SA: Free COVID-19 test kits available throughout Oahu (9/28/21)

Free COVID-19 test kits now available at pickup locations throughout Oahu
By Nina Wu, Star-Advertiser, 28 Sep. 2021

The free, home COVID-19 test kits that the Hawaii Department of Health is distributing as part of a federal pilot program are now available for pickup at various Oahu locations.

The Honolulu Fire Department will be distributing about 3,000 of the kits, which have eight tests each, at its four drive-thru testing sites, which include the Aloha Stadium, Ewa Mahiko District Park, Waianae District Park, and Kapolei Consolidated Theatres parking lot.

The free kits, part of the “Say Yes! COVID Test” at-home testing challenge has been in high demand since its launch last week. More than 500,000 were already ordered online within the first few days of the launch.

NYT/SA: Cost of insuring expensive waterfront homes is about to skyrocket

“Cost of insuring expensive waterfront homes is about to skyrocket”
By Christopher Flavelle / New York Times, 24 Sep. 2021
Republished in Star-Advertiser, 28 Sep. 2021

STAR-ADVERTISER: Water crashed onto fortifications called “burritos” near homes precariously perched above Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu in September 2020.

Florida’s version of the American dream, which holds that even people of relatively modest means can aspire to live near the water, depends on a few crucial components: sugar-white beaches, soft ocean breezes and federal flood insurance that is heavily subsidized.

But starting Oct. 1, communities in Florida and elsewhere around the country will see those subsidies begin to disappear in a nationwide experiment in trying to adapt to climate change: Forcing Americans to pay something closer to the real cost of their flood risk, which is rising as the planet warms.