Inhabitants of Maui county in Hawaii, have just suffered one of the most devastating wildfire disasters in the history of the United States. And going by claims being made on social media, the suffering of people is only getting aggravated in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Survivors and family members of Maui wildfires victims and those whose homes got decimated in the disaster are highlighting how harassment by realtors and investors is rubbing salt into their wounds.
In a viral video on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), a woman alleges “Okay, I got to tell you guys. I am frustrated with investors and realtors calling the families who lost their home, offering to buy their land”.
“How dare you do that to our community right now?,” she complains in the video.
The woman then goes on to request the victims to come forward and get the business names of such real estate agents who are making such calls to pressurise them into selling land.
“If your are a victim and they are calling you, please get their business name so we can put them on blast,” requests the woman.
“Try to get as much information out of these guys and send it to me,” she tells later in the video.
A person commented on the woman’s allegations in the video and wrote “Vultures have arrived”.
“Lahaina is not for sale,” resident alleges harassment by realtors to sell destroyed property
In an interaction with MSNBC, a Maui resident and survivor of the wildfires has alleged that investors and realtors have been approaching the victims, offering to buy their lands.
“Lahaina is not for sale. Please don’t reach out to these families and take advantage of them during the most devastating time of our lives,” said the survivor.
“Home owners have been reached out by investors and realtors, offering to buy their lands and this is disgusting. We just wanna make sure that people around the world understand our situation and know that ‘Lahaina is not for sale’,” the woman added further.
Meanwhile, the death count due to the wildfires has neared 100. Thousands of buildings in Lahaina have been destroyed as a result of the fires which were fuelled by fast winds due to Hurricane Dora.
Amid the turmoil and tragedy, an insensitive response by US President Joe Biden, has further angered the people. Recently, a Bloomberg journalist named Justin Sink alleged that while vacationing on the Rehoboth beach in Delaware, Biden responded “no comment” when asked about the rising death toll in Hawaii.
Earlier, President Biden had declared the wildfires in Hawaii as a “major disaster”.
