Wildfires claim 67 lives: 'It looks apocalyptic,' says former Raleigh resident living in Maui
Deadly wildfires burning on the Hawaiian island of Maui have already claimed 67 lives.
As tourists try to get off Maui and return to the mainland, some former Raleigh residents call the island home.
WRAL News spoke with Lisa Schell, who returned to her home state of Hawaii after living in Raleigh for 30 years.
Schell said she can't help comparing the wildfire to when Hurricane Fran hit Raleigh in 1996.
"I was in Raleigh when Fran hit, and I remembered how people just banded together, and it was an amazing thing," Schell said. "It will be like that here, but ten-fold. The spirit, the mana, the energy if you will, of all of that deep-rooted connection is going to be the foundation for everybody rebuilding Maui."
From her home, Schell has a view of two of the fires burning in Maui – the Kīhei fire and the Kula Fire.
"The loss just cuts so, so deep for the local folks, the native Hawaiians," she said. "This goes so, so deep and is devastating on so many levels.
"It looks apocalyptic. I've never seen anything quite like that, certainly not in Hawaii. This is unprecedented for this state."
Sacred, ancestral lands have already been lost.
“This fire was at the mercy of the wind, and the wind just blew it so fast," said Greg Taylor, another former Raleigh resident living in Maui. "It was just so destructive ...100-year-old buildings. Just the history is all gone, everything is gone. People lost – they lost their jobs, they lost their houses, they lost everything, even the clothes on their back in one fire.”
Taylor was exonerated after serving 17 years in prison for a crime he said he didn’t commit. Now reclaiming his life, he has since taken up whale photography, spending half the year living in Maui.
Historic towns like Lahaina, a former whaling town, have been decimated, said Taylor, who cried as he spoke about the devastation.
"You know its heartbreaking to see that place so destroyed – there’s nothing left," Taylor said. "The pictures that I see of the harbor – all those ships are gone. The boats are burned and sank and the historic buildings, and not even the ashes from the buildings are there."
A Morrisville family visiting Wailea the last week spoke with WRAL News Thursday night. While Robert Sherwin's resort was 20 minutes away from the razed, historic city, his family could still feel impact of the fire.
"We could really smell - in the middle of the night - a smokey smell," Sherwin said. "The shops here, most of the things are closed. all of the restaurants are closed."
Investigators are not sure what started the blazes, but drought conditions on the islands provided the fuel, and winds gusting to 85 mph pushed the flames faster than firefighters can control.
The firestorm pushed hundreds into shelters – most with only a few things they could carry during their rush to safety.
"Local people have lost everything. They've lost their house, they've lost their animals, and it's devastating," said Jimmy Tokoika, Hawaii director of business, economic development and tourism.
Hawaiian officials are urging tourists to postpone their trips, but some North Carolinians are already there.
WRAL News also spoke with a family from Garner who traveled to Maui for a 10-year anniversary and birthday celebration. They are now facing a scary experience.
The family said they are located in the southern part of the island and could see and hear the winds blowing the flames at a rapid pace.
"We were planning to go to that side of the island today for the second half of our trip," a traveler said. "And there was no notification from the hotels. We found out that all the power was down, the phone lines were down, and it was just kind of a scary moment to figure out what are we gonna do?"
Airports were packed Thursday with with thousands forced to cut vacations short, scrambling to find any flight to get away from the flames.
"It's a scary to see a big wildfire just kind of coming your way, and it's not something I ever experienced before," said Kaylee Douglass, of Boston.
While there is devastation everywhere, Schell said Maui's magical quality is what will help it rise from the ashes.
"The spirit, the mana, the energy if you will, of all of that deep-rooted connection is going to be the foundation for everybody rebuilding Maui," Schell said.
Tai Wong with the American Red Cross of North Carolina said disaster responders from the Tar Heel State plan to join the efforts to provide assistance.
"We've opened up multiple shelters and within the first couple of hours, we've seen residents take advantage of those shelters," Wong said.
As for Sherwin and his family, he credited his strategic planning for helping keep his family out of harms way.
"We planned to stay here around the hotel towards our final days and did things around here," Sherwin explained. "It all worked out."
How to help people in Maui
Crews continue to battle fires in Maui and the Big Island, which have been fanned in part by strong winds from Hurricane Dora.
In a Thursday news conference, we learned that more than 11,000 people have been evacuated from the island since the fires started. Another 2,000 are expected to fly out later in the day Thursday.
People who want to help Maui can donate to the American Red Cross or the Maui Humane Society, which is overwhelmed with animals.
