My concerns are where will the permanent residents of Maui & Lahaina live for the next six months to a year and will they be able to rebuild their homes?
jhfc, I hope you're kidding. Maybe put a couple of Vegas-style casinos in so the Hawaiians don't have to travel to LV so often?
Your question begs my comment. Building one $2 million home vs housing for all the rest.
When TS owners have been thinking hotel rooms & their own TSs should be avail again in (name an optimistic #) of weeks, I keep thinking about that, right there.
and the reality that it is one of the most isolated places on earth. Not a lot of commuting potential for work crews building homes or commercial buildings, other than, hey, what is that over there just to the north ... Look, thousands of rooms, some with kitchens. but who knows?
I know my friend who was burnt out in the Paradise Camp Fire needed to file a claim to get money from PG&E. It was much more extensive than what she needed to do for her homeowner's insurance.
On the contrary, the brick pavers could very likely serve to have caused more damage to the tree. Why? Because they absorbed the intense heat of the fire and then--over the intervening days after the fire--held that radiant heat over a period of time that could have damaged the roots much more than if that heat had been exhausted through natural means (and likely did). Those bricks were not only not a heat shield, they were likely a thermal blanket.
But also consider that replacement / reproduction cost is usually much higher than the assessed / depreciated / market value of the buildings and improvements.
Maybe they can rebuild "better", whatever that means. But historic Lahaina Town can never be rebuilt to be what it was. That is what is so tragic.
One question will be which landowners want to rebuild where all around you are charred remains of homes. May take a while.
One of those things about history. It just can't be recreated. If you've been to Warsaw, the downtown area was bombed down to about waist high. They reconstructed it using old photos and paintings. It LOOKS like the historic center, but you can tell it's a replica of the original. Yes, the 'new' Lahaina won't be the old Lahaina, but you can't turn back the clock to last Sunday.
Again, going back to my best friend and the Paradise Camp Fire. She chose not to rebuild, she still owns the land though. I don't think she is the only person who made that decision.
That's kind of my point.
That was true at one point, but that has changed and currently it is the reverse. While I do remember when I was very young that most property was leasehold owned by one of the large trusts, particularly KSBE, due to conversions over time the vast majority of real estate now in Hawaii as a whole is now fee simple. Most remaining leasehold property is either commercial or has apartment/condo buildings on it. Single family homes by and large are no longer leasehold.
Not too bad, if compared to piles of rubble which is what they started rebuilding from. Yes, the skills had slipped in the ensuing centuries.
