Hawaiʻi is currently in the midst of a natural disaster if you didnt know
Apparently there isn’t much news coverage of this outside of the islands
Towns are flooded, homes destroyed and collapsed, roads collapsed, lives at risk, gas leaks from the flood damage
Haleiwa and Waialua are currently evacuated because the 120 year old dam is at risk of bursting
Mind you that damn is owned by Dole. Theyve known about it needing to be fixed for years and years and years. Despite having more than enough money they refuse
The state has been trying to buy it out from them for years so they can fix it, but the sale hasn’t gone through
Keep in mind that the Dole family were the ones who illegally imprisoned Queen Liliuʻokalani and illegally overthrew the monarchy.
If I see another goddamn person say how sad this is for the tourists whose “trips were ruined” and compare a messed up vacation to people losing their homes, belongings, and livelihoods, I’m going to lose my mind
I am so lucky that my family or friend’s are safe and the few whose houses flooded didnt have it too bad, but so so so many were not as fortunate
If you haven’t heard anything about this until now, I suggest looking into it
The sirens didn’t go off until the flood had been going on for hours. Our state government is spending so much money on a fucking monorail we don’t need rather than fixing the infrastructure.
It’s been the locals and Kanaka doing the most to help get people to safety from the start
I don’t really know how to end this
I just need to know people are aware
I need to know people are seeing whats happening
Dole the fruit company started the dole plantation in 1901 in Hawaʻi as the “hawaiian pineapple company”
Dole the fruit company got big from plantations, colonialism, and exploitation in Hawaiʻi
Dole the fruit company monopolized land for their plantations, exploited local labor as well as immigrant labor from the people they shipped in to work, and depleted the soil and introduced toxic pesticides
Dole the fruit company was the cousin of Sanford B Dole who helped overthrow the monarchy and became the governor of hawaiʻi afterwards
Dole purchased the island of Lānaʻi and made it tbe largest pineapple plantation in the world
Lānaʻi is now 98% owned by larry ellison, cofounder and chairman of oracle
Dole the fruit company had sugarcane plantations across hawaiʻi as well as pineapple
For over 150 years, millions of gallons of water were diverted daily from natural streams to sugarcane plantations on Maui
This caused irreparable damage to the ecosystem and is largely if not wholly responsible for how dry Maui is to this day
The dryness of Maui played a huge factor into the severity of the Lahaina fires
That control over water shifted political power to colonizers which aided them in overthrowing the monarchy
yes, dole the fruit company owns a dam in Hawaiʻi
they still have massive pineapple farms in hawaiʻi
The dole plantation on Oahu is now a tourist attraction where they’ll take you on the “pineapple express train tour” or the “plantation garden tour”
They turned it into a tourist attraction
Also: the dam is no longer at imminent risk of failure
BUT
that in no way means it isn’t still an issue
this is an earthen dam, not a concrete one
it was not meant to last this long
Earthen dams are weakened every time it rains. So even though it’s no longer at imminent risk of failure, the danger is still there
Earthen damns begin to erode once water runs over them
Here’s a good, local news article on this that @proustianrevelry linked in the rbs
Hawaiʻi's proposal to acquire the dam, and have taxpayers foot the bill for repairs, let the company off the hook.
