MAUI, Hawaii (AP) – Wildfires have devastated parts of Maui in Hawaii this week, destroying a historic town and forcing evacuations. The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the island chain, was partly to blame for strong winds that initially drove the flames, knocking out power and grounding firefighting helicopters.
After the fire, bishop urges survivors not to give up hope
The Most Reverend Clarence “Larry” Silva, Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Honolulu, celebrated Mass on Sunday at a church in Kapalua — just up the road from fire-ravaged Lahaina. He urged those present not to give up hope.
During the Mass, Silva read a message from Pope Francis that he was praying for those who lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods — as well as for first responders.
After the service, Silva declared “God loves us in tragedies and good times” and urged the Catholic faithful “to share that faith with others who may lose it or don’t have it so that they can go on and they don’t give up hope.”
Several parishioners from Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in Lahaina attended the Mass, about 16 kilometres from the epicentre of the destruction.
Taufa Samisani was present. His uncle, aunt, cousin and cousin’s seven-year-old son all died. Samisani’s wife Katalina cited a Bible reading from Sunday’s Mass about how Jesus’ apostle Peter walked on water because of faith — and she would rely on faith to cope. “If Peter can walk on water, yes we can. We will get to the shore,” she said, her voice quivering.
The Lahaina church survived the fire even though the adjoining Catholic school burned. Administrators are exploring potentially holding classes for the 200 students in hotel ballrooms and conference rooms.
Silva told The Associated Press the community is worried about the children, who have witnessed tragedy and are anxious. “The more they can be in a normal situation with their peers and learning and having fun, I think the better off they’ll be,” he said.
Hotel cook: From feeding guests to feeding the displaced
JP Mayoga, a cook at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali, is still making breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis. But instead of serving hotel guests, he’s feeding the roughly 200 hotel employees and their families now living there after Tuesday’s deadly fire ravaged Lahaina just south of the resort.
His home was spared. But his partner, two young children, father and another Lahaina local are all staying in a hotel room together, as it has running water and is safer than the toxic debris now covering Lahaina.
“Everybody has their story and everybody lost something, so everybody can be there for each other and they understand what’s going on in each other’s lives,” he said of his fellow employees.
Such scenes of community support were seen on the beach just outside the hotel the previous day, when a catamaran that had sailed up to Kaanapali from further south arrived with water, food, batteries, toiletries and other basic necessities.
Lahaina residents said they found comfort and hope in community solidarity. But for many, the shock of the loss was only intensifying.
“This is sinking in,” said Mark Holland, a lifelong Lahaina resident who walked amid the ruins of its commercial and social hub for the first time after the fire. “The things that I saw I cannot describe,” he said through tears.
Wildfire magnifies worries about chronic housing shortage
The wildfire that laid waste to wooden homes and historic streets in mere hours last week has magnified concerns about a chronic housing shortage. Maui County estimates more than 80 per cent of the more than 2,700 structures in hard-hit Lahaina were damaged or destroyed, and that some 4,500 residents are newly in need of shelter.
Concerns are multiplying that any homes rebuilt there will target affluent outsiders seeking a tropical haven. That would turbo-charge what is already one of Hawaii’s gravest and biggest challenges: the exodus and displacement of Native Hawaiian and local-born residents who can no longer afford to live in their homeland.
Seeking to help the displaced, the West Hawaiʻi Realtors Association has curated a housing inventory catalogue online — encompassing the entire state — in collaboration with other retail associations. The newly launched website details all available housing options in real-time and provides a platform for those willing to offer up a second home, vacation rental, or additional space for a displaced Maui resident.
Richy Palalay so closely identifies with his Maui hometown that he had a tattoo artist permanently ink “Lahaina Grown” on his forearms when he was 16. “Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy,” he said in a text message.
But with the median price of a Maui home is USD1.2 million, that puts a single-family home out of reach for the typical wage earner. It’s not possible for many to even buy a condo, with the median condo price at USD850,000.
Still, Palalay vows to stay. “I don’t have any money to help rebuild. I’ll put on a construction hat and help get this ship going. I’m not going to leave this place,” he said. “Where am I going to go?”
In search for loved ones, relatives in anguished wait
Lylas Kanemoto has been searching for her cousin, Glen Yoshino, since the inferno swept through Lahaina. Kanemoto said the family is in the process of submitting a DNA test from Yoshino’s nephew in case any remains are found that might belong to her cousin. Other family members, she said, were already found dead in their car. “At least we have closure for them, but the loss and heartbreak is unbearable for many. We as a community has to just embrace each other and support our families, friends, and our community to our best of our abilities,” Kanemoto told the AP by text message on Sunday.
Travellers urged to avoid Maui
Hawaii officials urged tourists to avoid traveling to Maui as many hotels prepared to house evacuees and first responders on the island that faces a long recovery from the wildfire that demolished a historic town and killed more than 90 people.
About 46,000 residents and visitors have flown out of Kahului Airport in West Maui since the devastation in Lahaina became clear Wednesday, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
“In the weeks ahead, the collective resources and attention of the federal, state and county government, the West Maui community, and the travel industry must be focused on the recovery of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses,” the agency said in a statement late Saturday.
Hirono: wildfire threat in Hawaii just as great as in western US
Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono, on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, said she walked through Lahaina with FEMA on Saturday to see first-hand the extent of the loss.
As she walked through the destroyed town, Hirono said she passed a line of charred cars by the ocean where it was clear to her the occupants had fled quickly — likely into the water.
“We are in a period of mourning and loss,” Hirono said.
Hirono said the attorney general has launched a review into why there were not warning sirens alerting people to the danger and allowing them to flee before wildfires quickly consumed the town.
Hirono said the tragedy showed that Hawaii has just as much of a wildfire threat as Western states and more attention needs to be paid to wildfire prevention on the island.
“There is not enough recognition that we are going to have to combat these kinds of wildfires,” Hirono said.
Governor says death toll increases, policy review planned
In a press conference Saturday, Governor Josh Green said the number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires had risen to 89, making it the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years.
Maui County later raised the confirmed death toll to 93.
There were 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged just in West Maui, and 86 per cent of those were residential buildings, Green said.
“The losses approach USD6 billion in estimate,” Green said, adding that it would take “an incredible amount of time” to recover.
Green said officials will review policies and procedures to improve safety.
“People have asked why we are reviewing what’s going on and it’s because the world has changed. A storm now can be a hurricane-fire or a fire-hurricane,” he said. “That’s what we experienced, that’s why we’re looking into these policies, to find out how we can best protect our people.”
Donations arrive in Kaanapali
On Saturday afternoon, more than a dozen people formed an assembly line on Kaanapali Beach to unload water, toiletries, batteries and other essentials from a boat that had sailed from another part of the island to drop off supplies.
The catamaran belonged to boat tour agency Kai Kanani Sailing. David Taylor, the agency’s marketing director, said many of the supplies were for hotel employees on the western side of the island who lost their homes and were now living with their families at their place of employment.
“The aloha still exists,” he said as the group applauded when the unpacking was done. “We all feel it really intensely and everybody wants to feel like they can do something.”
Caitlin McKnight, who was among those helping, echoed similar sentiments. She said she’d also volunteered at the emergency shelter set up at the War Memorial, where she tried to be strong for those who lost everything.
“It was evident that those people, those families, people of the Maui ohana — they went through a traumatic event,” she said, using a Hawaiian word for family. “You could just see it in their face.”
Toll of confirmed dead in Maui wildfires expected to climb
Green said he expects the death toll to rise. While walking down Front Street, he told reporters that some victims were positively identified Saturday.
“I had tears this morning,” Green said, adding that he was afraid of what he would see at the disaster site.
Operations were focusing on “the loss of life,” he added.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has been spray-painting cars and buildings on Front Street with an “X” to indicate they had received an initial check, but that there could still be human remains inside. When crews complete another pass through, if they find remains, they will add the letters “HR.”
As the death toll rises, it’s unclear how morgues will accommodate the number of victims considering there is just one hospital and three mortuaries.
The fire is the deadliest in the US since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise.
Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for.
Mike Rice has been looking for friends but has yet to hear from them. Complicating matters is the fact that they don’t have cellphones. It’s too early to give up hope, he said, but he has not discounted the possibility that they might have perished.
“I think they could have very well made it out,” said Rice, who now lives in California. “They may or may not have made it. I’m not going to sit around with a sense of impending doom waiting to find out.”
Where to put thousands of people displaced from their homes
Starting this weekend 500 hotel rooms will be made available for displaced locals, and another 500 will be set aside for FEMA personnel, according to the governor.
The state wants to work with Airbnb to ensure rental homes are available for locals, and Green hopes the company can provide three- to nine-month rentals.
Flyovers by the Civil Air Patrol found 1,692 structures destroyed, almost all of them residential. Officials earlier had said 2,719 structures were exposed to the fire, with more than 80 per cent of them damaged or destroyed.
There also was new information Saturday about damage to boats, with nine confirmed to have sunk in Lahaina Harbor, according to sonar.
Some 30 cell towers remained offline, and power outages were expected to last several weeks in west Maui.
