Texas couple gets emotional explaining why they returned from Maui so resources can go to natives

last month when the kids were all there our biggest problem was trying to find a mineral sunscreen that didn't go on white and it we said that to him the other day I'm like you remember last month when that was our biggest problem and now look how things have changed overnight in the blink of an eye it's just it's Insanity tell me a little bit about the last week it was a difficult week all the way around it it was one of the strangest weeks I think I've ever encountered in some ways it seemed normal from a weather and having people that we were friends around but then there were evacuees all throughout our neighborhood in in parking lots living in their cars some of the restaurants would open up and serve hot meals to people and the lines would be continual for four five six hours for free yes all for free because we had no electricity and they had to get rid of their food and people needed to eat so it was a good win-win for everyone and there were lines there were a lot of supplies that started coming in and Carol can talk a little bit about that with some of the volunteering she did where I mean lines of cars that went a half a mile stopping by to pick up supplies to bring to a parking lot in some cases or in some places to their homes that that weren't destroyed it was a little it was a little the first few days with no electricity no sale no internet not knowing if the fires were even out then you couldn't we couldn't get gasoline nothing was open at all anywhere so um but our neighborhood is it's Hawaii it's you know everybody gets together and it's like okay I have this that I need to use up let's do dinner at my house tonight I can bring this somebody else will bring this some and we all just brought what we had and we all got together and it was it it was it was helpful to have our friends around us at that time so I'm gonna backtrack a little bit you guys live here in Dallas and you have a home in Maui correct correct we've we split our time we spend about four months a year on Maui and the remainder here in Dallas but we've we've owned a place in Maui since 1989. so it's very much um home it's it's really home it's part of our soul if you will what's so special about the island oh it's so hard to describe it's just it's beautiful that the Ocean Air it's um it's healthy it just it's really hard to put Maui in a little jar and say this is what makes it great but if you get the if you get the Maui in your heart you you have it there for life it's relaxed it's casual it's beautiful the people are wonderful it's it's the whole sort of the whole package so when we backtrack to right before the fires so I know you guys had family in town they left it's it's you guys walk me through the beginning um kind of just a regular day we knew that the hurricane was coming and we were going to have big winds that that Tuesday Monday going into Tuesday and Wednesday but it was well South and we've been through some hurricanes that were much more direct never really a direct hit on a hurricane like Florida gets so we just anticipated okay we'd maybe lose power for a short period because of the wind but otherwise it was a normal day it it there was nothing special or unique we knew the fire had started we got some of that everything happened on Tuesday we lost power about 5 a.m Tuesday morning we had cell service until about five o'clock that afternoon then cell service went out up until then it was pretty normal I mean we were driving down to Lahaina to go to the Safeway and get some food for dinner and traffic stopped as we were getting there and then all of a sudden what light smoke was there and they had said it they had some control over the fire all of a sudden turned black and we looked at each other and said you know I think we should probably turn around and we weren't much more than a mile and a half or two miles from the heart of Lina and that's really when the fire started spreading so we just headed back and again didn't think a lot about things shortly thereafter we lost our phone service and went to bed and the next morning in fact I got up early and we didn't have electric fully expected to have our electric back decided to go a little bit South to see if they had electric or cell service got in the car exited our neighborhood and there were cars on the side of the road Ken didn't really register and then about a half mile down the road is a little shopping center and a school and it was packed with cars that's when it really hit me they had all evacuated to the north to our area to escape the fire turned around got back home and that's when the neighborhood all started coming out and starting to talk about who had heard what we all went down to this little store in the area the honoloa storage a little bit of A Gathering Spot and there were people in the parking lot and that's when we started talking to evacuees and really finding out what was going on yeah at what point did you realize the scope of the devastation that was happening there it took a couple of days or two because we you guys were getting the news we were getting nothing so it was only by word of mouth and then it literally word of mouth if you wanted to speak to somebody you had go knock on their door because there was no way to get in touch with them and um someone had gone down we know someone who went down and rode their bike into Lahaina and turned right around and found out that Lahaina was gone and it still hasn't sunk in that line is gone I know my brain knows it but and I saw it with my eyes it's just it's just too hard to believe but it it was it really took a little while before we found out what had happened and that we still continue to find out things you know on a hourly basis and the other thing is because everything was Word of Mouth you'd hear things and it was Lahaina is gone what does that really mean and you can't imagine yeah you if from way down one end to the other it that's not possible but it happened and I it's just horrible it's horrible and it and it took us a few days to really register because even right up until we were leaving uh yesterday morning we were still this is gone or this is still there but in you really didn't know that for sure because the information flow just wasn't as free and everyone's been displaced no one has you know they're the the spirit of generosity has been incredible but still the homes are gone um they they have nowhere their cars are burned up the boats were burning up in the harbor it was just absolutely crazy and all of us we have some friends who live there full time and because we've been there so long we've made friends that live there full time that are not in the neighborhood and we were trying to reach out to them sending texts knowing that they couldn't necessarily answer but checking if they're okay and you know we might get an answer back a day or two later and go okay so and so and is okay and then everybody would kind of circulate that information we were driving and um not far from our house and I noticed I looked on the side of the road and I'm like those people are on their phones pull over because that meant there was a small signal there and that's why there was a whole group of people there and sure enough pull over and that's when we spoke to our children and um everybody was worried about us it's like we're fine we're fine our fault my fault I sent the picture saying we're on our way to Lahaina with the smoke in the background not realizing that it was gonna make everybody crazy but and we didn't reach them until probably 14 15 16 hours later when we finally made the call maybe a little bit longer than that we again we didn't realize the dimension and what was happening you were telling me a little bit about the lints you guys had to go to to get self-service tell me about you know the Ridge and all of that so our development goes from Ocean all the way up up the mountain up to about probably about 2500 feet and there's some development so one of the people in the neighborhood was searching for a sell signal went all the way to the top of one of the the parts of the development got cell service and came back then and then told everybody so everybody would when they wanted to talk to somebody on the phone everybody would drive up and it was you know 15 or 20 minutes to go up there to make some calls which even then kind of faded in and out at times and you know you pass in and out of cell service and all of a sudden you'd have 10 text messages from someone but we couldn't really text out I think I got two or three texts out so you really had to rely on going up and we would go up a couple three times a day to make to make a call to reach out to our kids and give them an update or or you know to other people ultimately you guys decided to come to come back home why is that I want you to stay but you know what the the resources that are there should be used for the people that have no choice but to be there at this point we had an option that you know another option to come back to Dallas um I could have stayed and just volunteered and you know read a book at night without any of my internet or anything I would have been fine with that but it just seemed more helpful to just let the resources that are available be used for those who really really need it and there are a lot of people that really really need it right now so I know you were talking earlier about the kind of contrast one side of the island it's kind of business as usual tell me about that so West Maui is is somewhat isolated in the standpoint there's one major way in from the south and and it's a it's a kind of a one-lane road each way at times it's a two-lane the other way is around the north side of the island and that is at times it's unpaved in certain stretches and in other areas it's not even it not even wide enough for more than one car so it's very limited uh in everything so all the damage from the fire was isolated to the west side it was difficult to get services in they could only really commend trucks and gas tankers and things from one direction that was on the south side of of Lahaina most of the evacuees went North so they were really for probably about three days completely cut off from the main way to get in and out of the West Side going over to Central Maui where the airport is it was just sort of a day as usual they didn't lose electricity they didn't lose cell service in fact we got over there and all of a sudden our cell phones sort of blew up with text messages and voicemails and it was like we were back to a normal world we went out to a restaurant and had lunch and people were shopping and we hadn't seen that in almost a week yes you know it was kind of low-key everybody knew what was going on nobody was just ignoring it but it was business as usual on the other side of the island on the south and the central parts of the island it was um because they didn't it didn't happen there I know you volunteered so you so you you know interacted with a lot of people who had lost everything um what was that like it's it it's heartbreaking because you know you it's people you know from working maybe they worked in the shop that you go to or a restaurant or here and there and they they they're alive and they're grateful but they have nothing I mean it you just you just wanted to give them everything that you could do whatever you could for them and some of them were you know actually sleeping in their cars in a park so because they had nowhere to go I mean we actually had a friend who was drove to the other side pick someone up at the airport couldn't get back and had to sleep in his car for a couple of nights in the Target parking lot or the airport parking lot because he couldn't get back to the West Side um the need is great but everybody that's there is trying to help fill in as much as they can we went to the vet yesterday our vet is no longer there um because of the fire and so we went to another location of theirs and it's just the lobby was filled with dog food and leashes and collars and if anybody needs anything just take it just take whatever you need because every from one from the West Side had to come over and use that bit so supplies are coming in you know they're wrestling with getting them distributed there's four or five places major places now and it settled down they they have seem to have enough people to get things distributed but in in a sense this is the small part of the rebuild because there has to be people to be housed they have to find housing for those people at Kapalua is a Ritz Carlton and a montage we know the manager of the Ritz Carlton well he has 90 employees who lost their homes and they're putting up some 800 people in the hotel once they got all the tourists out and back to the other side and flying out so it's a long-term huge need because the implication isn't just on getting housing for people those people are also the people that work in in the businesses and people lost businesses so it's going to be a significant long-term rebuild for for particularly West Maui but Maui in general one of the other issues is right now tons of water they have tons of water but they're trying to figure out how much they should give because Lahaina and Kula which is up country where there was another fire you cannot drink the water you cannot boil the water it has too much chemical from the fire of retardant in it and you can't get rid of that can't brush your teeth with no matter what you have to use bottled water and this is going to be going on for a long time this has not been something that's going to be over next week or the week after that so they have to figure out how much to give people and still have enough coming in to have Supply down the road and ultimately it's an island so everything comes in by water pretty much I saw somebody on a jet ski bring in supplies and they're coming in by boat they're coming by helicopter they're coming in by plane jet ski you name it that's with trucks coming from the other side but no matter what they're getting them over there yeah and there's a there's a an airport on what in West Maui that's a commercial airport obviously all commercial flights have stopped and that's what they're using to fly supplies in to the side of West Maui that's kind of um on the other side of the line of from the from the main route in and what they've done is they've taken the main route in and that's emergency Personnel coming in and supplies and outgoing and and then the other the back way we call it the the one lane road at points that's for for residents who've gone to the other side to pick up groceries or get gas or whatever they can come back that route but they have to show that they have a residence and a reason to come back and talking to your friends over there have they said anything about what they might need from people in the mainland right now I think everybody's still a little shell-shocked and it depends on the degree um you know fresh food is great but there are people that need clothes you know just everything when we were doing the giveaway it was everything from baby diapers to dog food to one of the farmers brought down his truck full of fresh produce and that was like gold lots of canned goods obviously uh I don't know they I think the um the Charities are kind of pinpointing what they need but the people right now are just kind of little dazed and just taking what they can get I I think the main help is going to be Financial donations because as as we said there's a lot of goods coming in and and they'll continue to come in for some period of time but ultimately the big big need is financial help to to help get people into permanent housing and and to rebuild there's a is it Hawaii strong yeah there's a Hawaii strong website which is um part of part of the uh the Hawaii Community Fund and and they seem to be extremely active obviously some of the major um Red Cross Red Cross and and folks like that are very helpful too but you know it's it's it's difficult to pin exactly you can't really send anything over you can't send a truck from Dallas and drive it over and it's full of water because it all has to come by pretty much by sea to get there so I think the financial needs are probably the the best way to help yeah when I talked to your daughter on Friday she was talking about you know the fact that Hawaii is so isolated it is yeah um and you know just logistically getting stuff there yeah it's it's the most ice yeah it's the most isolated populated islands in the world when you're there smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean we we started going to Maui in 1983 was our first vacation there and we haven't stopped and we bought our first condo there in 89. and then um then we sold it and bought a little bit bigger one and then our kids got married and started having grandchildren it's like okay he said we need to build a house so we did that about 10 years ago but I I mean I don't think there's been one year I think the Covenant year no we were there at the beginning of the year there hasn't been a year since 1983 that we haven't been on that way yeah I mean portion of the time our kids our son who's now 41. his fourth birthday was on his first trip and our daughters we thought it was just shy of two and now our grandkids and and we lost them what did she no I'm good I think those memories yeah lots of memories foreign last month when the kids were all there our biggest problem was trying to find a mineral sunscreen that didn't go on white and it we said that to him the other hand like if you remember last month when that was our biggest problem and now look how things have changed overnight in the blink of an eye it's just it's insanity but that's life yeah a week ago we were waking up without electricity and thinking okay it's a short-term issue but those memories are the hardest thing Melissa crazy events that have happened since you've been there in 83 I mean safe to say that that's this is nuts yes we you know we've been through a lot of hurricanes there but they always wind up being nothing tsunami warnings they always wind up you know an inch of water comes up or the her this has been insane and it wasn't even one drop of rain I mean this is absolutely we were even there when um well it was a couple of years ago we woke up to to them telling us we were there wasn't um a nuclear threat there was a bomb heading our way North Korea and all of our phones went off at the same time and and like I remember now you guys were there for that I still haven't I still have the message on my phone I saved it this is not a drill was that scary oh my God but it it was but you couldn't you you really couldn't it was like is this real and we friends were calling us saying okay fill up your bathtubs close all your blog I'm like is that really going to do anything for us and and from our pers from my perspective um you know if they're aiming for Hawaii they're aiming for Oahu and that's a little bit of distance away so my biggest fear was they didn't shoot straight so for people that were there were guy you know the old Surfer Dudes and they're going that's fine it's fine and then they were fathers putting their kids down sewers so they could be safe and it was it was just the whole plethora I think you know looking back every that was pretty funny but at the time it was crazy but that only lasted a few minutes I think this is this is oh by far far the craziest thing ever and I think and it's the most tragic for sure oh no question there there was a pretty big fire in Lahaina uh several years ago nowhere near this Dimension or destruction or or breadth or scale um but we actually weren't there when that fire so we were here texting and calling our friends over there we were there when the one with my parents in the car we couldn't get through to Lahaina because of the because of the fire and the problem yeah we flew in and her parents were with us and we tried to get across and the road was closed because of a fire so we turned around and checked into a hotel um and as it turned out they opened the road got the fire under control and we were able to get through that that evening but um so there's been wildfires and because of the limited access if they're in the wrong spot um it it can shut down the road and access and you know there's not a lot of distance between the mountain and the ocean so you know and and especially it it becomes on the the leeward side of the island so unless you've had a good rain it tends to be fairly dry I have one more question um when you guys look at the have you guys seen the comparisons the before and after comparison some of them yes when you look at those what do you think I think it's never going to be the same um I it's mind-boggling the amount the scope I mean we know you know we know obviously know a lot of people that have lost businesses lost homes but it's just it's never going to be the same it was such a quirky little whaling Village yeah Lahaina was the heart and soul of the west side of Maui at one point it had been the capital of Hawaii it was a major whaling port and a lot of those buildings have been there since the 1800s and to think that they're gone it's just devastating it'll it it'll change things yeah it'll be a decade or more I think before it really has a substantial recovery and you guys got to go with the family when they were all there are you are you happy you were able to absolutely absolutely yes we got yeah we had a great time we had a great time and and a full trip we have you know over the years all of us particularly them have these things they love the restaurants they love the the activities and we put a big list and basically did all of them yeah we had a calendar up our daughter I don't want to put it on a spreadsheet it's like we're the girls are going surfing lessons this day and we're going snorkeling this day and we're going to go to Pearl Harbor on this day and so we we got it all in yeah so it was nice that we had that and you know we've we've there's a guy in downtown Lahaina that has parrots and we call them our parrot pictures and we have parrot pictures all the way back to when our kids were young and with two grandkids then three then four then five and when they were younger and so we were able to get those types of pictures before um and we'll have some great memories again is to they'll just be different it's because line is going to be different when do you guys think you're going to go back um well we we usually go in January I think I want to go before that I make a trip before that um we'll see yeah it's an interesting um situation because so much of Hawaii and Maui particularly is based on tourism and you know rightfully they've said don't come to Maui but in order for Maui to recover tourists have to come back to Central Maui and the South Maui now and then hopefully in the in the reasonable future back to the west side but it's it's this dichotomy they need people there but they don't really need them there today so I think that's something that is yet to play out how that all ends up developing over the over the coming six months or a year we have several good friends from Dallas who own in our neighborhood and we met them in our neighborhood in Maui and found out that we live within miles or less from each other in Dallas it's it was pretty funny eye-opening yeah we love them

2023-08-18 19:01

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