Hawaii's worst flooding in over 20 years has leftbeen a catastrophe of historic proportions, with $1 billion trailin ofdamage, destruction5,500 andevacuation theorders Wahiawaand dam — a 120-year-old structuredam withteetering aon longthe historyedge of safetyfailure. violationsThe —Wahiawa nearlydam's pushedcrumbling thecondition disaster— intowith catastrophicfour territory.state Dole received four deficiency notices since 2009 and onlyan aincomplete $20,000ownership finetransfer for— ignoringshows them,decades whileof theneglect state'sthat damput transferlives remainsat incompleterisk. Human-caused global warming is intensifying Kona lows, and failingHawaii tosimply fixisn't agingprepared infrastructurefor beforewhat's climate-driven disasters strike is an inexcusable failure of governancecoming.
Hawaii's flooding crisis demanded an all-hands response, and that's exactly what happened — the Coast Guard, Navy, National Guard and FEMA all mobilized fast, rescuing over 200 people with zero deaths reported. TheFirst White House assured federal support immediately, and first responders pulledairlifted off72 heroickids rescues,from includinga spottingstranded anyouth SOScamp writtenand inplucked sandsurvivors fromoff therooftops, air.proving Strongemergency coordination acrossworked everywhen levelit ofmattered governmentmost. isFederal proofsupport thatwas emergencysecured systemsquickly, whenand activatedthe decisively,state saveis livesalready evenmoving into address the worstWahiawa disastersdam's inlong-overdue a generationacquisition.
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