As of August 8th, tragedy struck the town of Lahaina. A major wildfire broke out late at night during high winds up to 60 MPH, a dry summer, and very low humidity. Footage shows a power line sparking up and causing a power shortage. Soon after the emergency power came on, Flames sped up, leaving 12,000 citizens without power.
Fires continue to spread.
Over 2,170 acres have been burned as of August 28th. Governor Josh Green had said, “What we saw today was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii state history”. During the time of the burning, citizens of Lahaina were jumping into the sea to escape. The very historic banana tree was burned and left many questioning how they managed to survive the Maui wildfires. Officials say that the fires are about 90% contained as of now and are dying down. The fires burned many homes, leaving families in search of refuge. Roughly 1,000 people are living in local hotels. Many hotels have closed down to support housing for the many who lost their homes.
How has Lahaina gotten around?
Lahaina has reached the attention of many states, news channels, and families. The devastating fire is one of the biggest to have happened on the islands, leaving people worried. Lahaina now has funding of 2.6 Million dollars from the Maui marketing recovery. At Clear Creek Amana, the environmental science teacher, Mrs. Kriegl, was interviewed on how she felt about the situation. She shared her perspective on how the wildfires affect us here in Iowa and the Clear Creek Amana community: “The wildfires do not affect us here in Iowa, but they do affect us because they are mainly influenced by human activity and partly man-made.” She was also questioned on what we could do to support the citizens of Hawaii, Kriegl said she could not physically go there and help but donations to the organizations helping Lahaina is one way to get involved. Some organizations are listed below: www.charitynavigator.org, https://www.redcross.org/, and https://www.hawaiipeoplesfund.org/.
