By: Eleanor Liang
It was not really suspected. It was not predicted. Yet it happened.
Never before had Maui faced a natural disaster. Flames scorched apartments and hotels. Smoke suffocated people. It was a mess. In fact, it was the “worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced,” with a death toll of 93 people, as governor of Hawaii Josh Green had labeled.
Mr.Green said, “We can only wait and support those who are living. Our focus now is to reunite people when we can and get them housing and get them healthcare, and then turn to rebuilding.”
The Experience
Sefo Rosenthal watched in horror from the water as the flames burned apartments and hotels.
“The gales pushed the flames with terrifying speeds toward Rosenthal’s family, friends and thousands of other unsuspecting residents and tourists,”the Los Angeles Times reflected.
Desperation and panic were rapidly sweeping through the crowd, and many jumped in the ocean off Front Street.
“There was nothing else to do. You can’t go left, you can’t go right, you can’t turn around,” Rosenthal recalled the scene. “The only thing left to do is go into the water.”
Even Rosenthal was considered lucky in the event. A childhood friend he acquainted when they “were little kids”had died in her car with her son,he mourned,adding after sighing,”and her parents.”
Rosenthal’s friend was not the only one who passed away because of this wildfire.
“We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least five square miles and it is full of our loved ones, noting that the death toll is likely to grow and none of us really know the size of it yet,”Maui Police Chief John Pelletier remarked.
The “cadaver-sniffing dogs” have sheltered “just three percent of the search area,”as Mr.Pelletier has described.
Buildings were burnt to the ground.It was a disaster.Everyone panicked.It
was a mess! Image:Waiola Church is engulfed in flames Credit:New York Times.
Frustration,grief and fury built up because of the lack of preparation and warning.
“Was there enough warning? I don’t think so,” Rosenthal frowned on an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Friday as he stood beside his minivan. “If you have to jump into the water, that’s not enough warning.”
37 year old Sefo Rosenthal wasn’t the only one who complained about the preperation.
“We had no preparation, no warning, nothing,” said Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which manages more than a dozen historic sites in the town, glancing at the ruins of Waiola Church.
The flames that broke out on Tuesday morning in Lahaina were originally 100% contained,as officers said, but later it flared up. The threat of fires have been known for days. Given that there was dry weather and gusty winds, it was still unpredictable.
One woman, who stated to be anonymous, “told The Times in a phone interview how she was home Tuesday at her apartment building” when she saw smoke and evacuated immediately, despite her neighbors’ assurance everything would be okay.
Well, it turned out she was correct,and before long she got trapped in the middle of the firestorm. She abandoned her vehicle for dear life. As she swam away from the blazing flames,she saw many children and adults. She estimated that there were 60-70 people floating on the water.
M.J. Dellacruz, 22, lives in Lahaina and works as a cook at a local restaurant, stepped out of the kitchen to get some air on Tuesday. She gasped at the sight across the street, her house was burnt to the ground. Black smoke was rising.
A day earlier, she and her friends had been joking about all the fuss being made over Hurricane Dora hundreds of miles south as if it was a laughingstock.
“Dora the Explorer comes to Maui,” they laughed, rolling their eyes. “We just… didn’t know what was going to happen.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, firefighters continued to douse flames this weekend, while more than 1,400 people were at shelters set up in churches and community centers, according to a bulletin from the County of Maui. Up to 4,500 people will need shelter, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pacific Disaster Center.
There was a terrifying yet significant change that day in Lahaina noted in history that will be remembered forever.
Sources:
https://news.yahoo.com/maui-wildfires-worst-natural-disaster-092026002.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/us/lahaina-maui-hawaii-fires.html