Darkness and Ruins

Unlike Kazama Shin of the anime Area 881, the subject of my last post, I did finally come home after years of working abroad.

Little did I know that Hawaii would be in a permanent state of emergency, starting with the dethplague. Lt. Gov. Dr. Josh “Body Bags” Green, MDeeee (The One Party), rode CONvid into the governor’s office, where he shall remain until 2030.

The Green years have been deth-y. After barely eluding the extinction of our species, we have been targeted by one new dethplague after another. Like this one from just two days ago:

A Honolulu Pravda reader is doing their duty by freaking out:

Where did they contract the disease? Where are they stationed? Which island? If they have a kid, what school does the kid go to? And don’t cite privacy when nobody is asking for names or home addresses, and DOH [Department of Health] violated privacy with impunity in Safe Travels, Hawaii Smart, and related digital surveillance.

Why must we be forced to guess where it is in the State?

Why must DOH always be so vague, sloppy, slow, and late on these things? Have they learned nothing from the pandemic? Have they learned nothing from other outbreaks?

If they are going to tell us basically nothing, why even bother to put out a report at all?

With Trump and RFK, Jr. erasing 80 years of national public health, we basically have nobody else to protect us.

Not even Gov. Dr. Green, MDeeee? Our own Fauci? How many other states are blessed with a master of The Science™ at the top? A physician protected by the Aura of Leadership that allows Him to survive without da mesk, the holiest garment of our island culture? We dethbreathers need The Six Feet, not Him.

Last year, Gov. Green warned us of “life threatening” dethwaves:

As the night [of the dethwaves] went on, Hawaii Nausea tried their ‘best’ to dig up Rilly Scary Footage. Like a reporter at a shoreline parking lot where cars were moving about even though the coasts were supposed to have been evacuated. That daredevil revealed that the parking lot had been “flooded” for … “five or six minutes”. And the water was … “ankle height” for those terrifying three hundred-plus seconds.

Worse flooding than anything Noah ever saw.

Then came the dethstorms. Which did cause real damage. At least according to the media. I didn’t see the damage firsthand. If I hadn’t seen the news, I wouldn’t have known. In April, I wrote,

I ignored a flash flood warning again and walked outside during dethstorm 3. This time I was alone - like I usually was during CONvid six years ago. Nobody walking their dogs. Not even cars on the street.

I did see someone charging their car outside in the driveway. They also did that during one of the previous flood warnings. Was that wise when it could rain? When it was supposed to be raining?

I think a drizzle started after I passed that car. It lasted a few minutes. I wasn’t soaked. The water on me and my phone/pedometer had long since evaporated when I came home an hour later.

I didn’t expect to walk today. I thought there would be more rain than there actually was.

I also didn’t expect to write about the latest dethstorm again. I’m tired of the hype.

I was still tired of it four months later - last week when

Gov. Josh Green, M.D. signed an emergency proclamation Thursday, Aug. 13, declaring a state of emergency for Hawaiʻi as Lala is forecast to approach the islands at near hurricane strength this weekend.

But I have to confess that this time I didn’t need the news to know something was out of the ordinary. And not just because I had to stay indoors for two days in a row because of the rain. Or the off-and-on power last night - I wrote my last post offline on battery power before the power returned to my Wi-Fi just in time for me to publish.

Today I woke up to see a first: a fallen tree completely blocking my street.

Another first: an external cable box somehow got torn off the side of my house. And I couldn’t call the cable company to come out and fix it. Not in this weather.

A first I can’t confirm (emphasis mine):

Falling debris from a Waikiki hotel has forced officials to close a portion of Kalakaua Avenue as high winds from Hurricane Lala continue to batter Oahu.

According to police, the initial road closure was initiated after a piece of debris fell just before 7 p.m. from the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Waikiki Beach hotel. First responders subsequently identified another piece of debris dangling from the top of the structure.

I have never heard of a Waikiki hotel coming apart during a storm before.

Strangely, I can’t find anything about that at Honolulu Pravda. And Hipsta Pravda buried it in paragraph 45 of “ ‘Utter Devastation’: Lala Turns Hawaiʻi Upside Down, Spares Some” (emphasis mine):

[Kat] Findlay, a touring cello player from Salt Lake City, was scheduled to play at the Blue Note Sunday night with the Australian soft rock duo Air Supply.

She had realized how serious the storm was getting when she and other musicians left the venue after a show Saturday night to find part of Kalākaua Avenue closed off. Honolulu police had shut it down because of large debris blowing off the roof of the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Waikiki Beach. On Sunday morning, part of the road was still closed off with caution tape.

Basic facts that are absent from the news:

1. How “large” was the “debris” that blew off the roof?

2. How do we know the “debris” came off the roof of a specific building?

3. How large was the “piece of debris dangling from the top of the structure”?

Further questions:

4. Why were parts of the root susceptible to being blown off?

5. Are there other parts of buildings at risk of blowing off in a storm?

6. What can owners do to prevent their property from coming apart in a storm?

This family lost their roof:

I’m surprised their house and belongings appear to be largely intact (though presumably wet).

A far larger problem is the lack of power:

“Customers should prepare for extended outages lasting weeks or even months in the hardest hit rural areas of Hawaii island,” the company [Hawaiian Electric] said.

As of 7 PM tonight (five hours ago), 179,000 customers were without power. Note that a single customer may have a household of multiple people.

A commenter at Honolulu Pravda estimated that 40% of the population of my island was without power as of eight hours ago.

Other comments at Honolulu Pravda:

Nearly 200k without power from what amounted to tropical storm force winds at most. Just imagine if even a minimal hurricane hit, especially Oahu? We’d be out of commission for weeks. Everyone should have supplies for a week minimum, preferably two weeks.

Power outages for weeks would be on the bright side. It’d more likely be out for months.

can someone explain why billions of dollars were spent on rail [the train to nowhere] when we don't even have a reliable electric grid?

welcome to heco [HECO = Hawaiian Electric Company] land
where all good things go black

A land of “[d]arkness and ruins”.