a resident who escaped just ahead of the flames on his scooter along with a friend. The flames pushed them into the harbor where they had to swim for safety.
When fires swept West Maui, Hawaii, many residents fled for their lives — but soon discovered they had nowhere to go. Thousands of structures, mostly homes, have been reduced to rubble. Husks of incinerated cars line the historic Front Street in Lahaina, while search crews nearby make their way painstakingly from house to house, looking for human remains.
Ydriss Nora, a resident of Lahaina, recounts his experience fleeing the inferno and Mike Baker, the Seattle bureau chief for The Times, explains how an extraordinary set of circumstances turned the city into a death trap.
Just an update on rebuilding. It has been one and a half years.
Nearly a year and a half after the fire, signs of rebuilding have popped up across Lahaina town. A total of 556 building permits have been submitted, with 207 issued as of Jan. 2, according to the Maui County recovery dashboard. Of those, four have completed construction.
DB2
As it happens, I was in Lahaina yesterday. It was indeed hearting to see all the lots cleared of debris and some new construction popping up here and there. Still, I think everyone is frustrated with the how slow the process is.
I wonder how long it will take the Asheville, NC area to show that much recovery.
Does anyone know how property taxes work when a natural disaster destroys the structures, leaves the land (of course), but makes the property unusable for the owners for a few years? Normally, in high cost of living places, the land value is much higher than the structure value. For example in these cases, the land value could be $2M, and the structure value might be $500k. So normally the property tax would be based on $2.5M value, minus some credits (homestead, disabled, veteran, senior, native, etc) multiplied by some mil rate to calculate the tax. But if the structure is gone, the property tax would normally be based on the land value alone, $2M in this case. But do they “impair” the land value somehow if it can’t be used for its normal high value purpose (in this case “living in a beautiful place”)?
Basically if someone in CA with a property that was worth $2.5M ($2M land + $500k structure) was paying $25k/yr (1% property tax) before the fire, would they be paying $20k now, or less than $20k now?
I assume Asheville would be quicker for a few reasons:
Have utilities been restored in Lahina? W/o power, phone, internet, water, sewers it must be tough to build and live there. Much was destroyed and had to be rebuilt.
It is now taxed as grazing land as long as you have two goats and a mule on it. 
NJ has an agriculural exemption for farm land. If you earn $500 per year farming your estate gets taxed at special ag rates. Gov Christy Whitman was well known for hiring a farm manager to raise cattle for her so she could qualify.
I suspect every state has an agricultural exemption of some kind, even Buffet gets a tax break off of farm land. As long as you are following the law I see no reason why you shouldn’t get it.
Yes, and people point out high taxes force farmers to sell to developers sooner. Tax break slows development. And to keep an area more or less rural, some buy development rights.