Fires on Maui and in Lahaina

[GaryDouglas]

Facing harbor and old courthouse, banyan tree.

Photo from FB post.

I'm hoping this means the banyan tree is intact.... school roofs look ok for the most part.

 

[GaryDouglas]

KITV video

 

[pspercy]

Front St, ground view. Video pauses a few times.

Front Street Lahaina from the ground. Everything is gone #lahainafire pic.twitter.com/zzEkbvPa31

— Nohead (@nohea_d) August 9, 2023

 

[Passepartout]

Truly heartbreaking. Millions of people and darn near ALL TUGgers will be able to say, I REMEMBER IT BEFORE!

 

[Brett]

"people jumping into the ocean to escape the flames"

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/09/weather/maui-county-wildfires-hurricane-dora/index.html

 

[frank808]

OMG we did that west loop the last time we were there, for something to do on our last day, and I will never do that voluntarily again. That was scary. I can't imagine any volume of traffic, two way traffic, attempting that! Just my opinion, but the west end is scarier than the road to Hana and loop around the east end.

I agree that the west loop is worse than the Hana road. Way more narrow roads.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

[DeniseM]

I got car sick on that route - I was shocked to see officials recommending it!

 

[MauiLover]

Front St, ground view. Video pauses a few times.

Front Street Lahaina from the ground. Everything is gone #lahainafire pic.twitter.com/zzEkbvPa31

— Nohead (@nohea_d) August 9, 2023

This is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. Going to miss this place so much.

 

[Glenna]

I've got renters staying at Westin Nanea right now. They lost power yesterday morning, so they drove to Wailea for the day, now can't get back and are sleeping in their car. My heart is breaking for them and for everyone who has lost their homes, their businesses and their lives and loved ones.

 

[Luanne]

I've got renters staying at Westin Nanea right now. They lost power yesterday morning, so they drove to Wailea for the day, now can't get back and are sleeping in their car. My heart is breaking for them and for everyone who has lost their homes, their businesses and their lives and loved ones.

Are they trying to leave and get home?

 

[jabberwocky]

Are they trying to leave and get home?

They probably need to get back to the resort to get their belongings?

 

[Luanne]

They probably need to get back to the resort to get their belongings?

Well yes, but what I meant is are they trying to leave after that, assuming that at some point they can get their belongings. Many of those properties have evacuated so there may be no way for them to get in to get anything. What a mess.

Saw this posted on the Maui TA forum:

Speaking to a representative at Westin Ka’anapali about cancelling our reservations right now, she telling me there are 8 other hotels that has evacuated their ALL guest including Westin Ka’anapali.

 

[DianeG]

{crying}

Also thinking of Lynne, one of the Tugger friends and frequent forum poster, who lives in one of the areas evacuated and threatened by the fires on the Big Island. I know this evacuation will be really tough, and at least one of the nearby homes has been lost.

 

[tahoe]

Heartbreaking interview about 25 seconds into the video of a couple who lives in Lahaina, trying to get home from the SF Bay Area.

 

[StaceyM]

What the heck is going on. Fire fighters have be battling a large acreage fire about 12/minutes/6miles from my house (just outside Austin) for the last 16 hours. It’s 40% contained. It has destroyed 1 apartment building in a complex.

Austin is basically flat, the fire can be worked on from all sides, and my guess is not a lot of wind today.

On Maui, there is basically only one road from the main island into Lahaina, and in some places it narrows down to one lane each direction. The path curves around a mountain from the south. The "north route" to get to Lahaina is not passable by large equipment. (Part of it are dirt/gravel roads with a lot of one-way bridges with weight limits as low as 5000 lbs; there are places you have to honk because it's one lane and you can't see oncoming traffic, etc.)

So the firefighters have one land approach into and out of a wildfire that is burning between a mountain and an ocean and being stoked by 30-to-50 mph winds. The situations aren't comparable.

Heartbreaking interview about 25 seconds into the video of a couple who lives in Lahaina, trying to get home from the SF Bay Area.

I particularly like the guy who's so risk averse he's wearing an N95 mask, yet speculates that as long as he is in a populated area, he'll be safe even if there's no power. You can't fix stupid - at least he has a mask to help with smoke inhalation. <eyeroll>

 

[daviator]

Confirmed that the Cannery Mall (Safeway, Longs) is gone as is Walgreens. I assume the Foodland across the road burned too but that part isn’t confirmed.

 

[NTP66]

This is all making me absolutely sick to my stomach,

 

[lynne]

{crying}

Also thinking of Lynne, one of the Tugger friends and frequent forum poster, who lives in one of the areas evacuated and threatened by the fires on the Big Island. I know this evecauation will be really tough, and at least one the nearby homes has been lost.

Mahalo DianeG (& klpca who emailed me directly),

We are okay thanks to the remarkable work from the HFD. They are still on the ranch putting out flare ups.

We had a bad brush fire here at Kohala Ranch. It started below the highway and eventually jumped to our side. It burned a lot of the state land to our north Then it was burning grassy areas by the houses bordering the state land. The fire dept was on site and made sure no homes were damaged. All while we were experiencing constant 45-50 mph winds. It was pretty scary and we stuffed all 4 cats into their carriers and left for a while. When we saw that the fire wasn't advancing toward our house, we returned home. Fences are melted and lots of downed trees. We’ll be smelling the burnt grass and trees for some time.

Thankfully the winds have subsided a bit and they have reopened the road from Kawaihae junction to Hapuna Prince where they are still working in the brushfire in that area.

 

[letsgobobby]

beyond heartbreaking, my moms home island devastated

 

[StaceyM]

Hawaii News Now instagram of some before-and-after photos of Lahaina from the shore:

Hawaii News Now on Instagram: "Aerial pictures into our newsroom show the immense damage caused by fires on Maui. These are before and after images of Lahaina, where you can see how flames brought the town to rubble. #hinews #hnn"

54K likes, 1,630 comments - hawaiinewsnow on August 9, 2023: "Aerial pictures into our newsroom show the immense damage caused by fires on Maui. These are before and after images of Lahaina, where you can see how flames brought the town to rubble. #hinews #hnn".

www.instagram.com

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[aroundtheworld76]

I own at Kahana Beach and I work in Hawaii periodically, flying patients to and from there. While the whole state has a fairly limited healthcare capacity, Maui is EXTREMELY limited at baseline. Anything serious gets flown to Honolulu. Please, if you don't have to go, don't.

 

[slip]

Mahalo DianeG (& klpca who emailed me directly),

We are okay thanks to the remarkable work from the HFD. They are still on the ranch putting out flare ups.

We had a bad brush fire here at Kohala Ranch. It started below the highway and eventually jumped to our side. It burned a lot of the state land to our north Then it was burning grassy areas by the houses bordering the state land. The fire dept was on site and made sure no homes were damaged. All while we were experiencing constant 45-50 mph winds. It was pretty scary and we stuffed all 4 cats into their carriers and left for a while. When we saw that the fire wasn't advancing toward our house, we returned home. Fences are melted and lots of downed trees. We’ll be smelling the burnt grass and trees for some time.

Thankfully the winds have subsided a bit and they have reopened the road from Kawaihae junction to Hapuna Prince where they are still working in the brushfire in that area.

So glad to hear your are safe and sound.

 

[artringwald]

So much sadness! Lives lost, critical injuries, homes and businesses destroyed, historic landmarks gone forever. It's hard to comprehend such a tragedy. Maui was our first trip to Hawaii in 1979, and our last trip in February this year.

 

[goaliedave]

Wow! I haven't heard of such wildfires on Hawaii in decades!

 

[lynne]

So glad to hear your are safe and sound.

Helicopters were finally able to fly over our devlepment looking for breakouts and civil defense finally rescinded the the mandatory evacuation - now for the massive cleanup!