UPDATE: staff is all safe and accounted for.
The Lahaina library is gone. So is the museum, with all its artifacts. The theater I saw Schindler’s List in when I was 13. The galleries, restaurants, school, harbor, everything. My coworker knew an elderly woman who couldn’t get out in time and shot herself in the fire, according to her relatives. Local videos are circulating of bodies floating in the water, burned in the streets, charred inside cars, the smoking remains of animals. All my people are safe in Hana or upcountry, but some of their families lost homes. Library staff is still unaccounted for, but cell service is down and they have other things to be worried about, so calling work probably isn’t top priority. The fire went through at night, so they would have been in their homes. Correction: the worst of the fire went through at 4:55pm..
Lahaina was once the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom, before Kamehameha moved to Oahu. It is of great historic significance. Its loss is unthinkable.
Very upsetting.
Very Upsetting- putting it mildly! Devastated, gutted, also do not encompass the overwhelm. Jumping into the ocean ,as we always thought to do, was not a remedy, not a survival skill...Scotland , the cold and the wind, sounds more like a positive consideration.
ReplyDeleteIt is just heartbreaking from afar; I can only imagine what it is like there. So much help is needed. Have donated to the Maui humane society; hope it can help one small part. Glad news media are now referring to the historic significance of the town, instead of as "a tourist destination."
ReplyDeleteHorrifying and heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteToo upsetting to watch.Those poor people.
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