It eats everything as it goes, jumping from house to house, feeding off the foliage, but it's too hungry. So it continues to grow, eating like it's at a buffet, paying no mind to the screams and panic that residents release into the air within bellows of smoke. Many run to their cars, some just run straight into the water all in hopes of escaping the flames. And while some may have escaped the flames, the devastation is still there.
“Everything is gone,” Nick says to me in shock, my husband, my best friend of the past five years, since we met in the library at University of Nevada, Reno. The same man that proudly represented his hometown Lahaina, Maui back in that library to this very day. Always claiming how it’s the most beautiful place and how the close knit community made him the person he is today.
He drops down onto the couch to continue scrolling through horror that is happening thousands of miles aways. But even the distance doesn’t lessen the reality and impact it has on him. Frantically, he calls and messages everyone he can think of to make sure they are safe.
Many don’t answer until hours later when they have service again. And when they do, they recount the traumatic scene they just witnessed.
The once bustling town of Lahaina that was weeks ago filled with life is now reduced to ashes. The same streets Nick would ride his longboard on, are littered with burnt vehicles, some still carrying the unfortunate souls that didn’t make it out in time. The friends' homes that had been in their families for generations, some of which were built by their own families hands are gone. Countless memories from multiple generations, lost to the flames.
I can still remember hearing him, describing skating down the streets during his youth, the stories of him and his friends wandering aimlessly through the very town that we now watch engulfed in flames. Over and over again, video after video, Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, even LinkedIn we watch his childhood burn. But we can’t stop watching, it’s like we ourselves are chained to the screens. Stuck in a pit of desperation and helplessness we read the struggles of the community he grew up in. Posts asking for donations: water, gas, food, clothes, anything to help them and their families get by.
We read the statements and cry that the donations are being unreceived. That even some with donations are being turned around due to the organization and chaos. Claims that the Red Cross is not providing the necessary assistance to the community circulate more as the days go by. We click and share as many of the Gofundmes as we can find, and plan financially how we can shift some money to help. We are grateful that locals from neighboring islands are coming by boat and handing off donations directly to the Maui residents.
While those affected by the fire are receiving more care now, the struggle to preserve through the trauma and the physical remains of the natural disaster is still an obstacle for many. To just get to California from Maui, and that’s if your ID, and wallet weren’t lost to the fire and can afford plane tickets is a five-hour flight. Making resources that much more difficult to receive, and that much more detrimental to the community. It wasn’t until recently that many locals were without power,gas, and water.
Nick's friends' posts are littered with the same question of why not leave their home? Why not pack what little to nothing they have left and leave the home of their ancestors. The land they were all raised to care and respect and see as part of their own families. A simple question on the outside, but a loaded and complex one underneath.
“A girl from my bible study, her whole family’s home was burnt down. Her own family built those homes,” Nick shows me.
Two-thousand structures were lost or damaged by the fires according to CNN, and while there are still parts of the island that were physically unaffected by the fires, there is still much to do and as well as a sense of responsibility, to find the family that is still unaccounted for and to “kokua” to their community in this time of need.
“It looks like something out of Pompeii, you wouldn’t recognize it,” Nick’s friend says after searching burnt out sites.
For the past few days, Aldri Constantino has been looking for his brother Allen Constantino, with his cousin John Bigonaro, and several other family members. Since the fire, no one has known where Allen or his mother are, and his family have been looking frantically since. At one point, there was hope that the two were found and marked safe, but upon further investigation it was not the case.
Another member of their family had checked into the local emergency shelter and because they signed their names at check in, the household was marked safe. What felt like a light at the end of the tunnel and finally some good news on Allen and his mother’s disappearance, was ripped away. On August 15th, Nick and his other friends shared the same posts. It was Allen’s birthday.
I watched Nick “leave” as he looked through the photos, getting lost in the memories of his friends. For a brief moment he smiles at the quote he sees on a photo shared by another family member of Allen’s. The quote “there must be someone cutting onions today ,” alongside a photo of Allen and his mom on a tv screen, Nick looks at me stating it perfectly reminds him of Allen. Nick recounts a memory when Allen got upset and said that onions must be being cut, to hide the fact he was tearing up. Meanwhile the hope to find Allen and his mom still burns bright.
Maui police and other organizations have asked families that are still searching for missing loved ones to provide DNA samples to help with identifying the departed. According to CBS, over a thousand people are still missing or are unaccounted for.
The Red Cross has announced that they do have a phone line to help look for missing persons, and identify the victims that were lost in the fire. Many locals have gone to using social media making their own google spreadsheets sharing within the community to find family and friends. Others have taken to the streets, to search for them on their own in the rubbles much like Allen’s family.
If you would like to help any of the local Maui residents many have taken to GofundMe to create accounts like this one for Allen’s family.