(Reposted from Patreon on August 10th)
Aloha, friends!
My apologies, I didn't think to update Patreon until people started tracking me down on other channels.
First off, we're fine.
It had been very windy all day Monday and Tuesday and there were a couple of little fires here and there. The fire in Lahaina was considered "100% contained" Tuesday morning... until it wasn't.
Suddenly fires were breaking out everywhere except for the north and east sides (where it's wet. Each island has a wet side and a dry side.)
With the Lahaina fire contained, attention switched to the fires upcountry, near one of our favorite nature trails. That seemed to be the big issue -- tall, old growth trees were falling down and firefighters couldn't get in to put out the fires.
Then all of a sudden an ember flew around in Lahaina and like an explosion, the whole town was engulfed within hours. It was so, so windy. It happened so fast most people couldn't get out with anything more than their bodies. People who worked outside Lahaina couldn't get back in to gather belongings or even, heartbreakingly, pets. Some people couldn't get out either, but first responders are still dealing with that.
I had just gotten through tweeting that Kihei, where we live, was fine, when a small fire broke out a couple of miles near me. Fires had broken out in that area before so I wasn't too worried, although it was definitely windier than I've experienced.
When I saw on Facebook that friends across the highway had evacuated I became a little more concerned, but they were closer to the actual fire. Just as Colin and I were cleaning up from dinner, our phone alarms started screaming at us telling us our neighborhood was under mandatory evacuation and to leave immediately. It basically said grab your pets and go.
We grabbed more than that, because I still couldn't quite believe it, and was hoping we would get a second notice that it was called off. But it kept getting worse and the orange glow in the sky got bigger and neighbors started leaving, so we did too, and headed towards the north shore to our Rivendell on the island where our "Aunty and Uncle" live.
We've been here since.
We almost went back home yesterday but hours after they'd told Kihei residents they could return, they started evacuating again. Given what happened in Lahaina, we just decided to stay put until the winds died down, which they only did about an hour ago (It's 8pm on Thursday now.) There are still fires there, however. We'll return tomorrow if everything seems stable and the winds don't return. It's just such a tinder box on that side of the island, you can't be too sure what will happen.
What happened in Lahaina is devastating and everyone on the island is sort of walking around in shock. Lahaina was the main tourist area, and even more significantly -- the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii before the US colonized it. It was the epicenter of the entire island chain. (Oahu and Honolulu eventually took over as the most populous center as the US moved in and made it its military headquarters.)
Lahaina wasn't a city like Honolulu, it was smaller and quaint, but the most popular destination on the island.
It's completely leveled now. There is no Lahaina. It's just... gone. It looks like a smoldering war zone. It's a huge, huge loss for the island. Several thousand people lost their homes, businesses, and jobs. Many people lost their lives (the official count as I write this is 53 but that number will go up.) It's not something that can be rebuilt any time soon. It will take years. Decades. It's gone.
I'm sure you've seen it on the news.
Since it just occurred, there's not much more than shock happening yet. I'm not sure what the island will do in the coming days, weeks, months. They're asking people not to come here so that displaced residents can stay in hotel rooms.
Friends of friends lost their homes. People on the crew of Moku Moku lost their homes. Shooting has been postponed until otherwise determined.
We get very little cell service up here so it's been difficult to keep in contact with my mom, but I've talked to her briefly. I was hoping to keep it from her as long as I could -- she LOVED Lahaina and in her condition I didn't want to upset her. But it wasn't possible to keep from her and she had the news on in the background the last I spoke to her.
I'll start replying to your emails and messages when I have a little more time to breathe once we get back home. I keep thinking of the dishes we left in the sink when we grabbed our things and ran out. I have a weird obsessive/compulsive thing about dishes in the sink. Obviously it is the least of our concerns. Colin's job was canceled this week, and the paycheck that went with it, so that will be something to worry about ... after we get home and unpack.
In the meantime I'm just going to try and rest and keep watching the news footage that I can't take my eyes off of.
I never would have believed something this major could happen here. At the moment it's the second biggest disaster in the state (after the tsunami in Hilo during the 1960s) but we're all pretty sure it will far surpass that once the casualties are added up.
It's just completely horrifying. I don't know what to say.
Just know that we're personally okay and healthy and both Colin and Musashi are conked out next to me and I appreciate everyone checking up on us. I'm sorry I worried all of you that don't use social media or have my phone number, I just wasn't thinking on those terms.
Let's talk more soon.
Aloha nui loa to all of you. xo